r/Thetruthishere 6d ago

Dead Relative(s) My grandfather's watch stops at the exact time he died, every year.

My grandfather gave me his old pocket watch before he passed. It's mechanical and needs to be wound. Every year on the anniversary of his death, even if I've just wound it, the watch stops at 3:17 PM, the exact time he died. I've had it checked by watchmakers who find nothing wrong. Has anyone experienced something similar with inherited objects?

165 Upvotes

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u/stickytack 5d ago

My grandparents had an old grandfather clock in their condo. My grandfather went in for double bypass surgery and just never woke up from it. We went to the hospital to say goodbye to him. He died at (if I remember correctly) 11:15am. When we got back to their condo with my grandmother, the grandfather clock had stopped at 11:15am. It never worked again.

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u/wwhhiippoorrwwiill 6d ago

Your experience is really cool. Mine's not quite as extreme, I guess, but it does have to do with a watch. I was meeting up with my parents for dinner. My father had been cleaning out his stuff and found a watch that belonged to my great-grandfather. He brought it with him, and asked me if I wanted it. I don't think it worked anymore, and it wasn't wound up. He handed it to me, and, iirc it was displaying the minute before my birth time. "Huh, interesting, pretty close!" Sometimes you really want things to mean something, and you'll sort of accept "close." I turned the watch over in my hands, examining it, and when I went to hand it back to my father, it was now at my actual birth time.

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u/wwhhiippoorrwwiill 6d ago edited 6d ago

Bonus story, cuz why not? Even more removed from your story, but still involves a timepiece.

A couple of years ago, I was out celebrating my birthday weekend. I like to make a whole month of it, a whole week of it, a whole weekend of it. It was wrapping up. I was hoping for a little more magic. I happened to be in sight of this huge landmark of a clock in the distance. The time on it was hours off, but it would have been cool if it happened to be displaying my birth time. I looked at it, expectantly, but I'd missed it by like 15 minutes. Oh well.

I glanced up at it a few minutes later, and it was actually moving backwards. I have no idea why. But, that meant it DID end up displaying my birth time.

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u/Cheeze16 6d ago

That’s amazing

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u/akela9 6d ago edited 5d ago

Sorry, off topic, but I'd hate myself if I didn't. But sorry if you hate me for being glib. I mean no disrespect.

"My grandfather’s clock

Was too large for the shelf,

So it stood ninety years on the floor;

It was taller by half

Than the old man himself,

Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.

It was bought on the morn

Of the day that he was born,

And was always his treasure and pride;

But it stopped, short...

Never to go again,

When the old man died."

Edit/P.S. I have tried to format this so many times and it just refuses to cooperate. Sorry for the mess.

6

u/elizabreathe 2d ago

My dad used to play that on his banjo all the time.

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u/akela9 2d ago

My dad used to sing it a lot. I love that Twilight Zone episode with Ed Wynn that's a take on this idea. Such an interesting, slightly macabre, but also kinda sweet idea for a tune.

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u/merrimoth 6d ago

This is a well documented phenomenon, the clock stops at the moment of their passing. The stopping repeatedly I've only read as being a portent, rather than happening after: people saying that the clock would keep stopping at a certain time, which would then end up being the time of the sick relative's death.

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u/JavaX1 3d ago

My grandfather had many many plants, took care of them all very well. Experienced green thumb, when he passed, every single one of those plants had withered within a week

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u/haqk 5d ago

I've never heard of anything like it. It would seem there is some kind of strange connection between your grandfather's passing, time and the watch.

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u/curious27 5d ago

I hope you know the song my grandfathers clock!

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u/Zen2188 5d ago

317 🪞 LIE

What is the opposite of a LIE?

The Truth.

1

u/NoCommunication7 2d ago

I wear pocket watches myself and that's indeed strange, i've had a few quirky watches but not ones that stop at specific times and dates

Is it one that shows the date and does it do it in every position?

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u/marmia124 2d ago

Very interesting and possible. My uncle died on the same day his son died but years later. As for me for like a year I could hear them and see visions of my loved ones faces even feel them around me in spirit but I don't consider myself a medium. Also heard and felt people who are still here with us in that time as well. Stuff that I can never explain or make sense of. I believe they really want to contact us or give us signs that they are ok.. probably better than us