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What makes the watch steal so difficult? Chappy brazil makes it look easy. I've been practicing it like crazy ever since I got the DVD! Not with misdirection, but just getting the watch on and off. I can't FATHOM how they do not feel it come off! I've heard before that you have to apply pressure to get the watch off, but chappy doesn't mention this on the buckle type. For now, I'm only practicing the watch steal on buckle type watches.

Is it OK to ask what would be good for misdirection for the watch steal? And what makes this magical effect so hard? I'm guessing it's the misdirection.

One member told me it will take me YEARS (yes, YEARS!) before I'll ever be able to do a succesful watch steal. I don't think it will take years to pull off a succesful watch steal, maybe a month or two, but again I think it depends on how much practice you put in it. I think it WOULD, however, take years to master.

heh - I never practiced once, never got a dvd, just watched Blaine do it. I went out and...well...did it.

This isn't something you can really practice - your watch will be unlike anybody elses (bar those who have the same) - even some buckles are nigh on impossible to get off.

So basically - screw the practice element and fear of them fealing it - just go out and bloody well nick the damn thing. If you fail - who cares?

and when it comes to covering the watch as you take it off? haha - I don't! If, for example, the watch is on their left wrist, I take that, grab it with my right hand, remove it, move by body forwards as i take the watch back, behind my back, give it to my left hand, and plant it either in my pocket/on their shoulder as i move them forwards.

Never fails

have not seen the DVD, although I cant believe it hasnt got any information on how to get the watch without them spotting.

Sponge ball routines are good for this, as are some coin routines.

The best way really to learn the direction needed for this feat is to watch someone skilled at it actually do it

I've got the Chappy Brazil DVD and it does cover all the elements needed, except one thing... A REAL PERSON.

The best way to do this is to actually go and try it (as entertainment of course) - I used to practice with my own watch on my other wrist and it's nothing like actually trying it - for a start, you can't turn your wrist towards you the same way as if someone was in front of you. You can't misdirect yourself either (I don't think).

Try on some friends and family as part of a small routine. It's about gaining their trust and knowing how they'll take misdirection.

Try it - good luck!

An experienced pickpocket told me he gets caught 30 percent of the time. I was quite surprised by this high percentage. No wonder pickpockets use stooges so often.

mark lewis wrote:An experienced pickpocket told me he gets caught 30 percent of the time. I was quite surprised by this high percentage. No wonder pickpockets use stooges so often.

This comes as no surprise really. Considering that people are a tad more vigilant these days, with the scourge on the streets, pickpocketing and watch grabbing are a lot harder.

I'm no expert on the matter at all, but I'd always assumed the misdirection came from bombardment of patter coupled with 'larger' physical contact somewhere else on the person, e.g. a firmer grip on the other wrist. A large action covers a small one or similar.

I have attempt watch steal only on family and friends and i was not really sucesfull due to a lack of training on the first move when you take the label out of the loop.

Ive learn the technic from On The Spot video by Gregory Wilson and what i can say about it is that.

First thing to do is to make the person used to you touching his arms/shoulders. So many tricks require to place someone hands in a particular position you could even add it in some other tricks wich doesnt require it.

You will have to build lots of confidence in your (victim) so touching him/her 2 or 3 times in diferents tricks for diferents reason should work in your favor. You will understand that you cant steal everyone matches but some people are more receptive then others.

For the misdirection well, you have to take the person wrist in your hand (again) so what is really important is that your hand is not taking his wrist for no reason. So stealing the watch while you place the arm then put something in this hand.

When you want to release the wrist ask your spec to actually do something so he get busy with it and doesnt bother about his watch. Just asking to close the fingers on the (sponge ball) should be enuff for a second misdirection but you could as well extend his arm slightly with your other hand. So the watch just stay in your hand rather then been (steal).

Everyone will agree on 1 thing, you will get caught often, specially at begining but everyone is always impressed by a good demonstration of pick-pocketing.

A nice way of doing it is doing
a real, or fake card transpo i always use my version of the ultimate card transpo..

then i do the thing where i tell him to tell me number between 10 and 20, take both there wrists, (put a little more pressure on the one without the watch)
and hit their fists(holding the cards) the number of times they told u against each other in a large motion (don't bother to hit a little harder to get misdirection)
and then while doing that u got to coordinate urself stealling the watch...

thats for the leather bands.. u can do crocodile clips after a while the same way, but i use spongeball routines for it, just do a multiplication where they hold ur left hand with they're right arm and then the two balls u put in their left hand become one and u have two in your hand.... just do it in an exciting matter, tell him to look at ur hand (really bold) after u revealed that one of their balls is missing)

Presentation is everything here, try to make it to seem as impossible as possible (what-a-sentence). Try to make the routine with a nice presentation, before u go out and steal watches with it..

so long
danny

A little update. After my friend magician and I have been practicing the watch steal on ourselves, my friend went to walgreens and tried it on 3 people. He did it on 2 spectators which had a buckle type, and 1 with the flip-tab (the easiest). He failed each time! He got close with the flip-tab though, he was able to remove it without them noticing, but then the spectator heard the noise of the flip-tab watch in his hand and caught him. I was surprised on how cool they were with it. One spectator said "Hey, why you taking my watch?" and he said "I have to make a living somehow..." or "It looked better in the magic shop..."

I think I know why it's not working. First and foremost, it's probably practice. This watch stealing can take years or months to master and requires alot of misdirection! Also, something I noticed when he was performing the watch steal on me: You ask the spectator (or me in this case) to put out their hands palm up. The "head" of the watch (what I mean by the head is the actual watch timepiece, not the bad) is on the top of the wrist and is not showing when their palms are up. The band is showing. So are we doing something wrong? Because when you remove the buckle type watch you can clearly see the watch being taken off! Why? Because you have to pull back the pin of the watch to release it, and if the whole hand doesn't cover the watch the whole time to mask this, then you will obviously see their hand removing the watch.

When I saw chappy do it it looked like his hand was COVERING FULLY the spectators watch the whole time! But in the demonstration the hand doesn't fully cover the watch! (When he explains it)

Am I doing it wrong? Or do I just have to misdirection them better? You can clearly see the hand removing the watch when their hands are palm up. So I don't see how this is possible to pull off...

I have them looking at a card/coin in the other hand whilst performing the steel. Having never seen the dvd in question I can;t comment on his technique...I'm probably using an entirley different method. Either way...I don't provide cover. I just do it, and make them look at the other hand

Blapsing_Beard wrote:I have them looking at a card/coin in the other hand whilst performing the steel. Having never seen the dvd in question I can;t comment on his technique...I'm probably using an entirley different method. Either way...I don't provide cover. I just do it, and make them look at the other hand

Very interesting. You amaze me. How many of these watch steals have you succesfully pulled off? This stuff ain't easy for me.
Of course, I've never tried it on a spectator yet. My friend has...I think I'm a little better than my magician friend though.

Thanks again, I'll try this!

indeed. I do this often. What I did is tried it on a kid - age 10 - I used to be a play worker

That got my confidence up. I practiced on a few drunk people - that makes it easier. Then i got the technique down (well...whatever you call what I do ) and do it very often now. The amount of watches I knicked at Reading Festival, and pout on the shoulder, was countless! It is very fun to do, when you get it down!

Blapsing_Beard wrote:indeed. I do this often. What I did is tried it on a kid - age 10 - I used to be a play worker

That got my confidence up. I practiced on a few drunk people - that makes it easier. Then I got the technique down (well...whatever you call what I do ) and do it very often now. The amount of watches I knicked at Reading Festival, and pout on the shoulder, was countless! It is very fun to do, when you get it down!

Hi Blapsing_Beard,
That's really awesome! Do you have AIM or MSN messenger, yahoo messenger so we could chat? My AIM is LordWarclaidhm, MSN and yahoo are spacetimecont@yahoo.com

Could you tell me your technique? What do you say to make them look at the other hand? What misdirection techniques do you use? What do you say? Do you use cards, coins, or sponges? Do you hold both of their hands and shake them like david blaine did?

Just got this good news. My friend jesse who's been practicing the watch steal with me went to walgreens and he tried to steal a watch again. He did it! He succesfully stole a buckle type watch without the spectator knowing! And guess what, the spectator let him have it! Heh