The Mystery of Clock Mechanics #2. The Legend of “Unlucky Hours”

The Legend of “Unlucky Hours”

A group of tourists decided to spend their vacation by the seaside. After enjoying a good dose of sunshine, they decided to visit an interesting exhibition of unusual items. Among the exhibits, Swiss watches made by hand caught their attention. Their cases were marked with small cracks, but surprisingly, they showed the exact time. The tour guide told an unusual story about these watches. Here it is.

This model of Swiss watches once belonged to one of the richest men in France at the time, Count Nicolas d’Chatelet. The watches were custom-made, with the case and chain made of rose gold, and the dial containing diamond inlays, each weighing one carat. Instead of numbers, there were zodiac signs, the hands were made of white gold, and the glass was made of especially hard mountain crystal. For the money that Count’s wife paid to the jeweler who made the watch, one could have bought a small estate. The Count never parted with the gift; he adored his Swiss watches; they were his creation. The watches reciprocated this love—they always showed the correct time, and it seemed as though they had a soul.

Some time later, the Count lost his beloved wife. A week before her death, the watches stopped, and after her funeral, they resumed ticking. Nicolas did not attach any significance to this. While hunting with the Count, misfortune struck: his horse was frightened by gunshots and ran away. Nicolas, catching a branch, fell and broke his leg. When he took the Swiss watches out of his pocket, he was horrified to find a new scratch on them—one that hadn’t been there yesterday. It turns out that the watches had been warning him about the upcoming misfortunes, but he simply didn’t understand their hints. Every morning, the Count would inspect the watches. His life turned into an endless wait for death, as he feared that the next day might bring another scratch or, worse, that the watches might stop. Over the course of the year, Nicolas transformed from a vigorous man into a nervous old man. Yet, he could not part with the watches.

Eventually, his servants left him, and he had to sell his estates and go on a pilgrimage. These pocket watches had cast a spell on the Count. Ten years later, Marquis de Brac bought these watches from an antique dealer for five sou. They were covered in dirt and soot, and the case was scratched, but the watches still worked. Over the next two years, the new owner of the cursed watches lost his wife and relatives: the watches stopped a week before their death. He could not rid himself of them: rumors about the “watches of death” spread throughout France and Europe. The Marquis decided to simply throw them into the sea to rid them of the fresh blood. It was only after more than a century that the watches resurfaced, found by a pearl diver on the seabed of the Mediterranean. They were displayed in an exhibition ten years ago. Since then, the watches have never stopped—they are seemingly waiting for a new owner.

Sometimes, watches in one room tick out of sync, no matter how hard you try to adjust them. Some chronometers either lag or rush, even if they are completely new. “Do the watches emit any impulses or radiations?” Nobody has proven this yet. Perhaps a lot could have been revealed by the specialist in extreme watch tricks, Uri Geller, but the mystery remains unsolved, and only divided scientists into two camps—one of which is sure that Geller’s experiments are ordinary fraud. But the fact remains: he could not only break metallic rings with his gaze, bend spoons, and move objects in space, but also make stopped watches go again with sheer willpower. The most famous trick of Uri Geller was stopping the oldest London clocks in the Big Ben tower, which had never stopped in 130 years. The director of the company that produced games created by Uri asked him to make “something like this” for advertising, such as stopping Big Ben. Uri, who lived in the suburbs of London, took a postcard with an image of the famous tower, closely watched it, and imagined the hands stopping. “Stop!” he commanded aloud. An hour and a half later, the experiment was repeated. The next day, the newspapers carried sensational notes: “At 11:07, the famous Big Ben was stopped!” There was no doubt that Uri had done it. The experiment was announced beforehand.

Watches have long been associated with mysticism and magic. There are people who constantly face various misfortunes related to watches, even those bought at different times and in different stores. One story appeared on an internet forum: “Late in the evening, I discovered a very unpleasant fact: the sapphire glass on my watch had a 30mm crack. The glass is supposed to be unbreakable, scratch-resistant, and specially polished to avoid glare in any weather. The crack was easy to feel, and I became very upset because, with these watches, I couldn’t swim anymore, otherwise, water would get into the mechanism, and they would break. I was so upset that I went to bed. I woke up early the next morning and immediately checked the watch: yes, the problem was still there. I took a large box with the warranty documents, found the contact for the local service center, and wrote a depressing letter saying that my watches were somehow mysteriously breaking. What happened next, I can only call ‘fantastical.’ An hour after I sent the letter, the crack… disappeared. I checked the place where the crack had been, touched the glass with my finger—it was smooth, as it should be. There were no flaws in the glass!”

Experienced magicians would say: “This is a sign.” And they would confirm their statement with another example. That day, an American pensioner sat and smoked a pipe on a park bench. His wristwatch showed around 7:00 PM. Next to him sat an acquaintance. About half an hour later, the pensioner looked at his watch and suddenly noticed cracks on it. The hands stopped at 7:45. He took off his glasses, wiped the glass, and checked the time again. Surprisingly, the cracks had disappeared, and the time showed 7:28. After saying goodbye to his acquaintance, he went to the store to pick up his order, but as he was climbing the stairs, he collided with a man rushing up and was knocked off his feet. The pensioner hit his fist on the railing, and when he checked his watch, he noticed that new cracks had appeared, and the hands had stopped at 7:45.

Another strange phenomenon is how we unintentionally glance at the clock to check the time. “I look at the clock—it’s 11:11, and if you look carefully, there’s nothing unusual, but if you look by chance, you always see the same numbers: 22:22, 11:11, etc.” This is a confession from another witness to the mysticism of the watch mechanism. “I often see 11 on the clocks, on microwaves, on computers, even in taxis. I pass by some large clock, and it shows 11:11. I belong to the category of people who find it hard to believe in anything supernatural. I don’t even participate in sports bets. But here, it seems like mysticism. Yesterday, I turned sharply to my alarm clock, and it showed 23:24. I smiled, thinking, ‘Fool, almost missed it.’ I passed by some computer, and it showed 23:23.”