... most of us know about "discharging" ourselves before opening and handling electronic boards and installation in electronic devices due to "ruining" the circuitry by electrostatic discharge.
...My last watch was a spiffy multi-gear multi-dial moon phase Seiko. And guess what. In not too long a time it stopped working. It "froze up". The "froze up" being the little metal wheels were differentially (being different metal alloy parts) magnetized by my body. My body killed it.
Lots of people say this happens to them, and give a variety of explanations; but static electricity shouldn't affect a movement while it's in its case, and beyond static, there's nothing in human physiology that can produce a significant electrical or magnetic field, nor has such a field been evidenced in research studies (Kirlian photography & so-called 'auras' are different phenomena). Even the most sensitive instruments, like EEG machines, can only detect the combined electrical activity of the 80 billion neurons in the brain by sticking electrodes to the scalp; likewise, the sensitive sensors that detect the myoelectrical activity of arm or leg muscles for prosthetic limb control need good electrical contact with the skin. If the body was producing electromagnetic fields strong enough to stop or magnetise watches, these devices would be swamped and fail, and there would be a major outcry about failures of medical monitors and other devices both in and out of hospitals. We are not electric eels, we just don't have the physiological means to generate significant EMF.
There are other, perhaps simpler and less interesting, possible explanations for these reports; jewelers often
blame the watch; there are environmental effects, how the watch is worn and used - temperature & humidity changes and physical shocks; most watches are fairly well protected against external normal electrical or magnetic fields, but some people spend time near heavy duty electrical equipment. There is the law of large numbers - in a sizeable population, most will experience an average number of failures, some will see very few, if any, and some will see a lot.
There is also the influence of cognitive biases; for example, if you have a watch fail after some years, you'll generally replace it. If the replacement fails within a short time, it may seem like two failures in a short time, there's a tendency to forget the time from initial purchase of the first. If the next replacement fails after a year or so, a similar effect may occur, where the sense of elapsed time is truncated by a seemingly fresh memory of the previous failures. These kinds of effects may be exaggerated by
selective perception; the
priming effect, where earlier stories affect your interpretation of new events; 'groupthink', e.g. the
bandwagon effect, from talking to or reading about others who report similar experiences; the
clustering illusion, where significance is read into random streaks or clusters of events;
confirmation bias which causes selectivity in favour of existing ideas & beliefs; combined with memory distortion effects, and not forgetting biases that make people unwilling to change their views despite contrary evidence - such as
conservatism bias.
These are subconscious biases everyone is susceptible to and they're hard to avoid. I do accept that I'm open to accusations of
bias blind spot, but I do try my best to spot and make some allowance for my own biases, which is really all any of us can do. Being aware of them is half the battle.
