Turn Any Watch Into A Prediction Tool!

It’s a Sunday, and you’re out for coffee with a friend of yours, and eventually, they ask you to show them a trick. You’ve been patiently waiting the entire time for them to request such of you.

Moments later, a deck of cards is being riffle shuffled before their eyes and placed face down on the table. Then, you remove your incredibly good-looking analogue watch and look intently at its second-hand moving around-the-clock face.

You pause, you seem nervous, and then it all fades away as you pull out the crown of your watch. “I’ve just made a prediction,” you say calmly. “Now, I need you to make three decisions — first, red or black?”

You have your friend's full attention. First, the shuffling, then the watch prediction and now a choice of red or black. They choose Red, and then they choose hearts and then they choose the six of hearts. After deciding upon colour, suit, and value, they’ve now generated a randomly thought of playing card.

You, the magician, have not once touched the crown of your watch since you pulled it out to lock in your prediction moments ago. Slowly and fairly, you turn the watch to face your friend. They can see the second-hand points directly towards the number eighteen.

After a few moments of silence, you turn the focus and energy towards the shuffled deck on the table. You ask your friend to deal down eighteen cards. When they reach the eighteenth card, they turn it over…

It’s their freely named card.

It’s the six of hearts.

Thunderous applause from all coffee shop goers.

Time Prediction Watches

I adore the idea of using a watch for prediction effects. “Time Machine Watches” have been around for a very, very long time. They’re incredibly commercial because we like to buy and wear watches. We feel comfortable asking family members to gift us a watch. More so than we might do asking family members to give us any other magic trick.

And watches are an excellent prop for magic because they feel analogue by nature. They often tie to memories or have been passed down to us. The concept of time resonates and can be linked to important memories.

The most recently released time machine watches use digital remotes to trigger the hands to move to specific times. Earlier methods involve the hands moving at speed, with the performer starting and stopping the hands. My favourite self contained trigger for this was a simple button within the band.

This Christmas, I received a regular Timex watch. I’ve spent the last few weeks occasionally staring down at it and wondering how to adapt it for magic.

Watch Stopping

Magicians have been stopping watches for decades. This might be one of the most impressive tricks you can do with a borrowed item. It’s also the most underperformed magic trick within our community. Sure, it may or may not magnetise a watch and cause it to run fast. There is a way to demagnetise a watch, by the way.

Paul Zenon performed the best televised watch stop. He combined the effect with a pulse stop, another brilliant and underperformed magic effect.

In one hand, Zenon held the watch of one spectator as a second spectator took his pulse. Slowly his pulse stopped altogether, and so did the watch. It’s a brilliant example of combining tricks to create something unique. All he did was combine two great tricks, and now he kinda owns this routine.

As a teen, I built a magnet inside the strap of my wristwatch. Then, I’d hold the watch out fairly by its leather straps. I could pause the watch on command by squeezing my fingers. The magnet in the band would come into contact with the back of the watch face. Boom. Watch stops. Baby miracle.

I soon realised that a watch stop is undeniably better with a borrowed watch.

Ten years later, I was sitting staring at my new Timex. I remembered this magnet in the watch strap idea. Perhaps it was a great method, combined with the wrong effect. Sure, stopping your own watch isn’t as cool as stopping a spectator’s. But when it comes to predictions, it’s perfectly normal to use your own watch.

Magicians have spent hundreds of dollars on time machine watches, and they’ve been performing with them — so I might be onto a good idea here.

I used a knife to open the canvas strap. Then I carefully inserted 2mm magnets one by one. I stopped only when I had the total strength needed to pause the watch on cue. Then I used contact glue to seal the combined magnets inside the band.

Playing Card Stacks

I got a full-time job working on Dynamo’s creative team when I was nineteen. The entourage around magicians like Dynamo and Blaine often help elevate magic. I’m not just talking about their big projects; I’m on about their everyday life. They’re constantly performing magic for friends, clients and interviewers.

It’s normal for a good consultant to be put-pocketing and setting up reveals. They might even sneak into the kitchen and hide a playing card inside an orange. Dynamo wanted me to learn mnemonica while I worked with him. He thought it would be a fun way for me to engage and help his card performances. I did not learn mnemonica while I worked with him. Maybe one day I will.

Do you know mnemonica? I’d genuinely love to know.

So, mnemonica is a stacked deck created by Juan Tamariz. You can use a memorised deck order to perform this watch prediction. After the spectator names the card aloud, continue your presentation for up to 52 seconds. With the watch facing you, stop it as the second-hand gets to the correct position.

If you don’t know Mnemonica, you can use magic trick stickers.

You could always use an easier method altogether. It’s a stack that requires zero memory work. Something every magician is used to handling. It’s a stack that playing card companies prepare for you. I’m talking about “new deck” order. That’s the order sealed decks of cards arrive in.

I would perhaps suggest one alteration. Prepare the deck such that red cards are in the first half and black in the second. This is the reason why the spectator chooses their card step by step. By asking them to name a colour, suit, and value, you give yourself time.

Start with the watch stopped a few seconds before 0. If they say black, you know the second hand needs to end above 26 seconds. This is because the black cards are in the second half of the pack. So, if they name black, you can start the second-hand ticking immediately.

By organising the deck in such a way and phrasing the question in three parts, you minimise the time you need to stall after the selection gets made. That’s the time necessary between their final decision and the second hand reaching the correct position on the watch.

Some Notes

I believe square-shaped magnets might be more well hidden within the band. There’s also something to be said for not embedding the magnet. Instead, you could glue it to the inside of the strap. The audience doesn’t see this part of the band.

By choosing to do so, you will not need such a thick, strong magnet as there won’t be the barrier of a band between the magnet and the watch. This would make the watch band more normal looking. I’d maybe paint the magnet to match the colour of the strap.

I like predicting playing card positions because if you happen to stop the watch one second late, you can ask the spectator to deal down eighteen cards and look at the next card instead.

Josh Janousky suggested using this method for a force. To do so, you’d first show the watch ticking normally. Face the watch towards yourself and use the magnet to stop it on the desired force time.

Then turn the watch face down and ask the spectator to pull the crown when the time feels right. It doesn’t matter when the crown gets pulled, as the hands are already locked in place.

Another presentation I like is to leave the watch face down on the table. Placing it such that the band lays over the watch back, pausing the hands in place. Then, you ask the spectator to tell you when to lift the watch by the band. They’ll need to see what the seconds hand points to as you do so quickly.

I like this because it’s a force, but the second hand is in motion when you lift it. The fact the hands continue to tick makes this force feel fair.