My mother was one of those who couldn't wear a watch. When I was in elementary school, she had three mechanical watches break within one year.

The fourth that year was a digital watch (the only battery operated one), and it had all kinds of weird problems. But after Dad started wearing it (in addition to his regular watch), it cleared up and all was working correctly in a few days...until Mom wore it again: It quit working within two days.

As far as the digital watch goes, I'm willing to believe the cheap junk theory. This was about 1980, so even the "expensive" digital watches were basically cheap junk by current standards.

I'm also willing to believe that a blue-collar homemaker wasn't investing in expensive wristwatches. However, four different styles and brands of watches inside 12 months seems a bit much to me.

Furthermore, Dad took the three mechanical ones to an old watchmaker we knew -- we were having an older clock repaired -- and the watchmaker said he'd take a look just for the fun of it: he'd known my mother since she was born, and he didn't have much else to do in his retirement anyway. However, we were to all understand that these women who couldn't wear watches -- well, that's just an old wives' tale, probably invented by women who wanted a handy excuse for being chronically late. (Mom was always late -- that happens when you've got babies in the house -- but she didn't *want* to be late, which is why she kept buying watches.)

When Dad went to pick up the clock (which is still working perfectly, twenty-five years later), the watchmaker looked bemused and said that ALL THREE of the "broken" watches had metal parts that were magnetized. Not that Mom was magnetized herself, but that all three watches had gears or springs or whatever little metal bits in them that you could pick up by putting any piece of plain iron nearby.

Mom stayed at home with two babies all day long. Unlike my father (and me: we're both in the "clumsy ox" category), she didn't bump into stuff. There aren't a heck of a lot of ways to magnetize little pieces of iron when your day is spent folding laundry, feeding babies, and vacuum floors.

I'm willing to believe that Mom's watches broke: we all saw that happen. What I want to know is how did three watches in a row end up with magnetized watchworks inside them?

(The fifth watch, BTW, was a mostly plastic-and-rubber contraption. It worked for a couple of years, but she never wore it more than one day each week. She worried that if she wore it regularly, it might end up with magnetized parts as well.)