Weird4 min(s) read
Published 15:56 12 Aug 2026 GMT
Two US military witnesses say their analogue watch jumped forward by 25 minutes after they encountered an unidentified object, while every digital device around them was completely unaffected.
The account is buried in the Pentagon's latest batch of declassified UFO files, released as part of President Trump's PURSUE programme.
A Harvard physicist has since reviewed the report and said it could point to electromagnetic disruption, a classified military project, or alien technology.
The Pentagon has not explained what happened - and you'd be wise not to hold your breath.
The report, filed through the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, describes an encounter involving two people believed to be US service members based on the details provided.
After observing an unidentified object, one of the witnesses checked his traditional analogue watch and found it was suddenly running 25 minutes fast.
He said he had been looking at the watch throughout the encounter and that the jump in time happened with no explanation.
His companion's digital watch was fine. The dashboard clock in their vehicle was fine. Their mobile phones showed the correct time. Only the analogue watch was affected.
It is one of the stranger details in a batch of files that includes footage of a shapeshifting object in the Middle East, a 'floating brain' filmed over the Atlantic, and a UAP in the Yellow Sea that appeared to degrade the military's own sensor equipment.
Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist at Harvard University who has become one of the most prominent academic voices in the UAP debate, reviewed the report.
You might remember Loeb from the 3I/ATLAS comet news a while ago?
He suggested three possible explanations.
The first is electromagnetic interference.
An object producing a strong enough electromagnetic field could theoretically disrupt the mechanical components of an analogue watch, which relies on physical movement, while leaving digital devices with different internal mechanisms unaffected.
Loeb noted this would require a very specific type of emission.
The second is a classified government black project.
The US military operates experimental aircraft and technology that is not publicly acknowledged.
If the witnesses encountered something from a domestic programme, the electromagnetic signature it produced could have caused the time discrepancy.
The third - and most interesting - is alien technology.
Loeb has been more open than most mainstream scientists to the possibility that some UAP encounters involve non-human intelligence.
He did not say the analogue watch anomaly proves anything, but he listed it as a possibility that should not be dismissed.
The time warp report is not the only account involving triangle-shaped UAPs in the latest files.
A separate report, also from the Pentagon's declassified batch, describes an encounter at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in 2002.
A pilot stationed at the base recalled watching a silent object, estimated at 500 feet across, drift overhead at 4:30am.
As the object passed over, the pilot reported that the stars above him appeared to vanish, as if something enormous was blocking them out. The object made no sound. It moved slowly. Then it was gone.
No identification was made. No explanation was offered.
Trump signed an executive order earlier this year directing the declassification of government records related to UAPs and extraterrestrial life.
The files are being released in batches through the Pentagon's dedicated site at WAR.GOV/UFO.
Four batches have been published since May 8. They include military sensor footage, first-hand witness accounts, historical documents dating back to the 1940s, and reports from intelligence officers, pilots, and FBI agents.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the Department of War was 'in lockstep with President Trump on transparency regarding UAP'.
"These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fuelled justified speculation, and it's time the American people see it for themselves," he said.
The Pentagon has previously stated that it has found no confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial life. It has also said it cannot explain what many of these objects are.
A watch that jumps 25 minutes while every digital clock stays the same falls squarely into the second category.
