[Donnah (OP)]

Why do watches stop when some people wear them?  It used to happen to me years ago, then all was well for a few decades.  Now it's happening again.  Two watches this week, both with fairly new batteries.  Darned frustrating.  What is it!!???[?][?][?]

[pat]

Brings new meaning to the term "Stop Watch" !

Sounds like the plot for your next online thriller...

Pat

[Exodus]

An X File?....[]

Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem...

[Donnah (OP)]

Thanks, very helpful (the part about turning it into a plot line).  Good thing I have half a dozen watches.

[Lab Rat]

Just sort of wanted to bring one back from the archives-it has not been posted in for almost 10 years!  It is a topic I have a little bit of information about, however.

My grandma supposedly used to do the same thing.  She could not wear a watch that used batteries.  The only type of watches she could wear were the types that wind up.  I think that it may have something to do with the electrical pulses in some people's bodies, but I'm not sure.

[Donnah (OP)]

Hi Lab Rat,

I'm inclined to agree that it has something to do with the electromagnetic part of us.  Did your Grandma have amalgam fillings?  Did she meditate?  Was she psychic?

Machines frequently misbehave near me, I'll step away and they will be fine.  Also streetlights sometimes turn on or off when I walk or drive under them. 

[RD]

Did your Grandma have amalgam fillings?  Did she meditate?  Was she psychic?

More scientifically relevant questions ...

Did grandma's watches come free with packets of breakfast cereal ?,  ( i.e. cheap and consequently unreliable ).

Were the batteries fitted into grandma's watches from a batch which were past their use-by-date ? 

If grandma's memory was failing she could have a distorted impression of how long a watch battery lasted. Like Stephen Fry's anecdote about his very elderly aunt who said "It CAN'T be breakfast again.", ( the interval of how long had passed between similar events, be it  breakfasts or a watch batteries failing, seemed shorter than reality ).

... streetlights sometimes turn on or off when I walk or drive under them. 

If you asked the people who lived near the dodgy street-lamp they could tell you it malfunctions whether or not you are present.

[JP]

... streetlights sometimes turn on or off when I walk or drive under them. 

If you asked the people who lived near the dodgy street-lamp they could tell you it malfunctions whether or not you are present.

Street lamps can cycle on an off due to natural causes (many do so when they get old).  I've noticed this effect, too, and it's still surprising enough that I usually take notice when it happens.  I might pass 50 street lamps on a walk, but I'll only remember the one or two that shut off as I approached them.  The effect is confirmation bias--that you only remember the few street lamps that turn off, not the vast majority that don't.

To scientifically test if this were the case, you'd have to take notes of the number that turned off vs. those that didn't as you walked under them, and compare that to statistics for street lamps when you weren't present. 

[Bored chemist]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

[JnA]

Why do watches stop when some people wear them?  It used to happen to me years ago, then all was well for a few decades.  Now it's happening again.  Two watches this week, both with fairly new batteries.  Darned frustrating.  What is it!!???[?][?][?]

sometimes watches can be manufactured faulty too

[majorminor]

It is about time somebody answered this question. Excuse the pun.
tbh
I would say if there was electromagnetic  or electrical effect stronger in some people than in others, I think someone would have shown it scientifically by now.

[confusious says]

Some people have an abnormally high amount of electricity in their bodies, it may also be static electricity.

[dlorde]

Some people have an abnormally high amount of electricity in their bodies, it may also be static electricity.

Yes, static electricity is usually generated the interaction of certain environments and clothing, shoes, carpets, etc., and dissipated by moisture, so some (less sweaty?) people might build and carry more static charge for longer than others. I don't know of any evidence that the person generates significant electricity biologically, other than tiny membrane depolarisations, nor any plausible mechanism for how it could be done. We don't work like electric eels.

[wolfekeeper]

Another factor is how you fit the batteries. The lithium batteries fitted to watches last years... but only if you don't short them out with sweaty fingers. If you put the battery in badly you leave a conductive path between the two sides and that discharges the battery very quickly.

Also if the watch gets wet then that will end it. Sloshing a watch into water hard enough can bypass the seal, unless it's extremely high quality.

[Doodlesweaver]

Ever since I was a child I've always "stopped" watches. Well all except for the motion propelled Rolex. Now I'm all grown up and a right brained scientist. Usually just use my iPhone for the time. Terrible time management skills. So I saw this cute watch. $5.00 for the watch but it was for the hospital auxiliary and reminds me of my grandmother's old watch. Naturally it stopped 15 minutes after I put it on. It's cheap, who knows how long it's been in the crate over on the way from the Far East, anyway. So, I go to Rite Aid to buy another battery. Works PERFECTLY! I am thrilled. Especially with my escape from that old wive's tale about "stopping" watches. Well that was maybe 11:45 am. By 2:15 pm the watch's second hand sadly ground down to a definitive halt within a few minute's time span.  []

So was my grandmother correct all those years ago when she said I always had and always would "stop" watches? She just told me some people were like that; don't sweat it, basically.  But in all seriousness isn't that one of the craziest things you've ever heard? What on earth would make me "stop" watches when other people don't? I don't sweat profusely. My electrolytes are normal. I don't often "shock" people when I touch them like some people always seem to do.

This is seriously the 7th or 8th watch I've stopped in my lifetime - all within just a few hours on putting the watch on my wrist, too. Never worked for more than a day.

Guess that means I *"NEED"* a perpetual motion one. LOL!

But in all seriousness I'd like to have some scientific explanation for why this keeps happening to me. Don't worry I'm going to buy a 10 pack of batteries for the watch, then take it to a jeweler, then if that doesn't work buy a few more higher quality battery time pieces just to PROVE to myself there's nothing wrong with me.

I suppose if you want to go with the "Boho," psychic theme I have always been an empath. But that's just because I'm right brained and am a product of both my environment and genetics.

Hmmm... This is a really stupid question but could the problem be that I wear the watches on my left arm???  Really reaching here!!

Well I sure am curious for any scientific words from on high. If that doesn't work I'm just going to go for the Rolex. I use my mom's at times and that thing never misses a beat. I could get a silver or two toned one.  But they're just so pretentious for what I want.

Well for now, at least, I'm on a quest to make this watch work for me!!! Any help SINCERELY appreciated!!!

[wolfekeeper]

Most people that have this pick a watch out of a drawer and put it on their wrist, and it runs... for a while.

The reason is temperature, your wrist is warmer, so the change in temperature is often enough to start it, and it may run for a while.

The two main things are lubrication and battery. Warming it up loosens the lubricant and it will often start working. The other is the battery, warming it up helps the chemical reaction that generates the power, and if the battery is a bit marginal it will often get enough power, temporarily, to run.

There's no magic to this, it's nothing to do with electrostatics or anything.

Or rather, there is a small amount of magic, your granny telling you you're special is the magic. Many magicians like Uri Geller tell people to get watches out of drawers and hold them in their hands and do magic incantations, wish hard etc. and lo and behold, they start up! But only because they get warm. And they won't keep going.

[dlorde]

wolfekeeper makes a good point. It's also worth bearing in mind that, if the unexpected stopping of a watch is rare but random, then, as with all random events, a few people will experience less such events than average, and a few people will experience more than average.

[wolfekeeper]

So I saw this cute watch. $5.00 for the watch but it was for the hospital auxiliary and reminds me of my grandmother's old watch. Naturally it stopped 15 minutes after I put it on. It's cheap, who knows how long it's been in the crate over on the way from the Far East, anyway. So, I go to Rite Aid to buy another battery. Works PERFECTLY! I am thrilled. Especially with my escape from that old wive's tale about "stopping" watches. Well that was maybe 11:45 am. By 2:15 pm the watch's second hand sadly ground down to a definitive halt within a few minute's time span.  []

So in this case you bought a cheap watch, and you're amazed that it stopped working soon after you bought it?

Has it occurred to you that the watch is.. faulty?

The mechanism is a bit sticky or something; you put a fresh battery in it, it's got a bit of extra juice or something and so it runs for a while, but the motor is working extra hard, so the battery soon runs down. Or maybe the fault is in the electronics.

The point is there's something wrong with the watch.

[Sheppie]

Doesn't it have something to do with personal magnetism? People have some magnetic field of their own and although
in most cases we just don't notice it all, some have it greater than others. My friend "turn's up" or "turn's down" street lights.
Whenever a street lantern is blinking, when Paulie passes by the thing with turn on or off. It's hilarious. So maybe you stop
watches?

[wolfekeeper]

There's no such thing as personal magnetism. People are not magnetic.