Why does a watch stop when someone dies?

Question

I often see in TV and movies that they know the time of death because a watch or clock stops. Is this just something that happens in the movies and TV, or does it really happen? and if so, why?

Answer 1

Definitely fiction. Only in the Twilight Zone where I saw that.

Answer 2

Some watches have stopped indicating time of death when the death is caused by a great impact such as an automobile accident or falling from a height. Even the speedometer on some cars has been frozen by an impact indicating the speed the car was traveling at when it hit. Other than those scenarios, there is no correlation with death and a watch stopping. On the other hand...there is an old song about a Grandfather's clock that stopped "never to go again, when the old man died".

Answer 3

Mechanical clock (like mechanical wrist watch) can stop after a shock, like falling or bullet hitting the body. Quartz clocks do not stop.

Pendulum clocks also stop when an earthquake occurs.

What can be seen in the movies or TV is the remnant from old times, when the clock was carried in pocket, so, when a man is killed by any mean, he would fell down in such way that made the pocket watch stop. Today it is not applicable, but still is of a great help to the screenplay writers.

Answer 4

The reason a watch or clock SOMETIMES stops is because it was broken at the moment of death -- usually by the same traumatic force that killed the wearer. For example, a car crash, or leaping out the window. But today's watches are so sturdy, they seldom stop unless the trauma was severe enough to break them. So, the bottom line is, it's a handy device to establish time of death in movies or TV shows, but it doesn't work as neatly in real life.

Answer 5

In some countries, when somebody dies, lets say in his bed or so, the family or friend or somebody stops a watch or all the watches. It is just something simbolic. A watch does not stop because somebody dies.
The other posibility, the person has a kinetic watch, and it would stop movin kind of 24 hours after the person stops moving (dead people do not move a lot)

Answer 6

This is not just in the movies, nor does the watch only stop if damaged or on the person who died. My husband was murdered . I was witness to his murder. Both his watch and mine stopped within a minute of each other. This has been one of many facts that have messed with my head over the years and no one seems to be able to explain why it happens.

Answer 7

watches do stop after a period of time if you are talking about a wrist watch.as a matter of fact a wrist watch works on the principle of resonance.the clock ticks in resonance with the pulse of the human body by deriving a minimum amount of power from the internal battery.when a person dies his pulse stops . consequently the watch does not work in sync. with the pulse eventually the ticking dies out and hence the watch stops.

Answer 8

No, this really happened when my grandmother died! She had lots of clocks in her home, probably 10 that had to be hand-wound, and they stopped on the exact time when she died. I don't know why, and I don't really think anyone would believe me, either. But I know it happened. Of course, clocks that must be wound by hand are going to stop when no one winds them up, but not all at the exact same time.

Answer 9

That happens in the movies and TV only

Answer 10

No, watches don't stop when someone dies. It used to be customary to stop the grandfather clock when a member of the household died, but as most people no longer own grandfather clocks, the custom is no longer in use.

Answer 11

This is an unproven myth. Watches will not stop when someone dies. By what logical mechanism could a watch suddenly stop upon ones death. This is way too far fetched and obviously not true.