watches are like hamsters...they don't last real long..
Boy your dad is a cutie!! no wonder he got such a darling daughter!!
Am I first??? Woo hoo!

I too am strangely magnetic, but watches are ok for me for some reason. I have other issues, like always getting shocked, when others would not. This is a Bad Thing. Your boss is so nice to give you all such nice gifts.... maybe you could put it on the strap of your purse, or in your purse or ??? I don't know. It is nice to know what time it is, even when we don't really care, if only to keep others happy with on-timeness. Or not.
:-)

Nope. It's not just you honey and yup, the watch guy knew what he was talking about.

My mom could wear them... but they never kept the right time. They'd run fast. She'd always have to reset the time on her watches. Constantly.

No matter how nice, expensive, or how good the quality.

I have an Eco-drive watch. It runs off sunlight. 24 hours in sunlight, 3 years of running. recharge? sunlight. I wear it now and then on long daytime driving trips and just rest my arm on the car door... "i'm charging my watch. leave me alone"

*Kiss* Just don't *WEAR* the watch. let your purse strap wear the watch. then you'll have it and maybe it won't go all wonky on you.

Love you

Merry Holidays to you

*Big tight southern/cajun hugs* :)

Stephanie

Crazy!!
Never heard of that before....loved the pic from back in the day.Thanks for makin me feel old(er)( it hurt to get out of bed this am) Swatches were happenining when I was in COLLEGE. thanks.Are you back at work and feeling better today?Cats poopin it up for ya at home?

I don't kill watches, but I don't wear them either. Something about the tight band around my wrist irritates me. I carry my watch in my purse. If my cell phone breaks (my primary time piece) then I can fish out my watch.

There are many other watch killers out there. I remember meeting seven or so through my life. Celebrate you uniqueness!

Erica

That is SUCH a cute picture! I wonder if an automatic watch that runs on your movement would work?

That's hysterical (errr, well for me .. not for your dead watches!) ;) I have a similar problem ... only in that my watches just up and disappear. One minute (ha!) they're there ... the next, *poof*, gone. I bet they are partying with all those missing single socks. (Bastards, all of 'em! :))

Bummer about the watches, but your Dad is a hunk and a half! When Swatches came out I was just a poor Co-ed who spent all her cash on books & beer. So, I bought a Faux Swatch (Fwatch?) from Venture (remember Venture stores?) for $8.00. But, still, your Dad...hubba-hubba!

((Lights a candle and says solemnly)) And so, we thank the watch that gave its life for the good of the Purl. And thank the goddess that swatches *finally* died out. Note to schnoobie -I had graduated college when swatches were hawt.

I still own a swatche. Mine has little business man running around on it. >.>

You have a SUPERPOWER. I am so jealous!

Are you coming to SNB this week? I miss you!

Oh the beloved swatch watch! I to just HAD to have one or I was going to die....and I also received mine among a variety of acid wash denim clothing for Christmas (oh how I miss my Guess Jean acid wash jacket.

Good Times
Good Times

There was a girl I knew in college that couldn't get elevators to work. She was okay with the ones that had push buttons, but if they had the buttons that would "sense" that you were there they wouldn't "sense" her. She would have to wait for someone else to get on the elevator with her and ask them to push her floor.

My FIL was a watch-killer. None of his kids seem to have inherited it, but he lived for 70+ years and could never wear a wrist watch. He tried a pocket watch for a while and it lasted a little longer (cushioned by the cloth??) but eventually that one died too. It isn't just you!

My mom kills watches, too. Me, I quit wearing them in college (didn't like the tan line!), and I've never gotten back into the habit. Never owned a Swatch, but I have my late granpa's pocket watch. It runs...sometimes...

I don't have a thing with killing watches, I've still got my childhood Mickey kickin' around, but radios and street lights always go wonky when I walk past - a little scary late at night!

Enjoy your shiny, pretty new watch anyway, even if you can't wear it!

The only watches that I don't break are Timex watches. I don't think it is a magnetism thing, I think it is a klutz thing. As a confirmed clock watcher and obesssed punctuality freak I can't imagine life without a watch. I sleep with one on. I carry a backup on my keychain in case the battery on my wrist watch dies.

I have a bag full of the watches I've killed. Many of them Swatch, like my favorite, the mirror one with no numbers. I had always claimed that I was the one causing this problem with watches, called myself magnetic, etc. Turns out to be true. And now I mess up cellphones, very inconvenient! Glad to know there are more of us out there, and that I'm not just making shit up!
Try putting the watch on your keychain, that has worked for me lately.

I tried to con my mother into buying me a swatch every time we were at the mall! I mean, you had to have them that matched your outfits... and remember the face protectors and the replacement bands? I killed watches as a young child. My most painful watch murder was my strawberry shortcake watch. It just wouldn't keep the time... fast one day... slower the next... dead on the third... fix it adn start all over. After a Mickey one worked for over 6 months I was able to wear them with success. Hurray for the healing powers of Mickey Mouse!

I had a friend with the exact same problem. She had reverse polarity and the problem wasn't the watch, it was the battery. If she got the kind that winds, all was well. She used to just attach her watch to her purse or even wear it around her neck on a cool scarf. As long as it didn't touch her skin, everything worked fine.

I had that problem with Timex watches. They'd work for a while and then suddenly go into hyper-time, with the hands zooming around the face, until their little hearts broke. Seiko watches seem to be OK. Never saw a Swatch watch that I liked.

I don't kill watches, but they hurt my wrist when I wear one unless it's a loose, bracelet style.

I loved my Swatch! Did you have one of those rubber "guards" for it? Don't they have one out now that has rabbits in Kama Sutra positions?

I don't kill watches, but they hurt my wrist when I wear one unless it's a loose, bracelet style.

I loved my Swatch! Did you have one of those rubber "guards" for it? Don't they have one out now that has rabbits in Kama Sutra positions?

Oh. My. GAWD. LMAO

I suspect the women in my family have a similar problem, actually. Electronics go haywire in my presence, and once the car windows rolled down when my mother unlocked her car doors using the clicker.

And I thought THAT was weird.

http://store.swatch.com/th_top24watch/STGK101

BunnySutra Swatch

"born outside of time constraints", oh, oh, I wanna be magnetically outside of time constraints too!

I used to have a friend that had the same watch-killing electromagnetic field. She wore her watch on her right wrist instead of her left, and that didn't kill the watch. Worth a try?? Photocopiers also went haywire whenever she walked into the mail room.

It takes me longer than 4 hours to kill a watch - usually 2 months - so perhaps I am not as magnetic as you but I do know what you mean. It takes me 6 months to remember to get a new battery for any one of my umpteen watches... losing strategy if I ever heard of one!

Also, do you suck the life out of your cell phone or cordless phone batteries? I think my brain sucks the battery life out of these things in an effort to make up for the fact it is coffee-deprived.

Now, if the street lights suddenly turn on or off when you go near them, well I think I read on the internets somewhere that means you've been abducted by aliens. Or something.

Come to think of it, my cell battery does last a lot longer when I'm giving in to my Fourbucks addiction... hmmm.

That's amazing! I've never heard of such a thing. I don't have any magical, watch-stopping powers...I just break them the old-fashioned way.

My husband thought I was crazy for telling him his personal electro-magnetic field makes people, machines, and electronics wonky all around him.

Who goes through a computer a year?

Who can break the lawn mower three times in a row with the power of a bad attitude?

Who has lightening almost hit three times?

Who can fix a musical instrument by just touching it?

I think he is closer to believing me now.

i stop all watches as well. :)

Wow! I am a watch killer, too! But my personal best is about a month. I have never killedone in 4 hours. I always told people I have weird body electricity, which I just made up. I finally learned to buy cheap watches as they never last even $30 worth. So I get $10 dollar watches, because they die. And, don't say they die BECAUSE the are $10 watches. I used to have nice watches, till I suddenly realized it didn't matter how much $$$ I spent, I would kill the damn watch. Mine usually last a year or so, and then die, and nothing will revive them.

I love my Swatch, but it is old and ratty, and loses time, and the strap is just naaasty! It's a pink Swatch, with a white face and pink hands. Just try reading that under sodium street lamps! Cannot be done. Gods, I wish I had that Swatch as a teenager, think of the excuses you could make! I want another Swatch. It's the only brand of watch I haven't killed with my animal magnetism thing. I killed many a Timex in my youth. Too bad you kill Swatches too!

Are you like me in that you're always the only person who gets electric shocks of doors and cars and stuff, and jump and squeal like an idiot? Or is that just me? I try and make sure that other people earth the car before I get in. I feel like a human lightning conductor. I did once get a lightning strike through the phone. Fortunately it earthed mostly through the telephone which melted. Unfortunatley, I was holding it at the time, and flew across the bedroom, but luckily I jerked the phone jack out and lived to tell the tale.

PS is it weird that I write more in other people's comment pages than I do in my own blog?

My sister is a watch killer also, and I laughed when I realized where your post was going - no one believed her for the longest time either!

wow that's weird -- i've never heard of that

what about wind-up watches. can you have one of those?

time killer.

i'm that way too . . . though it usually takes me about 3 days to kill one. the only watch i could ever wear was a nurse's model with one of those uncomfortable metal mesh bands that pinch your arm when you move the wrong way (i.e., any way at all, mostly). so now i just don't own a watch. after all, my computer has a clock, my car has a clock, my husband has a watch . . .

feeling better, thanks, I came into work yesterday, too, but I was still in a haze. I will try putting the watch on my handbag maybe. Or just "display" it on my desk every day! LOL

OK, now that we're all talking swatches... remember the other essential thing you HAD to wear on your wrist... friendship bracelets!! Or was that just a southern thing?

You could always wear dead Swatches just for jewelery. I can't wear watches either but not because I kill them; it's because they TAKE OVER MY BRAIN and I have to check them every ten seconds (yup! still going! it's been ten seconds! eleven! twelve!) GAH.

It's amazing how much you still look exactly the same, and just as cute.

**Thank you!**

My watches always died too! I thought I was a freak! I also got the sunlight-powered watch, it works great. Digital watches always worked too.

I have the same thing happen to me! When I took it to the jeweler, he put a piece of insulating plastic over the back of the watch before replacing the cover. It was just enough protection to keep my "magnetic" personality from damaging the innards of my watch :)

Hey, my mom has that problem too, but only digital watches . . the screen always goes black.

Oh, thanks for making ME feel old too :D .. Swatches were big just after my college graduation!!! I got a big one for my wall too, along with the wrist one (which I didn't kill, at least not right away).

Okay, it's not a magnetic field or anything, but my skin apparently has a higher concentration of acid in it's natural oils which literally EATS THROUGH METAL WATCH BANDS. My skin can corrode metal, your magnetic feild stops time...

I feel knitting superheros coming on.

My husband is a watch killer. A three year battery in his watch lasts a whopping maybe month, possibly two. Wonder if a sunlight watch would work for him....

I bought a Swatch in college. I was allergic to it (I'm allergic to plastic).

Friendship bracelets? You mean the colorful little kind the kids these days make and wear, or the HEFTY, white braid ones from back in the (??) 70's?! The ones that would shrink to your wrist size, and you couldn't ever take them off.

Man, am I old.

My dad is totally the same way! His work for a bit longer than that I believe, but then they just stop. You aren't crazy.

My senior year in high school I briefly dated - fling is probably a better word - a 1st year law student who could not wear a watch for the same reason.
I'm here to tell you his personal magnetism was fine indeed - electric, even - so I guess that explains that.

Are you serious about body clock vs mechanical clock? Man, your biological clock must really be ticking!

For me, I can't wear watches, sadly. I break out in a rash everytime I wear a watch. I allergic to the metal....

Well, that also explains a certain case of Very Bad Luck that followed a friend around during college and those lovely triggery physics experiments. Things lost their ability to give ANY sort of accuracy around her, or even lost their ability to DO! She was cursed.

But she never felt bad about it for a moment. She hates physics and so does her body chemistry, apparently. *snerk*

Well, that also explains a certain case of Very Bad Luck that followed a friend around during college and those lovely triggery physics experiments. Things lost their ability to give ANY sort of accuracy around her, or even lost their ability to DO! She was cursed.

But she never felt bad about it for a moment. She hates physics and so does her body chemistry, apparently. *snerk*

My best friend was a watch-killer... turned out she was also bipolar. It was the chemical imbalance that was killing her watches, not magnetism. That still didn't save the totally cool Pac-Man watch she got for our Luther League trip to San Antonio. As long as everyone kept passing it around and playing with it, it lived. It died a week after we got home.

Ah, Swatch Watches with funny rubber face guards, and friendship bracelets. Yep, we had 'em in Wisconsin. But did anyone else have friendship pins - you know, the little brass safety pins, and you'd put a row of tiny seed beads on them, and they'd be lined up in a row across the bottom lace of your sneakers?

Ah Ha! I knew there was something 'other-worldly' about you! Maybe you're a Vulcan or a Romulan and not really a cute, Southern chick after all! Watch out, Purlie Stalkers...the invasion into our hearts has begun!

I don't kill watches, but my hands do corrode metal. Bracelets, watch bands, you name it - even my Addi turbos die quickly. And pens. Sigh. So if you kill time and I kill base metals, shouldn't we get together and try to take over the world or something?

This comments section reads like a support group for watch killers!

Love the swatches. And the friendship bracelets. Which did you prefer: the rubbery ones or the ones you and your friends made from string/thread?

I had a friend in college who this would happen to. Not just watches but anything that was too closefor a long time eventually quit working. It happened to laptops, calculators, anything that she held on to for long periods of time. This is very unfortunate since her (and my) major was Computer Science. I think she was OK with desktop computers.

(we had swatches with face guards, friendship pins and bracelets, squigly shoelaces, black stirup pants and giant day glow pink sweatshirts. I was in elementary school and therefore too young to take any blame)

I'm a watch killer too. I totally sympathise. Also get the weird shocks and funky electronics. I can't even turn the tv on. Everyone else in the family can. Its just SO fun. SOOooo fun. =P~

you could just look at it from a distance.

or melt it down and have something for the cats made from it.

At last! A sister in magnetism! I have the same problem. I am able to wear Seiko watches, but all others die early deaths. I also wear through gold rings (even 14K) and sometimes get black rings under my gold rings (even 18K).

I've solved the watch problem by just not wearing one. There are enough clocks in the world (including cell phones) that I'm no later than people who can wear watches.

great essay!

I kill watches too. But what I found works for me is a band that has leather underneath the watchpiece. That seems to disrupt my magnetic personality.

Laurie, I knew you and I were the same age; maybe from all the times you actually wrote "I am thirty-four." But somehow it all fell into place for me when you said that in seventh grade, Swatch watches were the coolest things ever and you would die if you didn't have the pink one. :) In seventh grade, I MOST DESPERATELY needed the yellow one. Also, acid-washed denim. And the "Frankie Say Relax" t-shirt? Oh, you bet I didn't tell my parents what THAT song was about! Watch me relive my awkward middle-school years through Crazy Aunt Purl's blog! Wake me up before you go-go... :)

Ah - a trip down Memory Lane ... did anyone else wear shoelaces with little whales or crocodiles on them, or was that just a Michigan fad? Preferably worn with a friendship pin, of course. Seems like just yesterday until I do the math and realize it's more like 20 years. Dang. Getting old. Wonder what the kids have to have nowadays?

Oh man, drag. How about fashioning that lovely new watch into a delightful kitty collar. Maybe your kitties are demagnetized enough for that.

A friend of mine has something similar wrong with her. However,instead of killing the watch after 12 hours, it runs backward. The analogs. Digitals just crap out on her.

Whoo Hoo ... Larry B. without a beard!

oh .. you KNOW we're going to be sharin' that picture around here!!

sweet ..

chase

we must have been in middle school/Jr high at about the same time. Our fads were:

Swatches
Friendship bracelets
Friendship beads (on safety pin around bottom shoe lace)
Acid washed TIGHT jeans - guess brand the most popular, levi's pegged were acceptable
two pair of socks - different colors and alternate layers
Chuck Taylors - but not the same pair - left one color, right another color
Skirts with lace-trimmed spandex shorts under them

I'm a new reader to this blog but I wanted to let you know I have a friend who is the exact same way with watches. Maybe you could just keep the watch fastened around your bag?

also named Laurie,
also from Tennessee

My SIL is a watch killer, too. Who knew there were so many? Gwen has the right idea - think of it as a Superpower! Gee, wish I has Superpowers...

I think you should look into the whole "quartz" movement thing...does an old 21 jewel or winding watch also fail? That'd be an interesting, albeit expensive, experiment.

You are not alone in the watch killing department. No watch has ever lasted longer than a day or two for me. I would cry each year as I would be given a watch I had wanted for so long, only to have it non-functioning in a very brief period of time.

I am in nursing school and have to wear a watch necklace, which has, so far, stayed alive.

My MOM has the same chemistry thing! Kills every watch that has the misfortune of crossing her wrist.

Ah well. Merry Christmas, watch killer!

So are there other implications to killing watches? Can you destroy cellphones, PDAs, iPods, laptops, etc, by them being in close proximity to you?

Wait a minute - I'm having a flashback... this watch thing is related to you being the AntiTech!
http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2005/10/the_antitech_st.php

A-ha. It's all clear now.

Great picture - what a beautiful little girl you were!

Definitely try a Timex with a cloth band
I had a teacher once that blew watches within 5 minutes. The timex made it
just make sure you have a thick cotton band.
GOod luck

I feel your pain. I kill watches too, but the worse is killing TVs and phones. I went through 5 house phones in 2 months when I was stressed out. It gets expensive.

Baton Rouge? I knew I liked you!

I know how you feel. Especially when I was little, my mom used to take us to the discount store and buy me digital watches (when they were first becoming popular). The watches were fairly cheap, but I would wear them for a couple of days and the watches would just die. I remember someone telling me I had too much electricity in my body and that's why they shorted out. I didn't try to wear a watch again until I was about 12 or 13, but my mom was smart enough to know digital was not the way to go with me, so it's been analog time ever since and they work fine for me. Although it appears not to be the case with you.

i don't knit, or know anything about knitting, but strangely, i'm having knitting withdrawls today.

i collect swatches, by the way.

You ARE a super hero! Like an X-Man or something. I, sadly, like Blinky, have the power of getting zapped by everything I touch. Together we could be a powerful team! Wonder Twin Powers - Activate!

Just wanted to let you know, watch killing aside, I knit up a drop stitch, non-loopy scarf Saturday in about an hour and a half usin sz 13 needles and Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece - it turned out all slinky and kind of sexy... just thought it was funny that the same stitch done a little different could go from cheetos to a slithery slinky scarf... thanks for the inspiration!!

That is the TRUTH. My dad had that that phenomenon, although his was in the days before quartz watches. (he died very young, so we didn't get to test the quartz watches on him) I have it, too, but not to such a strong degree as you. Mine last exactly 13 hours more than one year. (This last part has NOT been documented down to the minute like that, but it SEEMS like the truth.) My quartz batteries last only a fraction of the time of most people's, and I'm quite sure that if we didn't have the quartzes, my watches (like my dad's) would die.

Re your earlier entry about spending Christmas in bed with a bottle of booze and the clicker: my mother says not to forget the box of chocolates.

Lurker/stalker posting for the first time: I haven't thought about my red Swatch in about 20 years! And yes! Texas girls were wearin' friendship bracelets up to their elbows (more bracelets=more friends, of course). Thanks for the memories, Laurie! I really enjoy your blog...and the prolific volume of entertaining material you produce (my resolution is to start and keep a blog--I've written three entries in the last year). Thanks for letting me stalk you on the internets!

Congrats on your nomination for a BoB Award! Good luck.

I picked up Simply Knitting (A UK mag) at Borders. I opened it up, and the free gift was a Christmas gift pattern book. And the first pattern? Knitted Gnomes! I just had to tell you! Hopefully, you find this in all of the comments.

I picked up Simply Knitting (A UK mag) at Borders. I opened it up, and the free gift was a Christmas gift pattern book. And the first pattern? Knitted Gnomes! I just had to tell you! Hopefully, you find this in all of the comments.

Uri Geller (the spoon bender guy) fixed my watch over the tv once. He said bring it to the tv and I'll fix it and daggone if he didn't....

hey, your Dad looks like Luke Wilson...has anyone ever pointed that out?

I'm a watch killer too....and have you ever gone near a Van der Graff generator in a museum? They absolutely go haywire around me if I just walk close to them. We're SPECIAL not freaks right?

Oh MY GAWD you are one of us! Girl kills watches and back in the day when she was a small child, could stop a computer. Her father was a computer engineer, so he made her use the PC in bare feet with her foot on the ground, to ground her. That solved the computer issue, but watches are still not a Christmas gift around here.

I turn out street lights, for about half a block in front and behind me on both sides of the street. The worse my mood the farther the reach of dead street lights. Heard about the watch thing before known a few ppl like that.

My sister is a watch killing time murderer too. LOL

i can't wear watches either. now granted, i don't kill them off as quickly as you (wow, 4 hours?) but i do murder them. my grandmother could wear one during the day, but if she wore it too long, it would expire. me, i was given a watch for my 8th grade graduation (hush, they had those things in them thar days), and within 6 months, it couldn't keep time. and it was a wind up watch. ever since then, i've never been able to wear a watch. it's only in the last 2 years that i've been able to keep track of time, because i got a cell phone. apparently, it doesn't work on that (that and i carry it in my purse, not my pocket). go figger

I'm a watch killer too... when I wore a digital watch it didn't take long before the display messed up so it wasn't even displaying numbers! My digital watch used to display things like LO:OP or UR:BE ! When I took it off for a while it would return to normal after a few hours. Clearly we aren't meant to be slaves to time.

I also get and give an obnoxious amount of shocks, especially (unfortunately) to my cats.

Should we call unsolved mysteries or something?

love your blog and your cats!

Yep, it's true. I'm not a watch killer, I'm a watch speeder upper. No watch ever runs right on me. They all gradually gain time till by the end of the day they are five minutes fast again. A jeweler told me in high school that it is just my body chemistry and that there is nothing to be done about it and I didn't believe him, but many watches later (some really cheap, some very expensive), I still have the same problem. I have given up and set all the clocks around me five minutes fast. Drives my family insane.

This is too funny! I don't wear a watch (just have no need with cell phones, car clock....) but I am a battery killer and street light killer. Last year I became great friends with another street light killer and its loads of fun on our Mom's Night Out when we ride together- all the lights go out along the road.

Zee cure, she is easy. Find yourself some plastic stick'em that is fairly thick but not so thick that anyone can see. Put it on the back of your watch. That should stop the stopping.

And where is the gratuitous cat pictures?

I have a jewelry box full of watches I have been given over the years. I let the batteries run down. I just am not into wearing watches. I think it's this passive aggressive thing I have about time and schedules and the like.

I hope you haven't broken the watch already. I had a problem with the "good" watches I was given when a teen-ager and a jeweler told me much the same thing. His advice was to put a patch of adhesive tape on the back of the watch to insulate it from my body electricity. This did the trick. Oddly enough for me, it was only the expensive watches that were affected; cheap Timex watches were fine. Now I wear the cheap watches from Wal-Mart and they're fine as well.

so...i'm not the only one-watch killer that is, it sounds like there are thousands of us out there! i gave up watches years ago, and can now guess the time within 5 minutes-close enough.
also, i break all kinds of electronic equipment just by touching it. good thing i live with an electronic repair tech, coinky dink-i think not!

don't feel bad -- for some reason, my body demagnitizes ATM cards. i'm not kidding. every time. i have to put them in little sleeves.

and i also don't wear a watch. that's what cell phones are for!

I'll have to ask him about watches... but a rather unpopular priest at my old church was the only person on staff for whom NONE of the electronics would work. The microphone would shriek or poop out. It was one of the few times I thought the Big M.C. in The Sky might be making an editorial comment.
And remember, even a broken watch is right twice a day.

The ONLY answer that amkes any sense??

GNOMES!!!
nuff said

I'm not alone! I'm not crazy! (well, ok that one's debatable...) - but at least I'm not the only one who kills watches in a day or less. (Also, drain walkman & TV remote batteries, & if overly stressed when driving? yep, car batteries/alternators - literally can't afford to indulge in fits of road rage). Purse strap watches last a little longer - usually a week. Good luck! (& thanks for making me feel a little less weird!) P.S. Friendship bracelets - not just for Southerners! Had 'em here in S. Calif, too. At least our "super powers" couldn't harm those!

My grandmother has the same "issue" with watches. Luckily I inherited her graduation watch (Too bad it cheap back then - or I could have financed my education on it.... but I digress) it is lovely - but it doesn't fit.... so it sits with my other expensive watches that need batteries and an owner who will wer them....

Also thanks for the SWATCH memories.... Mine had fishies and I LOVED IT! Ah, Junior High.....

Laurie-

You are such a great story teller! How nice of your boss, but too bad he didn't know about your murderous magnetic tendencies.

I too had to have swatches in middle school. But where we lived you couldn't just have one...you must have 3 or more. All the way up your arm. So my friends and I traded out every week so we could have on as many as possible at once!!

Thanks for the Swatch memories! *sigh*

quick! get thee to knitty! and knit ye up one of those watch bands. it will protect your watch from the evil curse.

Lurker here.... I had that pink scented Swatch! Still do, somewhere... in a drawer I think...

I can't wear watches either, same magnetic thing. But I had the peppermint smelly Swatch.

Dammit, I knew those street lights were going out on me, but I was afraid to tell anyone. Already have a crazy rep--don't need to enforce it anymore.
I knew I couldn't wear a watch. Me and my grandma have the same problem.
That also might explain why I went thru 3 cell phones in two months. I kept blaming Verizon.

Omigod, I wrote about the same sort of thing on my blog in September. And am absolutely GRATEFUL other people have experienced such a bizarre phenomenon! Folks think I'm nuts when I tell them about it. Now I'm vindicated! Thanks!

I too kill watches...I figured it out in high school. I still have my Mickey.

To this day i am amazed at how I live without a wristwatch.... True I try to have some kind of time telling device with me at all times.. .. Currently, it's my cell phone, but I trust batteries...

I do this too! I went through 5 batteries on a watch in a week and finally figured it out then. Strangely though, I'm never late. I'm on time or early.

The only watches that I can get to work are the kind that you wind up--but boy are those ugly.

Funny how this led me to leave a comment for the first time. But everyone always thinks that I'm making this up--see how many of us have this problem?

Been lurking for a long while now. I always enjoy your humanity and humour, but today I really feel I need to say, please write a book! You write so beautifully.

Happy Christmas!

Aara

Been lurking for a long while now. I always enjoy your humanity and humour, but today I really feel I need to say, please write a book! You write so beautifully.

Happy Christmas!

Aara

I read through as many comments as I could, but I'm running out of time on my break.

A friend of mine gave me the tip (because as many of your commentors have said, I kill watches within a few months) that if you put medical tape on the back of the watch it helps. It works. The tape gets dirty from time to time, so I just peel it off and replace it. I've been wearing the Fossil watch that my Dad got me for Christmas last year all along. And it still ticks away!

I do this too... a watch repairman told me to paint clear nail varnish on the back of the watch, and that should keep your magic powers from damaging it. It worked for me for a few months and then the varnish must have gotten worn down... I just wear old vintage wind ups... when I wear them.

I am not a watch killer, but the cause of watch-killer-ness in others (or at least one other)- apparently my Mom could wear a watch until she was pregnant with me, after which watches would die on her wrist. So now because I feel it is my fault (and she is a master of guilt) I buy her those little watches on on clips all the time.

I'm very glad to see it's so common! Helps assuage the guilt ;>

I am not a watch killer, but the cause of watch-killer-ness in others (or at least one other)- apparently my Mom could wear a watch until she was pregnant with me, after which watches would die on her wrist. So now because I feel it is my fault (and she is a master of guilt) I buy her those little watches on on clips all the time.

I'm very glad to see it's so common! Helps assuage the guilt ;>

ooo, I am so glad to find out that others kill watches too.

Now if I could just learn to use my power for good...

Forget about the watch...Jeepers creepers, how 'bout them peepers!!!

I kill wind-up watches, within about 4 hours too. I can wear battery-operated watches, but they also speed up.

I knew I was a watch-killer, and now I'm greatly relieved to hear I'm not the only streetlight killer.

Hey, this happens to my grandma too. I never heard of anyone else with this problem...very interesting!

I know from experience that what you describe is All Too True! - my mother can kill any watch stone dead within days, there again she can also do that Uri Geller thing of bringing a long-dead watch back to life (contradictory? You bet!) - the best watch that she has had (ie. the one that lasted longest) has been one of those Storm watches. I also find them great because even though they have a metal band, they don't bring me out in a nasty rash - NAYY, but a happy customer!

I kill watches too, but am way to embarrassed to say how...

woooooohaaa!

Check out www.arcteam.com this German guy actually believes the blinkers responded to his radio signal and lasered his house to ashes!

Shadow Hills will go down in Insurance History

(Los Angeles, CA: November 6, 2005) Wolfgang Keller doesn’t know where to start. He’s been in the US for some time, working as a practitioner of Scientology technology from his Shadow Hills home. “It is a universal form of spiritual counseling” he says.

Keller and his fellow Scientologists believe that many of earth’s problems are due to periodic incursions by members of so-called invader forces. Even though details are restricted to those privy to Scientology’s higher teachings, Keller’s daughter, Iris, says that they are “evil alien beings, all they do is cause problems” and she is quite certain that they are responsible not only for unrest in the Middle East but also dropped cell phone calls and missing socks.

Keller, who trained as an engineer in Germany after the war, had built a high powered transmitter behind his house. For several years, he had been trying to communicate with the invader forces in an attempt to make peace. “Someone had to do it” he says, and “since I was trained in the highest levels of Scientology, I was well qualified” he adds.

In July he picked up signals indicating that representatives of the invader forces had agreed to a meeting. “You can imagine that we did not know what to think” said Keller’s other daughter, Maya.

The family and other staff member’s of Keller’s business, ARCTEAM worked around the clock to prepare. Even though they believed the invaders had good intentions, they were ready for trouble. Keller made sure everyone was equipped with a “Theta Tone.” Even though access to these is normally restricted to Scientologists, Keller explained that these devices have been used for thousands of centuries to defeat the various invaders.

After the preparation, the waiting.

On the morning of November 5th, Keller’s family was awakened by a loud purring noise. Hovering over the house in Shadow Hills was a blinker. A blinker, in Scientology teaching, is a cat-like alien that can fly and teleport. They are also believed to be very, very dangerous. Scientology teaches that the Egyptians used blinkers to conquer other kingdoms, and that the Tunguska explosion was caused by blinker “kittens” at play.

Keller’s family greeted the blinker. But there was trouble almost immediately. The blinker knocked down a row of trees behind the Keller home. Keller ordered everyone to get away, and he headed to his basement.

The blinker fired some kind of rays from its eyes and did considerable damage to the Keller home. Young Iris Keller caught this with her camera before getting away. “I will never forget it as long as I live” she said. “People make fun of what we believe, but that thing was here and attacked us.”

Keller tried to raise a protective field around the area with theta tones, but it did not work. He also placed a frantic call to Scientology’s Flag headquarters. He was placed on hold.

Keller’s family fled to nearby Sunland and alerted authorities. By the time they arrived, all they found was rubble. Keller was safe in a basement bunker, and was briefly hospitalized for observation and then released. Reports that Keller was singing the “Horst Wessel Lied,” often associated with Nazi Germany could not be confirmed, although it is known that some of Keller’s teachers had worked on the V-2 and other similar projects.

Sunland Police Captain Danny Harris says “it looks like Iraq up there,” referring to the hill where Keller’s home stood. “There was nothing we could do” stated Fire Marshall Ed McEvans.

Keller says he will rebuild. He has already spoken to his insurers and they are understandably skeptical. “It is not every day your house gets burned down by laser eyed cats” he says. “I am treating it as a fire” he continues, but admits that he is not sure what they will do.

Keller also plans to talk to Scientology leadership. “We were told we had the tech to fight them” he says. “I have paid a lot of money for training and look what happened” he adds, looking around at the rubble. “I will talk to David Miscavige in person” Keller stated emphatically. “He is L. Ron Hubbard’s successor, and he will have an answer.”

I disrupt watches too. So does my mother. It runs in our family. Glad to know I'm not the only one.

I was looking on the internet for a solution to my watch-killing (and now cell phone killing) abilities when I happened upon your blog. I have killed a total of 8 watches in my 19-year-old life. I've never heard of a Swatch, but I dont think I care to. Watches make me depressed. I too, have never seemed to fit the boundaries of time, but it is not because I am rebellious against it. Rather, I have never had a concept of time at all. Someone will ask me a question including the words "how long was it...?" and I won't have any idea whether it was 5 minutes or 3 hours. I claim that there is some connection to my "magnetic" state, which is something my aunt (through marriage, not blood) told me. She has the same problem. She and I can kill a watch in less than 2 hours. If I hold it in my pocket, it lasts a little longer.

I have resorted to using my cell phone for time. If I talk on my phone for an extended period of time, it will not matter if I have full service or not, I will suddenly lose everything. The phone will turn off and not turn back on for a long time. If I hold my cell phone in my pocket, I have completely killed one after a couple months (I did not tell the company of my strange ability though).

If anyone can find a real answer to this problem, and not simple speculation about magnetism and electricity (I have also heard too much iron in the blood), please let me know! I would LOVE for my phone to work once in a while when I have full service!!

I kill watches. I just got my TAG battery replaced about two hrs ago and explained to the guy at Mayors what the problem was and of course he looked at me like I had three heads. One guy at JR Dunn had heard of this. In my 35 yrs of wearing watches, the only one that has passed the test is my TechnoMarine and I know it's because of it's very thick case, like 12 mm. I got tired of putting little stickies on the back of my watches. I am know considering an automatic movement type watch, like a Rolex, but I am afraid of what may happen and that's a lot of money to waste. I also drain cell phones and constantly get shocked...:(

I've had the same problem with watches. But in my case they were wind-up & digital watches. They work just fine for about two hours then... death.
The ditial watches would go completely blank or reset to 12:00 with the slightest change in emotions.

After taking them back & forth to shop for repair or exchange...I'd decided they just didn't make like they used to. My mom made a comment one day that really puzzled me. She said, "You know, some people just can't wear watches. She couldn't explain it. It was just something she heard growing up in the South.

But long story short, after several years of going watchless. I finally found one that works.
Neither wind up or digital. Just a regular battery operated watch. The batteries last longer now and I've had this for 2 years.

Happines at last.

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