Soo...where did the watch come from?

Lol. There's always a flaw in time travel movies. You found it!

Well, I think there's always a flaw in our understanding of time. I liked the anomaly of the watch - quite fitting that the centerpiece of the paradox was a timepiece. A gorgeous one, at that. A gorgeous film all around.

This paradox occurs in a lot of movies about time travel (I believe it's called an "ontological paradox"), though this particular example might be the most audacious one I've ever seen. The Richard Matheson novel on which the movie is based doesn't include this plot point; there is an antique watch that Richard receives from young Elise, but that's about it.

Yet the novel contains subtler examples of the same paradox. For example, he finds an old hotel record with the name "R.C. Collier," which confirms for him that he was present in the past. After he travels back in time, he signs his name at the hotel desk as "R.C. Collier," exactly as he remembers how his name was signed in the record--despite the fact that he normally doesn't sign his name that way. So what was the cause of his irregular way of writing his name? It wasn't a decision he made on his own; he was just imitating the way that he knew he did write it. So, just like the watch, his choice seems to have been created out of nothing.

Well, time travel itself is impossible, of course. At least at this time. And via hypnosis? Hardly. Still, this paradox is one of the most dramatic moments in the movie. I got to meet Susan French once, and she talked about how she got the role. They told her she didn't have much of a speaking part but no one would ever forget what she said during her scene. They were right!

BTW, if anyone watched Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, there's a nice touch in an episode called "Return Engagement" where her former fiance arrives in town and looks at his pocketwatch. There's the enigmatic picture of Elise staring up at him.

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"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)