What’s the worst watch damage you’ve experienced?

I dropped a Victorinox watch on a tile bathroom floor way back in December 2001... It smashed into pieces and being young and dumb I just threw it out rather than sending it for repair. 

It was my first "nice" watch, costing somewhere close to $500 CAD back then. After that I went back to my trusty Timex digital watches or gifted Eco-Drives until I got back into watches in 2019. 

Took a Timex to a hotel pool. Had one more miniature aquarium and one less watch afterwards.

Changed the battery on a Seiko Kinetic. The battery was covered by a small bridge, and I didn't realize the bridge was under tension. Neither screw nor bridge were seen again.

All I can say I hate hardlex crystals.

Went swimming with a Citizen and like @hbein2022 was a new owner of an aquarium. 

Did hard labor (sledgehammering) with my quartz Invicta chronograph. Cracked the crystal and pretty much broke the chronograph, but the watch still kept time. 

Smashed glass twice, both at work.

Both times I upgraded to saphire glass on the repair.

Also dived into the sea when it was cold, condensation on inside of glass. I had the watch cleaned and dried out, all good after that. 

my hand slipped while regulating my SRP777 and I broke the balance. 😭

Hasn't happened to me, but I have nightmares about it when I'm about to regulate a watch.

I was readjusting the bracelet on a ceramic Citizen and I tapped the pin too hard into the collar and a piece of a link snapped off. Opened my eyes on how weak that ceramic was and made me re-assess if I wanted to upgrade to a more expensive ceramic watch.

BUT, I messaged Citizen, and they are sending me a link for free (valued at $25). This is also a discontinued model.

I had a timex ironman that had normal lugs attaching the strap to its plastic case. I was at a Rock climbing gym and dropped it to the padded ground (intentionally), thinking it would be fine. The one lug snapped clean off the case when it hit the ground. luckily some super glue put it back together and I used it for another year.

I dropped a Rado ceramic on a hard slate tile flood and the case broke at the lug and the clasp broke. Repaired by Rado - new case and clasp. 

Have also replaced a couple of mineral crystals.  

Yeah, financially the biggest issue was my attempt to regulate a 7S26 and not heeding the warnings about the really really delicate hairspring.

But I mourn the Timex Camper from my teens when I was unaware that the little "water resistant" waves logo on the dial did not actually mean that it was at all safe for swimming and diving. It was a valuable lesson honestly. I learned not to submerge watches, and that hasn't happened any more. Except for that cheapo Chinese Winner watch that somehow fogged up from atmospheric moisture. I thought putting it on a cooling coffee warmer would help dry it out. I thought I'd turned it off. 

Not watches but I recently broke an expensive 4k Samsung TV while trying to replace the internal LED backlight. which was upsetting because I can't afford a replacement at the moment.

I got it for free but still my current monitor is complete garbage. 

I dropped a Yema Superman on the tiled floor in the bathroom. The movement immediately stopped. Shaking the watch to see if it could be restarted resulted in a terrible grinding sound from the rotor.

I had to send it to Yema and got it back 3 weeks later.

I've messed up multiple movements over the years doing farm work. The worst of which resulted in a replacement movement in a Hamilton Khaki Field Auto (Still wear it a lot though)

I have broken a few crystals as well, mostly doing farm work. The weird one is the fact that weld spatter hasn't cracked the mineral crystal on a G-shock 5600, it just makes weird melted divots.

Left my vintage Tissot in the car while going to the beach on a very hot summer day, didn't want it to get wet or sandy - when I came back the crystal had melted! 

I flooded my Orient when I went swimming with it. The stupid thing was I didin't realise to take it to the store since it was rated 100m wr.

I once had a swatch wear it to Six Flags strap broke off one one of the rides lost the watch had the other piece of strap. I was not too upset about it because it was my only one beater watch hated that it happen unexpectedly day in Six Flags felt naked with out it. 

Boom

Good idea on putting watch on/off above a bed or sofa!  I do the same, not just out of concern for crystal, but concern for hairspring!

My 100m Seiko sailing watch I dove into the ocean with.  Swam about 10 feet down to the bottom.  
Later noticed some weird condensation … then dial turned brown and it stopped working.  Gave me a fun project to disassemble it, but being a quartz wasn’t that exciting inside 😞

Realized then I would always be a screw down crown kinda guy! 
Only a Skelton remains 💀