Promiscuous watches. Every watch maker now needs to stock a bottle of Bergeon penicillin. Only $500 a pill.
I used to belong to a mushroom foragers club, once a year they would have a Survivor’s Banquet. I always found the name of that event to be completely hilarious.
I hadn't thought about it till now but I've mentioned knocking a rhinestone loose with a Q-tip while cleaning the dial of a Benrus, what I didn't mention was that I was clearing away a deposit of a jet black fibrous material. The rest of the watch inside and out was clean as a pin, so whatever this stuff was is a mystery to me. It was fluffy like lint or cobweb and bone dry. Perhaps it was a long dead fungus of some sort. No lume at all on that dial.
So then technically you’re ground zero. Good. The burden is off my shoulders. Sounds just as weird though. Super weird.
Here's a shot of one I found on the inside of the caseback of a 1940s rolled gold pocket watch. When I first opened it, there was a tiny white fluffy bush, radiating out from a central spot. I cleaned the caseback with a Towntalk cloth and noticed the etching into the surface plating that the fungusy growth had made. There were other spots, some not as well developed and all seeming to radiate from a small central spot. Alien spores? A sub-atomic city that I carelessly destroyed? Old time watchmakers sneeze residue? We shall never know.
Wet season we get mould on top of mould. Have seen black leather straps turn a fluffy green in a week if left out...
If you're near a university I'd take the watch to the Chemistry, Materials, Mineralogy, Geology, Biology, (I don't know what) Departments and ask whether they would be willing to analyse a sample. They might be crystals. See this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acicular_(crystal_habit) I'm sure we'd all love to find out what it is.
I've seen that sort of thing in a tub of yogurt that Annie left on the back of the bottom shelf of the fridge once.
