Spooked by Rolex that stopped dead

SOME months after the death of my partner in San Francisco in 1987, friends persuaded me to hold a weekend garage sale. The idea was to raise money for charity by selling off clothing and unwanted effects. We sorted and priced the items to be sold, and advertised the event in the neighbourhood for 9am to 5pm on the designated Saturday and 10.30am to 4pm on the Sunday. Shortly after the sale started on the first day, I noticed the watch I was wearing — the expensive Rolex that had belonged to my partner — had stopped at 9am exactly. Nothing I did could get it going again. One of my friends who was helping with the sale joked it was my partner’s way of expressing his disapproval of what we were doing! To our amazement, as soon as the sale finished at 5pm, the watch started working again. I adjusted it to the correct time and forgot about it. But even the most sceptical of us was given pause for thought when, on the Sunday morning, the watch stopped dead on 10.30am and restarted when we finished the sale at 4pm. The next day I had it checked by a local watchmaker, who pronounced it to be in perfect working order. It continued to work without a problem until I lost it while swimming in the sea 18 months later.

Bob Readman, Bournemouth, Dorset.