Does anybody have any ideas for impromtu/almost impromtu effects using a NORMAL watch?

Stopping Watches by Magic or PK time!

You can mess up your or your spectator's watch doing this! While the effects may not be immediately visible, it can damage the internal mechanisms as well as drain the battery. DO NOT DO IT!

Do some watch steals, have a vanished coin reappear under their watch, but don't stop it with a M*****!

Obviously if you stop the watch you must be very careful. Stop it for just few seconds or the watch will have irreversible damage. Also, I forgot in the previous post watch stealing...it requires a good practice.

Martin Gardner's Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic suggests 20 tricks with a normal watch (pp 565-9).

Purchase Richard Osterlind's first DVD in the Mind Mysteries set. His "Watch Routine" is very powerful.

Nicholas

Paul Harris has a bit in his AoA series whereby you give your watch to a waiter in a restaurant and ask him to walk away and set your watch to any time that he likes. You write down a prediction on a napkin for the person(s) you are dining with. When the waiter brings your watch back, he hands it to your companions who will see that you have correctly predicted the time the waiter chose, TO THE MINUTE. It's a really neat thing to see.

Jay

Watches—the Watch Trick Jay refers to appeared in my book Magic With Everyday Objects page 142-3, copyright 1976 and is still in print. It pre-dates the reference you offer. Lee Noble of NY used to do this and and he learned it years before. It still works.

George Schindler

Useing the sylvester move change a coin to a watch.

Peter

Thanks for the correct reference, George. I only know the trick from Harris' book, so I am glad to know the original credit. It is a great trick.


Best,
Jay

Larry Davidson has a watch he sells (13 left) that is a NORMAL everyday watch that has a special feature.
This is a GREAT looking watch and a very popular brand name. It is also a Swiss made watch. The feature in this watch was put there by the manufactuer and a magician discovered that you could use it for a prediction.
I have been killing people with this and the best thing is there is NO magician's guilt involved because it is NORMAL!
Go to... The Good the Bad and the Ugly and look at the review on TimeTrix. He posted there about HIS watch. His watch is NOT the TimeTrix watch. His is SO different!
Check it out!

Tim

Many SWATCH brand watches can be used to do an Impromptue time prediction effect. This is detailed in The Collected Almananc and in Life Savers by Michael Weber.

The effect title in Almanac is "Swatch This", if memory serves.

How about a coin trick with a, like the dime and penny, where the dime or some other vanished coin appears under your watch.

I've never had the patience to practice or the nerve to do a watch steal, but this would be jaw-dropping. You probably need to do other effects first to establish yourself as a magician and not a thief or a pick-pocket.