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27.08.2011, 10:39
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| | What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | The following 4 users would like to thank Upthehatters2008 for this useful post: | | 
27.08.2011, 13:03
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | | | | | | Interesting, but since when do FRANKFURT AM MAIN & BRAUNSCHWEIG belong to SWITZERLAND ????
"" Sie sehen hier die absolut exakte Uhrzeit.
Das Zeitsignal stammt von der Atomuhr der Physikalisch Technischen Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig (Deutschland). """
So, please correct the title of your post right now immediately as it has to be """" British beat the Germans at time keeping" and if you do not until 20.00 tonight, I will sue you for CHF 1.5 mio | 
27.08.2011, 13:18
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | Interesting, but since when do FRANKFURT AM MAIN & BRAUNSCHWEIG belong to SWITZERLAND ????
"" Sie sehen hier die absolut exakte Uhrzeit.
Das Zeitsignal stammt von der Atomuhr der Physikalisch Technischen Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig (Deutschland). """
So, please correct the title of your post right now immediately as it has to be """" British beat the Germans at time keeping" and if you do not until 20.00 tonight, I will sue you for CHF 1.5 mio  | | | | | Sure beats a Swatch if you ask me...
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27.08.2011, 16:38
| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
The Brits made a caesium fountain clock, but the Swiss were a bit of a disadvantage as they made a chocolate fountain instead, which doesn't work so well and ends up in a sticky time for everyone.
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28.08.2011, 03:36
| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | The Brits made a caesium fountain clock, but the Swiss were a bit of a disadvantage as they made a chocolate fountain instead, which doesn't work so well and ends up in a sticky time for everyone. | | | | | Time is relative; it all depends if the clock is at the bottom of the fountain or the top
In 1962, scientists placed two atomic clocks at the bottom and top of a water tower. The clock at the bottom, the one closer to the massive center of the Earth, was running slower than the clock at the top. Einstein called this phenomenon time dilation. http://science.howstuffworks.com/sci...-dilation1.htm
Which is funny because I thought it had something to do with the doppler effect and trains
But in any case the common factor in time, I deduce to be trumpets and trains, both of which have always been of utmost importance in Swiss and English societies.
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28.08.2011, 04:00
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
A brief history of Western timekeeping:
-French monk makes a clock for the Germans
-Germans make primitive pocket watches
-French and English watchmakers start making very sophisticated and precise watches
-Switzerland makes cheap unreliable watches
-England reluctantly becomes home of the best watchmaker in the world (reluctantly because the dude with the genius happened to be a tradesman... a carpenter of all things  )
-Switzerland is slowly making better watches, but anyone who's anyone knows to buy French or English (even Breguet, from Neuchatel, knew he'd best make and sell his wares in Paris)
-England keeps on being the best
...
-a Yank appears!
-Americans figure out how to make watches
-two weeks later, half a dozen watch factories spring up in the U.S.A.
-a month later they've devised and built machinery that will mass produce watches that rival the very best handmade stuff from Europe.
-France and England refuse to believe that the Yank stuff is so good
-Switzerland keeps getting better... making stuff for the English now (to put their name on  )
-Switzerland, with no pride to swallow, eagerly learns how the Yanks do it
-CH improves on what's now 50 year old Yank technology
-French and English watchmaking goes into rapid decline
...
-a wristwatch appears!
-Yanks, proud like the Limeys and Frogs before them refuse to acknowledge these 'chick watches'
-Switzerland decimates and then obliterates all competition
-Nicolas Hayek dies
...
-a Chinese tourbillon appears!
Last edited by Mud; 28.08.2011 at 04:21.
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28.08.2011, 04:06
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | I still prefer a wristwatch though... | | | | |
Leave it to Hewlett Packard...
His arm was skinny when he bought it  .
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28.08.2011, 04:59
| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
Most people I know now don't bother with watches, they just look at their phones.
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28.08.2011, 14:11
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | Most people I know now don't bother with watches, they just look at their phones. | | | | | Those phones ARE watches | 
28.08.2011, 15:36
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | Most people I know now don't bother with watches, they just look at their phones. | | | | | How accurate is the time on GSM cellphones? CDMA phones have millisecond accuracy (part of the standard, if I understand correctly). I have no idea whether (or how) GSM cell phones without a GPS chip get their time; my cheapo special from M-Budget Mobile had to have the time reset quite often during my seven week stay.
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28.08.2011, 15:52
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
Is there a Swiss equivalent of the Royal Observatory or the U.S. Naval Observatory where the official time for the country is kept? Or do they just get the time from Greenwich?
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28.08.2011, 15:53
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | How accurate is the time on GSM cellphones? CDMA phones have millisecond accuracy (part of the standard, if I understand correctly). I have no idea whether (or how) GSM cell phones without a GPS chip get their time; my cheapo special from M-Budget Mobile had to have the time reset quite often during my seven week stay. | | | | | It's network time, supplied by the operator, updated periodically. Same as your PC. Local clock fluctuations are corrected about once a day.
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28.08.2011, 15:57
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | Is there a Swiss equivalent of the Royal Observatory or the U.S. Naval Observatory where the official time for the country is kept? Or do they just get the time from Greenwich? | | | | | Perhaps FOCS1
FOCS 1, a continuous cold caesium fountain atomic clock in Switzerland, started operating in 2004 at an uncertainty of one second in 30 million years - Classification Clock
- Industry Telecommunications, Science
- Application GPS
- Fuel Source Electricity
- Powered Yes
- Inventor US National Bureau of Standards
- Invented 1949
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28.08.2011, 16:01
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
I go by the sun!It`s overcast,thats why I am still in bed  | The following 2 users would like to thank cannut for this useful post: | | 
28.08.2011, 16:08
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | How accurate is the time on GSM cellphones? CDMA phones have millisecond accuracy (part of the standard, if I understand correctly). I have no idea whether (or how) GSM cell phones without a GPS chip get their time; my cheapo special from M-Budget Mobile had to have the time reset quite often during my seven week stay. | | | | | Hmm, my cheapo special from the same place was accurate - time didn't slip long enough for me to notice in the year or so that I had it (before my step-father passed on an 'old' one he had lying around that was a million times more advanced).
Living in Zurich, I find it hard to understand why the Swiss bothered developing such precise watches when you can get line-of-sight on a tower clock every 500 metres or so ... and even in villages up the valleys, you can see the church tower (usually with a clock!) from most of the fields and mountains around about ...
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28.08.2011, 17:35
| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | Those phones ARE watches  | | | | | My phone watches me, which is kind of creepy.
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28.08.2011, 18:36
| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ? | Quote: | |  | | | Most people I know now don't bother with watches, they just look at their phones. | | | | | Yup. Most timepieces these days can multi-task.
I have this clock in the kitchen that cooks my meals. The clock in the living room plays DVDs and the clock in my pocket makes phone calls. My most expensive clock is also my fastest. I like it because it gets me from A to B.
Aren't watches just useless pieces of jewellery? They don't do anything but tell you the time and date. I haven't worn one in years.
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28.08.2011, 18:43
| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
Bovet, from Fleurier, who trained in London - was the first to start selling watches to China, around 1820- always sold in pairs.
My dad had a wonderful enameled pair of Bovet watches in its original box, but they 'disappeared' in sad circumstances (a friend with debts).
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28.08.2011, 18:44
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
Of course the worst clock is the one waiting at the door when you get in...
"...and what bloody time do you call this ???"
Geez, I mean what sort of a clock asks *you* the time ??? | 
28.08.2011, 18:44
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| | Re: What ? British beat the Swiss at time keeping ?
It's funny. Last week there was one person in my group, who while priding herself on how timely the Swiss are, managed to be 10-30 minutes late for EVERYTHING.
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