Swatch internet time
The Swatch Internet Time is a decimal time that the watch manufacturer Swatch was marketed and as Swatch Internet Time or Biel Mean Time is called (BMT).
The Swatch Internet time should not be confused with the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or with the Network Time Protocol , which is used to set computer clocks on the Internet.
Swatch Internet Time was launched on October 23, 1998 by Swatch and the developer of the system, Nicholas Negroponte . However, it did not prevail. Some watches can still use the display as an additional function. Swatch himself still expresses hope and calls Internet time a quiet ghost (sleeping ghost).
Structure of the Swatch internet time
Instead of dividing the day into 24 hours of 60 minutes by 60 seconds as in the Babylonian system , the day is divided into 1000 so-called beats . Such a beat is 1 minute and 26.4 seconds long, for further subdivision you can also enter values after the decimal point. The time is noted by an at sign (@) and the value.
The decimal division is reminiscent of the time division that was introduced for the French Revolution , but could not prevail: one minute in this time division corresponds to exactly one beat.
A key feature of Swatch Internet time is that it is not measured in different time zones , but is the same worldwide. @ 417 in Berlin is synonymous with @ 417 in Chicago and Tokyo . @ 0 is equivalent to midnight Central European Time , in which the Swiss Biel / Bienne , seat of Swatch, is located. Internet time is also called Biel Mean Time (BMT); this linguistic usage is imprecise, since, according to astronomical terminology , one would expect this term - analogous to Greenwich Mean Time - to be the mean local time in Biel, which is delayed by around 31 minutes compared to CET. The summer time is not included in the Swatch Internet Time.
Advantages and disadvantages
The previously mentioned general validity of the time information is touted by Swatch as an advantage. Due to the increasing internationalization and in particular the emergence of video conferences and chats with participants all over the world, the disadvantages of the different time zones when making appointments are becoming more and more apparent, especially since the time zones also affect the date. At 4 p.m. on October 31 in Chicago, it is already 6 a.m. on November 1 in Tokyo. The fact that the time zones not only differ from UTC by whole hours, but sometimes also by half an hour or even quarter of an hour, further complicates the matter. However, UTC is already the standard time on the Internet. Time information on the Internet, for example in the header of an e-mail, is usually given either directly in UTC or with a precise indication of the time zone, which is equivalent to UTC. The meaning of the Swatch Internet time thus appears questionable.
Since, unlike the Babylonian system, it is a decimal system , the Swatch Internet time is particularly easy to calculate. If a day is known to be divided into 1000 beats, it is obvious to someone who calculates in the decimal system that an event that lasted 5500 beats was five and a half days long. However, it is not so easy to deduce the same period from 132 hours. However, while the conversion into days is apparently easier, the conversion into the SI unit second is more difficult.
However, there are also other disadvantages of internet time. In order to enable consistent time information, the date change after the internet time was set simultaneously to @ 0 worldwide. If you are not in the Central European time zone, this point in time may not necessarily be at night, depending on your location. In New York , for example, this is 6 p.m. normal time, which is not necessarily intuitive. For the SI system of units , the second has already been defined as the base unit for time, from which numerous other units are derived, for example for speed, force or frequency. By setting Central European Time as the reference time, another zero meridian was unnecessarily introduced in addition to that of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Due to the strong ties to the manufacturer Swatch, the concept was viewed as an advertising measure and not as a technical concept to be taken seriously.
reception
The historian Thomas Vogtherr saw in his work Zeitrechnung (2001, 2nd edition 2006) little chance of success for the Swatch internet time. Under the “label of greater clarity”, according to Vogtherr, “nothing other than the long and unsuccessful attempt to introduce the decimal system into the calculation of time”. The European-centric “Biel Mean Time”, which sets the start of the beat counting at midnight Central European Time, was also cited by Vogtherr as the reason for the likely failure of the proposal.
Web links
- Conversion from Babylonian time to Internet time
- Biel Mittelzeit (BMT) by master painter and sundial maker Christian Kumhofer
- A Java applet that shows the current internet time
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hodinkee: Recommended Reading: On The Media's TLDR Explains Swatch Internet Time , June 22, 2014.
- ^ A b Thomas Vogtherr: Time calculation. From the Sumerians to the Swatch . 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-44763-1 , p. 119 .