For years credit cards would demagnetize if I put them in a pocket
instead of my purse. It took a while to figure out why my gas cards
were constantly being replaced, until I noticed that I was more likely
to slide one in the pocket of my jeans because my purse was still in
the car. When I stopped doing that I stopped frying cards.
In the last year I've been diagnosed with an arachnoid cyst and other
neuro problems with lots of testing and no specific answers. Nerve
blocks stopped the headaches and life goes on. However, in the last
year I have not been able to keep any of my watches (all battery
driven, a variety of makes and price ranges). I replaced all the
batteries six months ago and they are all dead again and have been for
months.
This weekend I carried my cell phone in the pocket on my khakis on a
road trip. When I got there the phone was dead. Would not turn on.
When I plugged it in to the charger, it came on said it was Fully
Charged and ran fine. I put it back into my pocket the next day for
only about an hour and it was again dead and had to be resuscitated in
the same way.
This isn't a friend of a friend story. It's happening to me ... and
making me a little crazy. Any clue?

Perhaps 1% of the planets population has paranormal experiences
occasionally or frequently. Stopped watches, cellphones and erased
magnetic strips are just three of many.(Are you also scrabling
non-magnetic laser read strips?)Mainstream science and medicine ignore
these phenomonon. Most of the 'experts' who do research this sort of
thing are more or less con artists who are in it for the money, so I
am not very hopeful you will find good answers. Not enough persons
share your afflictions to make extensive research likely to prove
profitable.  Neil

When you put things in your pocket, your hips/legs are moving around a
lot, making a lot of static electricity and friction. This could
easily wear out your credit cards faster than when you put them in
your purse. Likewise static buildup could affect your cell phone. As
for watch batteries going dead, any time your neurons fire and your
muscles contract, there is an electrical field change that occurs and
is measurable on the skin. This could be influencing the watch
battery. Furthermore, any time you have a charged particle moving (as
ions in your blood) in a magnetic field (the earth's magnetic field),
it creates a force on the particle... but I'm not sure that could
influence a watch. Anyway, I don't know the exact explanation, but I
do not think science and medicine "ignore" this phenomenon, but
there's probably not a clear explanation of it right now. Part of it
also could be perception-- not to discount what you're saying, because
I believe it can happen-- but the more you are looking for weird
things the more you'll see them.

I have to believe there is a scientific rather than paranormal
explanation and wish I understood more about neurons etc. I have been
through A LOT of electro-magnetic imaging in recent months and would
almost expect this to be tied to my neuro challenges.
Two problems with the static theory... this is South Georgia where
things are slow, wet and sticky this time of year. Every time I go
back north, especially in the winter, I'm reminded that static
electricity exists. But I have two old housecats here who have never
been shocked when pet ( a favorite torture my baby brother had with
our cat in New York). We deal with mold and mildew, not static.  The
cell phone had just been replaced after a long hassle with T-Mobile
when the last one went completely dead for no reason. They couldn't
figure out what happened to it, but could see it hadn't been dropped,
damaged or wet. They had a big show of checking out the new phone, and
we have three identical models for other members of our households
that have operated without problem. This one died after sitting in a
loose, deep pocket as I sat virtually still for four hours as a
passenger.
The good news... I have fillings and don't get radio stations or other
messages... ;>