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wickedchicken

On an unrelated note, I wish there was a wall clock with the real Swiss stop-to-go[1] action...

Edit: and [2] would make for a great 11.5" laptop sticker

[1] http://www.3quarks.com/en/StationClock/index.html

[2] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/SBB-CFF-FFS.sv...

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Wow, cool site! I'm obsessed with these clocks now.

I'm pretty sure you can buy them from inside the SBB ticket centers, but you can at least buy wrist watches from mondaine:

http://www.mondaine.com/mondaine/

edit: Looks like you can buy the wall clocks online from SBB itself http://www.sbbshop.ch/pub/index.php?page=goods&c=8&s...

They do not start/stop.

Dealbreaker :(

I'm certain I've seen clocks which pause on the minute like the stop-to-go ones sold in rail enthusiast magazines, railway museum gift shops etc. many years ago. Obviously, they don't include an actual stop-to-go master/slave system, they just fake it.

They used to make stoptogo versions back in 2001 but discontinued them because it loose or gain 20s a day.

The real ones get a pulse over the power line from a master clock every minute setting the time. The rotation of the seconds is just a motor using the electric grid's 50 Hz.

As a Swiss I'm amazed to find this all over the news today. I didn't even know that this train station clock design is that famous.

The 3quarks.com page is exhaustive in detail about the station clock, with a customizable working clock well worth a look.

At the end the author, Rüdiger Appel, points to his free iOS clock app: http://itunes.apple.com/en/app/clockmaker/id493255256?mt=8

I meant a physical wall clock, not an app. I suppose I could mount and iPad on my wall and run the app, but I don't want to spend several hundred dollars on a clock that will sue me.

You can get master clocks and slave clocks on eBay, antique or not, with lots of character or not. But they're a pain, since you need to connect the slave to the master with a cable.

Actually - you can get a little circuit board to drive the slave clock without needing a master clock. It mounts to the back of the clock. See here (in German):

http://nebenuhrsteuerung.de/

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