Those of you with even a passing interest in science will be aware of highly accurate atomic clocks. These types of clock use an atomic resonance frequency standard as their timekeeping element and are used to control things such as the frequency of television broadcasts and GPS systems.
In May 2009 the University of Colarado unveiled their strontium optical clock as being the world’s most accurate of it’s kind. Like other atomic clocks it harnesses the the natural and consistent vibration of atoms to keep track of time. What makes this particular clock different is that the vibration of these atoms is made even more consistent by holding them in a laser beam and then freezing them to a rather chilly -273 degrees (the temperature at which all matter stops resonating).
Even those this increase in accuracy is a minute fraction of a second, the implications of this development are large. It has great potential in areas of astrophysics and determining great distances, in particular measuring the distance to distant galaxies in space.
If it’s accuracy you are looking for in your designer watches then you should really look at quartz watches as mechanical watches are generally only accurate to -/+1 second per day, which will of course add up over the course of a year!
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Whilst stumbling around the internet yesterday we came across this rather miraculous and wonderful creation: a digital clock made entirely out of analogue clocks!
It took us a moment or two to actually work out what was going on but once our eyes settled we came to realise what an ingenious creation this is. It turns out that this ‘clock’ was created by Swedish design company, Humans and consists or 24 analogue alarm clocks who’s hands come together to display the time in digital format. We wouldn’t want to be around when the alarm goes off…imagine having to turn all those clocks off at 6 in the morning!
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Keen car enthusiasts will no doubt be aware of Swedish car manufacturer, Koenigsegg and their spectacular 245mph supercars.
While these cars are staggering feats of engineering what you may not be aware of is that they have turned their hands to the opposite end of the spectrum. Koenigsegg have enlisted the help of Swiss designer watch brand Edox to produce a watch who’s style complements the lines of their CCX supercar.
The watch is as predictably crazy as the car with flip up ‘doors’ around the display, a strap made from alligator and a price tag of £13,500 which is considerably cheap compared to some luxury watches and even cheaper than the car itself which comes with a hefty £350,000 label.
We may be suckers for a nice watch here but in this case give us the car any day of the week!
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An interesting story surfaced last month as art experts discovered what they thought may be the world’s oldest painting to feature a watch.
The painting (pictured above) shows Italian nobleman Cosimo l de’Medici holding what looks like a watch and is estimated by curators at the Science Museum to be 450 years old.
Curator at the Science Museum , Rob Skitmore says of the piece “The watch itself would have been a virtuoso piece at that time, probably made in southern Germany, and the picture also shows its separate alarm mechanism that was used with it at night.”
It is know that Cosimo was a patron of science and technology so it is all the more plausible that he would own a watch of this kind.
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