“Is This a Thor Watch?” — Watch Stuck to Counter Top and Won’t Come Off
Published Dec. 3 2023, 8:30 a.m. ET
Two people had their own sword in the stone moment, albeit with much lower stakes, which they chronicled in a viral TikTok that's accrued over 980,000 views on the popular social media platform.
Neek (@astoldbyneek) uploaded a video that shows her and a man, presumably her partner, struggling to remove a watch that, for some reason, was completely stuck to a countertop surface. She left users befuddled as to how they were unable to move the watch, which was so strongly fixed to the counter that attempting to pull it off physically moved the board beneath it.
"Ok we cannot get this watch off it's not sticky or anything it's very, everything's very clean. I think it's a magnet. It's giving..."
At this point in the video the man who was attempting to free the watch from its magnetized grip states, "It's literally moving the whole thing," he says, referencing the fact that the counter top it's affixed to appears to move.
"What?" the woman says after attempting several times to pull the watch off. The guy grabs the watch from both straps and laughs as he fecklessly tries to pull it up.
"I don't wanna mess up the wood with the," he says, gripping a knife in his hand that he presumably was attempting to use to wedge between the countertop and the watch.
"What the f---?" the woman says again as she attempts to twist the watch off the counter to break the seal. "Okay, okay, I think there's something in here," she concedes as she taps the back of the timepiece.
At this point in the conversation, they begin to try and check out the situation. The man says that there's no way a watch is magnetic as the two discuss the possibility of there being something in the counter or the cupboard setup beneath it that is interacting with the watch in this fashion.
"There's a million different parts in a watch they'd all be screwy if it was magnetic," the man says again as he attempts to move the accessory again. He then returns to the butter knife tactic but this time, he actually begins to slide it beneath the watch.
He starts to tap it against the edge of the watch to no avail. "What the hell," the woman says as the man in the video inspects the watch further, looking around it. "It's like spot welded to that spot but I've had that, I've never sat that down and had it stick to anything."
The woman begins to rub the counter top, "Well there's no, there's nothing sticky, we haven't even eaten here," she says as she tries to twist it again but to no avail.
"What in the absolute..." the man says before the video ultimately cuts out.
In a follow-up video, Neek shows the counter in question and it is noticeably missing the watch that was infamously stuck so stoutly to the surface.
"Ok, part 2 of the watch dilemma." In the clip, she responds to a comment posted by a user who responded to the first video.
The person wrote: "It's melted to the polyurethane finish. try putting some nail polish remover in a puddle around it and let it soak for a few," they penned.
Neek confirmed that this was at least somewhat true. "This comment is partially right. Everytime we walk in the house we wipe down our phones and our watches with some type of alcohol or any type of disinfectant wipe."
She continued, "However, this watch was suctioned to the top of this counter top. I've never seen anything like it. I was the one that ended up getting it off and you just heard like a [she makes a pop noise] and we were both like what?! Someone said that I had a 200lb magnet under here."
Neek opened the bottom of her drawer to show that this wasn't the case: it was just filled with kitchen utensils and various cookware. "Sir this is New York City I don't have to get that and bring it up these stairs that's ridiculous. Other people were saying we glued it. Listen this is the countertop this is the only space we have why would I waste that space and resources."
She then divulged what the secret behind the mystery of the sticking watch was: "It was truly just suctioned on there."
So it was just a case of pressure, at the end of the day, caused by a bit of liquid in whatever disinfectant they used on the watch and the way that the watch was constructed: the small, perfectly round and even groove of the watch face, created a vacuum effect.