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by mwexler 8 days ago
I just want the clocks. Mondaine tries, but they aren't the same. That 58.5 second rotation then pause is quite clever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_railway_clock

8 comments

Mondaine also sells their Stop2Go collection, which is specifically designed to do the pause at 58 seconds

https://mondaine.com/collections/stop2go-watches

After my first visit to Switzerland, I knew I needed one of those clocks for my home. Unfortunately the ones available are cheap (though expensive) and don't have the second hand dwell at the top of each minute.
I remember when Apple just went and stole the Swiss railway clocks. See: https://www.techmonitor.ai/technology/apple-pays-21mn-to-swi...
I thought trademarks were for brand distinction. Since it doesn't seem like anyone is going to confuse an ipad with a wristwatch let alone the operator of a train station I don't understand the issue.

Well anyway why couldn't they have removed the circle on the end of the second hand and called it a day? Regardless of how I feel about the legal situation how is that circle worth $20 million to them?

Here is an original from a German station (in the design of the 1950ies):

https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/bahnhofsuhr/343129269...

I always thought I was just imagine a pause at the full minute.
Wait for it, wait for it... Click.

Aaaah.

Just to confirm, so SBB has a bridge to sell you?
The central clock dependency is cool, but I wonder is there were any problems with latency -- like does the centralized electrical impulse reach a train station 10km away and another one at 20km at the same time? Did they factor that in?
Isn't that propagating with around the speed of light? Switzerland is only about 1 light ms wide so even if they only have one master clock instead of one per train station the latency should be negligible especially in the 1950s.
I know the Swiss are known for punctuality and timekeeping, but I don’t think anyone is going to notice a 33μs delay to their train.
The speed of light is copper wires is fast enough that you don't need to factor this in. At least not for human purposes.
Even if you did, I think the time it takes to move the second+minute hand from a stop is longer than the time it takes the signal to get there.