Online Clock has already polluted the world by releasing Series 1 of its Series 1 – Alarm Clock Horror Trading Cards. Because we have way too much free time (and no other original ideas), we thought it’d be a good idea to create Series 2. Remember what it was like collecting Trading Cards when you were a kid? Remember how much you hate Alarm Clocks? Well, we thought (for some unknown reason) it’d be a good idea to combine the two. We ended up with something we are stupidly calling…”(Son of) Alarm Clock Horror Trading Cards – Series 2“.

Collect ‘em all, and make your life lousy!

14. Construction Site Alarm Clock
15. Wrong Number Alarm Clock
16. Global Warming Alarm Clock
17. School Marching Band Alarm Clock
18. Evil Clown Alarm Clock
19. Spider Invasion Alarm Clock
20. Jason Alarm Clock
21. Black Hole Alarm Clock
22. Too Much Coffee Alarm Clock
23. Slenderman Alarm Clock
24. Too Many Fluids Alarm Clock
25. David Hasselhof Alarm Clock
26. Cryptids Alarm Clock

We hope you’ve enjoyed our second little cruise down the River Styx. The next time you get annoyed by the beeping alarm sound you hear when using OnlineClock.net, please keep this in mind:

We don’t care !

Very early clocks and watches, made in Germany in the last half of the 16th century, were notoriously poor for keeping track of the time. Fashioned into shapes like animals, crosses, and even skulls, however, they proved to be a popular accessory among the upper class. They may not have been able to tell you the hour, but they could signify your dedication to forward fashion.

The accuracy of wristwatches improved over the next few centuries, but even today they remain as important to fashion as they are to timekeeping. Today’s millennials may gravitate towards so-called “smart” watches that can do everything but make a cup of coffee, but many collectors are still interested in the character watches that had their heyday in the 1950s. With faces that used Disney characters, baseball stars, and movie heroes, these watches were all the rage among kids of the era.

Even today, children may be more apt to wear a watch with Captain America on the front than one without any adornments. Character watches are the perfect expression of our infatuation with pop culture, mixed effortlessly with our love affair with science. Before they are replaced entirely by cell phones, Google glasses, and whatever technological wonders are coming around the corner, let’s take a moment to appreciate these lasting tributes to the 20th century.

Early Character Watches – The Early 1900s

You might expect that Mickey Mouse would be the first character to be featured on the earliest character watches, but that venerable rodent was beaten to the industry by none other than Buster Brown. The comic strip scamp was famous in America in the early 1900’s, so it was only natural that he wind up on the face of the first character watch. Of course, this was some time before wristwatches captured the country’s imagination; Ingersoll’s Buster Brown watch was of the pocket variety.

Ingersoll’s Buster Brown Pocket Watch, circa 1908 – Perhaps the world’s first Character Watch?

Unlike the watches to follow, the Buster Brown watch merely featured a static image of the character on the back plate. The hands and other mechanisms of the watch remained standard. That changed, however, in 1933. The character behind the change was, indeed, Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney’s most famous creation was used to introduce the Ingersoll-Waterbury Mickey Mouse watch, and it was more than just an image on a back plate. Instead of standard hands, the watch used the mouse’s thin black arms to point out the correct time, animating him in a way that became an instant sensation. If people today associate Mickey Mouse with the character watch, much of that reputation was earned in that very first smash hit.

The unprecedented sales of the Mickey Mouse watch paved the way for other companies to jump into the market. By the time World War II put manufacturing on hold, America had embraced watches featuring Popeye, Dick Tracy, Superman, the Lone Ranger, and many other popular icons of the day.

The Second Wave – The 1950s

There have been few moments in American history that changed the landscape of pop culture as dramatically as World War II. Even after manufacturers were able to go back into private industry, many of the fads and trends that enjoyed popularity in prewar America had fallen out of relevance. In such a climate, it’s all the more surprising that character watches enjoyed a resurgence.

The second wave of character watches was once again dominated by Mickey Mouse. By the late 1950s, nearly 30 million watches featuring the Disney icon had been sold. Hoping to capitalize on the boom, Disney unleashed a torrent of character watches featuring all of their most popular creations. Soon, the wrists of American children were adorned by Donald Duck, Davy Crockett, Jiminy Cricket, Snow White, and other top Disney characters.

Mickey Mouse Watches became the most Popular Character Watches (Here’s an early model)

Disney’s cartoon heroes weren’t the only ones riding the wave. The 1950s introduced American families to the wonders of television, and there was one form of fictional media that proved to be a hit with children and adults alike. Starting with Hopalong Cassidy in 1949, the TV western enthralled audiences for nearly two decades. Characters like Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry were so entrenched in the American imagination that it was inevitable that they joined the Disney crew in character watches of their own.

The public might have waned in their fascination with cowboys by the 1970s, but the popularity of character watches continued. The Lone Ranger was replaced by Luke Skywalker, Donald Duck by Bugs Bunny, but the concept remained largely the same. These watches remained the choice for generations of kids who wanted their wrist wear to match their lunchboxes, T-shirts, and other forms of Hollywood marketing that saturated the stores.

Beyond Fiction

If fictional characters of the kind enumerated above laid the foundation for the character watch, they weren’t the only pop culture icons to find their way onto the American wrist. Watch companies cast their net beyond cartoons and movies to incorporate political figures, sports stars, comedians, and other figures known to the public. Additionally, companies like McDonalds and Coca Cola used these novelty watches to act as a form of advertisement. After all, if you looked down to see Ronald McDonald giving you the time, you might just want to make room for a Big Mac in your dinner plans.

The Companies That Matter

Robert and Charles Ingersoll will forever be remembered as two of the most important figures in wristwatch history, and their Ingersoll Watch Company remains an American triumph today. They were responsible for getting character watches off the ground with Buster Brown, and they continued to produce memorable character watches throughout the 20th century.

But Ingersoll isn’t the only company that made great character watches. Bradley Time, a division of the Elgin Watch Company, was given the Disney license after Ingersoll in 1933, and they made the most of their exclusivity. They were also able to secure the Sesame Street license in the 1970s, producing watches featuring Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and the other PBS favorites. Not to be overlooked are companies like E. Ingraham out of Connecticut and the New Haven Clock Company, both of which made their mark on the collectible market.

Character Watch Types

The use of popular figures from pop culture undoubtedly had much to do with the success of character watches, but just as important were the risks companies took to push the technology forward. Buster Brown on the backplate was sufficient to get the ball rolling, but subsequent generations wanted more from their watches than a static picture. They wanted Mickey Mouse using his arms to point out the correct time. They wanted to see Popeye‘s thick, tattooed forearms replace the typical hands of a clock.

It is in this outside-the-box thinking that character watches have made their biggest impact on the history of the timepiece. A Dan Quayle watch from the late 1980s poked fun at the Vice President, putting the numbers of the watch in random order. Rush Limbaugh poked back a few years later, debuting a Bill Clinton watch whose time ran backwards. A Snoopy watch from the 1970s made the seconds hand a tennis ball and the minute hand out of a tennis racket. The created illusion made it one of the most popular watches of the decade.

Buying Antique Character Watches

Whether you’re interested in collecting character watches for nostalgic purposes or as an investment strategy, it pays to go into the market as informed as possible. This is a hobby with limited interest, a fact that comes with benefits and drawbacks. The major benefit is that you can find bargains on antique collectibles that you wouldn’t find if there was a sudden boom. The major drawback is that it can be difficult to find the information you need to become an expert.

The information is out there, however. One of the most comprehensive books on the subject comes from 1986. Collecting Comic Character Clocks and Watches by Howard S. Brenner takes the reader through the author’s extensive personal collection while providing invaluable information on the subjects of buying, selling, and identifying character watches. It’s age makes it hopelessly out of date as a price guide, but there is plenty of information in the book that will never go out of date.

Scooby Doo & Battlestar Galactica Character Watches owned by The Author 🙂

Another good book, this one more recent, is Character & Novelty Clocks & Watches: Identification & Values by Jim and Merlyn Collings. Released in 2010, the book takes a broad look at rare collectible watches while slapping them with a modern price tag. The authors have divided their guide into 15 separate chapters, delving deeply into everything from animated alarm clocks to comic heroes.

Fortunately, the advent of sites like eBay make pricing research a cinch. You can get more relevant pricing information from an auction search than you can from a guidebook. Find character watches you’re interested in, see how much they’re going for online, and you’ll have a much better sense of how much coin you’re going to have to part with. By searching closed listings, you can get an immediate feel for the state of the market.

The Future of Character Watch Collectibles

Character watches may not be the hottest collectibles on the market in 2015, but that can change in an instant. Only a few years ago, pinball enthusiasts would have been shocked at the prices people are fetching today for some of the genre’s classics. You never know what might trigger a national sensation, and character watches have the right combination of nostalgia, intricacy, and American history to make a comeback.

Besides, there’s something compellingly quaint about character watches, especially when you compare them with today’s obsession with slick technology. Smart watches from companies like Apple are poised to become the next big thing, but they can’t match character watches for their simplicity, charm, and enduring appeal. The characters that adorned these watches – Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Superman, etc. – remain in the zeitgeist today. And while fads and trends may come and go, there will always be a place in the culture for “retro” resurgences.

If the next big thing in American collectibles turns out to be watches featuring some of the country’s greatest characters, it could be the perfect antidote to the smartphone/smartwatch/texting/selfie craze. Sometimes, it’s nice to just sit back and appreciate the slow, methodical ticking of a clock. Happy collecting!

Sources & Suggestions for Further Reading about Character Watches:

• http://www.collectorsweekly.com/wristwatches/character
• http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-05-26/business/9105230079_1_character-watches-mickey-mouse-watches-comic-character
• http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-03-09/entertainment/9001200263_1_mint-age-and-desirability-watch

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Collect ’em all, and make your life miserable!

1. The Screaming Mom Alarm Clock (show an evil mom screaming at a young guy to wake him up)
2. The Alien Abduction Alarm Clock (show aliens lifting someone from their bed)
3. The Your House is on Fire Alarm Clock (person’s room is on fire as he lays in bed)
4. The Dog-Just-Wet-Your-Bed Alarm Clock (show someone sleeping in a puddle in his bed, with a large, embarrassed-looking dog looking at him)
5. The “Wake Up…You’re Already Dead” Alarm Clock (show a ghost lifting up from a body on a bed)
6. The A-Bomb Alarm Clock (show a bed with an atomic “mushroom cloud” floating above it)
7. The Zombie Apocalypse Really Happened Alarm Clock (show a group of zombies walking into someone’s bedroom)
8. The Earthquake, Monsoon or Erupting Volcano Alarm Clock (show a volcano on a bed with lava erupting from it, with a huge tidal wave approaching the bed)
9. The “You’re On The Titanic and it’s Sinking” Alarm Clock (show an iceberg outside the bedroom window, with the bed sinking into water like it’s a ship)
10. The “You’re Fired!” Alarm Clock (show someone’s boss standing before a guy’s bed. the boss is pointing a finger at him angrily and is holding a pink piece of paper with the headline, “Pink Slip” on it)
11. The “I Knew I Shouldn’t Have Eaten Those Beans” Alarm Clock (show a thick, dark cloud of gas surrounding someone as he’s laying on a bed. fart noise words float in the air, such as ‘Pfffttt. Poof. Blaaaap’)
12. The “Your Neighbor Just Got Home from the Late Shift & Is Listening to Death Metal” Alarm Clock (show a Death Metal guitarist standing near some guy’s pillow, playing guitar as he lays there)
13. The “Godzilla Is Destroying Your Bedroom” Alarm Clock (show Godzilla breathing fire towards someone who’s laying on his bed)

We hope you’ve enjoyed our little trip down Nightmare Avenue.

The next time you get annoyed by the beeping alarm sound you hear when using OnlineClock.net, please keep this in mind: things could be even worse!

You know times have changed when they light up the Sistine Chapel.

For nearly 500 years, Michelangelo’s timeless masterpiece was lit only by scattered sunlight filtering through the chapel’s small windows. Unfortunately, the ultraviolet rays were beginning to deteriorate the colors. Adding incandescent bulbs into the mix would have only made things worse, but a new kind of illumination is ready to bathe the Sistine Chapel in a glow Michelangelo could have never imagined. In 2014, the chapel was fitted with 7,000 light-emitting diodes, or LEDs for short.

If this is a sign that we’re moving into a new age of artificial light, it’s not the first one. In 2007, the U.S. Congress ordered the gradual elimination of inefficient, incandescent light bulbs off the market. As of January 1st, 2014, the most popular wattages of the bulbs were no longer sold in stores. After more than a hundred years of use, the United States – and much of the world – said goodbye to lighting technology that was holding us back.

There are still some incandescent light bulbs on the shelves, but they aren’t being manufactured like they used to be. Though the immediate replacements have been compact fluorescent bulbs, experts in the lighting industry think LEDs are the wave of the future. Even today, this emergent technology can be found in clocks, watches, Blu-Ray players, Christmas lights, computers, TVs, and more.

As ubiquitous as they suddenly are, the road to mainstream prominence was a long one.

Did You Know? – Energy & LEDs

As important as incandescent bulbs have been to modern society, they are terribly wasteful. Almost 90 percent of energy is produced as heat rather than light. CFLs (“Contact Flourescent Lamps”) aren’t much better, releasing approximately 80 percent of energy as heat. LEDs are more efficient, using up to 75 percent less energy than incandescents.

LED Energy Usage

Part I – History of the LED

Like every scientific discovery, the development of light-emitting diodes happened over time, gaining progress in fits and starts. Early pioneers like H.J. Round, Oleg Losev, and Rubin Braunstein laid the foundation in the first half of the 20th century, experimenting with crystals and gallium arsenide to produce the first examples of electroluminescence. When it came to finding practical uses for their breakthroughs, however, the field was left wanting.

That started to change in the fall of 1961 when a couple of Texas Instruments researchers discovered that gallium arsenide emitted infrared light when exposed to an electrical current. James R. Biard and Gary Pittman earned their place in history as the fathers of LED light when TI introduced the SNX-100 the following year. The first example of an infrared LED bulb, the SNX-100 produced a 900 nanometer wavelength of invisible light and used a pure GaAs crystal as its sole source of illumination.

The next decades saw LEDs move beyond their humble beginnings. One of the most important advances, however, took place almost simultaneously. In 1962, Nick Holonyak, Jr. of General Electric developed the first visible-spectrum LED. Holonyak’s red LED was later followed by yellow light in 1972, invented by M. George Craford, a former student of Holonyak’s. Low light output from these LEDs limited their usefulness to anything more than indicators. For LEDs to become a legitimate source of light, researchers would have to figure out how to boost their output.

In the 1990s, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura did just that. With breakthrough development that earned the trio the Nobel Prize in 2014, they invented the first blue light beams, creating a revolutionary step forward in commercial lighting technology. With the blue LED, bright white light was now a possibility. More energy efficient and environmentally responsible than incandescent bulbs, the new LED lights could move worldwide power consumption into a brave new age.

Is That So? – A Short LED Fact

In 2009, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Mitsubishi’s scoreboard at Cowboys Stadium as the World’s Largest HD Video Display. The board is comprised of four LED video screens, two of which are 72 feet high and 160 feet wide.

Part II – How the LED Works

LEDs aren’t just the updated version of Edison’s incandescent light bulb. LEDs get their light through electroluminescence, a phenomenon wherein a material emanates light when an electrical current is passed through it. For the purpose of LEDs, a semiconductor material is used. Germanium and silicon are among the most common of these materials. To prepare them for use, scientists “dope” the materials with other elements in order to create electron holes.

What are electron holes? These are pockets in atoms that have no electrons, meaning they hold a positive charge. When scientists change the structure of these atoms, filling in the electron holes, they can create two different semiconductor types within the same crystal. Between the two lies a boundary known as a p-n junction. This boundary only allows current to pass in one direction, making it the perfect diode. Electrons are sent from one crystal to the other, filling electron holes, and producing the electroluminescence that makes the LED what it is.

One of the first challenges engineers faced when developing LED technology was figuring out how to control the output. The typical “light cone” coming out of the semiconductor is extraordinarily narrow, a problem solved by making the light bounce off every surface of the crystal. Once researchers were able to harness the power of that refraction, they could achieve a more intense output appropriate for commercial use.

Finally, there was the matter of creating white light. As we’ve noted, this was accomplished by first developing a bright blue LED. Once Akasaki, Amano, and Nakamura were able to do that, everything changed. From their humble, indicator-light origins, LEDs were now able to be used in everything from table lamps to traffic signals to cellphone flashlights.

The Parts of an LED

But while the future may be wide open when it comes to LED applications, it would be unfortunate to forget what an important role these lights played in a technology very near and dear to our hearts.

Ho, Ho…Oh! – LEDs & Christmas

While our traditional incandescent Christmas light bulbs may only have about 1,800 hours of use in them, LED Christmas lights can still brighten your tree after 4,000 hours.

Part III – LEDs In Clocks and Watches

When Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey debuted in 1968, critics and fans alike found themselves agape at this transformational view of the future. Though the extraordinary themes and heart-pounding special effects were central to the film’s success, Kubrick knew that the devil was in the details. To that end, he wanted to put new technology everywhere. He met that goal, in part, by making a deal with the Hamilton Watch Company. In search of a clock display that looked like nothing anyone had seen before, Kubrick commissioned Hamilton to provide him with a futuristic digital display.

Clocks originally commissioned for the film, “2001: A Space Odyssey” which were nevertheless not used in the film.

While the glowing red numbers on the clock worked for the movie, they also inspired the company to make something similar for the real world. Only a couple of years later, the world’s first “wrist computer” made its debut on the national stage. Retailing for an astounding $2,100, the Pulsar was hardly a smash mainstream success. Still, the LEDs used to provide a digital display element would soon change the way the world checked the time.

The early digital watches used seven electronic switches in creating the glowing numerals. A semiconductor called aluminum gallium arsenide was used the emit the red light, though clockmakers soon added green LEDs into the mix by using gallium nitride. Because the LEDs used so much power, users had to press a button each time they wanted to see the time. It wasn’t until costs came down and battery power was reduced that Texas Instruments was able to market LED watches and clocks for less than $20.

The Pulsar may not have been on every American wrist, but its legacy lives on through the 21st century. In its day, it became a symbol of the future and a hallmark of discerning luxury. President Gerald Ford was among its many admirers. Much later, Time Magazine named it one of the top twenty watches of the 20th century. Today, this remarkable example of LED technology and forward-thinking progress enjoys a well-deserved home in Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Institution.

New Look For An Old Icon – LEDs and New Year’s Eve

To mark the hundredth anniversary of the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball, the old halogen bulbs were ousted in favor of 9,576 LED bulbs capable of producing more than 200 colors.

Part IV – The Future of LEDs

We’re only starting to see how LEDs are changing the way the world is lit. As costs come down, experts predict we’ll start seeing LEDs used everywhere we currently see CFLs and incandescent lighting. With their improved brightness, reduced energy usage, and better lifespans, LED lights are winning over consumers in both the commercial and private sectors.

Right now, LEDs account for about 20 percent of the lighting market, but industry observers believe that number could grow to as much as 70 percent by 2020. Already, we’ve seen Los Angeles replace their famous arc-sodium streetlamps with bright white LED lights, taking the city out of the orange haze its been engulfed in for decades. Other cities, including Austin, Las Vegas, and San Antonio have followed their lead.

A cousin to LEDs, the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is also making a splash on the lighting market. Researchers have begun to use OLED technology to create entire sheets of light, meaning we could be only a few years away from walls and ceilings that act as their own light source. Already, this technology has been used to make some of the most stunning televisions in the field.

Then there is the laser, which some scientists think will provide us with illumination long after LEDs have come and gone. When using a laser diode instead of a traditional LED, you can pump about 2,000 times more electricity into the diode. While this has yet to be tested in practical terms, it could mean that laser diodes are capable of providing 2,000 times as much light. That alone could mark a substantial revolution in worldwide power consumption.

As it always is with the future, of course, we won’t truly know until we get there.

It’s possible that LEDs will become – and remain – the standard for lights throughout the 21st century. It’s also possible, though, that there is another form of lighting technology just waiting to be discovered. As we’ve seen on this brief foray into the History of the LED, we don’t always know change is upon us until it arrives with a bang. And yet, you can’t help but wonder: what will be illuminating the Sistine Chapel in another 500 years?

This Article’s Sources & Suggestions for Further Reading about LEDs:

• http://fortune.com/2014/10/20/led-lights-nobel-prize-innovation/
• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/press.html
• http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/led-light-bulb.htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ptop/plain/A1006534
• http://qz.com/146761/forget-led-bulbs-the-future-of-interior-lighting-is-lasers/
• http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sistine-chapel-new-led-lights-and-air-conditioning-system/
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2013/07/31/los-angeles-completes-worlds-largest-led-street-light-retrofit/
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/06/11/ge-lighting-sees-brighter-future-with-led-growth/
• http://gizmodo.com/oled-wallpaper-could-be-the-future-of-lighting-1643373103

Procrastination!

Top 15 Signs you have a problem- which you can take a look at a couple years from now… Maybe.

15. Car washes are vastly overrated. After all… I buy a new, used car every ten years, right? And it’s clean then… Bling bling, baby.

14. Sure, I play all the latest Smartphone games… you know, like Pac-Man? Oh-Oh no!

13. What do you mean my Halloween Decorations aren’t appropriate for Easter?

12. Went to the gym to workout today only to discover… that my membership ran out five years ago. Love handles are in anyway.

11. Finally got around to thanking everyone for their Christmas gift last year… in this year’s Christmas Card! It’s the thought that counts!

10. Finally set myself up with one of those newfangled “Email Addresses”. My hunt-and-peck method is unmatched.

9. Taxes overdue? …I thought the deadline was November 15th?! Can they just be fashionably late?

8. Contraceptives? Yeah, I thought about using ’em… Six kids ago. Ah, and I forgot to pick up Timmy from daycare…

7. You mean I have to register in advance… before I vote for the President? Surely, someone else will vote for me.

6. I kept putting off going to the dentist for so long… that I only need to go to the denture clinic now. It’s oddly liberating.

5. I was going to test the battery in my smoke detector… but it burned up in a house fire. Why must popcorn be so delicious?

4. Finally bought one of those new phones… you know, the kind that works without a cord. Next step: get a customized ringtone

3. I kept putting off doing the dishes for so long… that now there’s a whole crop of Green Stuff growing out of my sink! It’s alive! Oh, wrong movie.

2. I was going to clean my apartment two years ago but now… I’m moving out anyway. The cleaning services get paid to do it after all.

1. You finally made a call to your doctor for that health check-up… from beyond the grave. Ah ah ah, and I’m still as spry as a newborn kitten!

Do not succumb to the dangers of procrastination! Instead, try the free online timer at Timer.OnlineClock.net to get your daily tasks on track!

Thank you for using OnlineClock.net, the world’s original Online Alarm Clock… which also comes in black… and blood red. Wait, listen closely now. Here comes my big solo…

Embed “The Top 10 One Person Internet Startups” Infographic on your Site:

<br /> <img src="//blog.onlineclock.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/top-10-one-person-startups-onlineclock.jpg" width="800"/><br /> The World’s Top 10 Internet Startups – An infographic by <a href="https://onlineclock.net" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="internal">OnlineClock.net</a><br />

One person with a vision and the tech skills to make it happen is the winning formula used to make some of the world’s best Internet Startups. The following tech-savvy minds began by working alone to solve a problem, fill a need, or simply ran with what they believed was a bright idea. All are achieving what their founders wanted:  making an impact!

10. Techmeme

URL: www.techmeme.com
Founder: Gabe Rivera
Founded: 2005
Location: San Francisco, CA
Software engineer, Gabe Rivera, created his automated news curation service tech.memeorandum to focus on technology. He renamed it Techmeme and now employs a team of editors.
Reach: 10,000 recurring readers. Articles shared socially with up to 10 million people.

Sources: http://www.techmeme.com/
http://www.businessinsider.com/techmeme-growth-2014-3

9. NewsBlur

URL: www.newsblur.com
Founder Samuel Clay
Founded 2009
Location: New York City
Computer programmer, Samuel Clay, programmed NewsBlur while riding on the A train in New York City. It’s personal news reader that enables subscribers to better read the news on their mobiles.
Reach: Subscribers: 60,000

Sources: http://blog.newsblur.com/post/45632737156/three-months-to-scale-newsblur

8. Todoist

URL: www.todoist.com
Founder:  Amir Salihefendic
Founded: 2007
Location: Denmark
Student computer programmer, Amir Salihefendic, created one of the first easy to use personal task manager and to-do list applications. Since then he’s masterminded other popular to-do list apps including Doist and Wedoist.
Reach: 2 million users

Sources: http:// www.todoist.com

7. Instapaper

URL: www.instapaper.com
Founder: Marco Arment
Founded: 2008
Location: New York City
Software developer, coder, and Tumblr’s first employee, Marco Arment, created a mobile read-it-later tool that saves web pages. It was acquired by Betaworks in 2013.
Reach: Users: 2 million users

Sources: -users as of late 2011
https://www.instapaper.com/press

6. Urban Dictionary

URL: www.urbandictionary.com
Founder: Aaron Peckham
Founded: 1999
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
California Polytechnic State University computer science major, Aaron Peckham, created a Web-based dictionary that defined slang words not found in standard dictionaries. Now it’s used to define any word or phrase.
Reach: Users: 3,946,000 visitors a day; seven million definitions in 2013

Sources: www.urbandictionary.com
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/urbandictionary.com

5. DuckDuckGo

URL: www.duckduckgo.com
Founder: Gabriel Weinberg
Founded:  2008
Location: Pennsylvania
Web developer, Gabriel Weinberg, created an Internet search engine unlike the rest.  It aims to   protect searchers’ privacy and does not collect personal data for ad and security agencies.
Reach: One billion queries in 2013 and 45 million searches

Sources: https://duckduckgo.com/traffic.html

4. Big Oven

URL: www.bigoven.com
Founder: Steve Murch
Founded: 2002
Location: Seattle, WA
Software engineer, Steve Murch, founded his mobile grocery, recipe, and food app he visualized out of his love to cook.
Reach: Downloaded 10 million times, 2 million registered members.

Sources:

3. Plenty of Fish

URL: www.pof.com
Founder: Markus Frind
Founded: 2003
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Computer engineer, Markus Frind, ran his new dating site out of his Vancouver apartment, creating the first free dating site in the world. Currently, it creates one million relationships a year.
Reach: Users: 70 million
Revenue:  $10 million (2008)

Sources: https://www.pof.com/en/press/
(2008) *note on revenue, this is old, not sure if worth to include. I can enquire with POF for updated numbers.

2. Ebay

URL: www.ebay.com
Founder: Pierre Omidyar
Founded: 1995
Location: San Jose, CA
Computer engineer, Pierre Omidyar, wrote the code for an online auction website called Auction Web.  The first item sold was a broken laser pointer. He later renamed the site to eBay.
Reach: Users: 19 million
Revenue: $4.5 Billion (2013)

Sources: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140122006447/en/eBay-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-Full-Year-2013

1. Amazon

URL: www.amazon.com
Founder:  Jeff Bezos
Founded: 1994
Location: Seattle, WA
Computer engineer, Jeff Bezos, left Wall Street to start his online bookstore from his garage. Since then it has expanded to be the largest online retailer in the world.
Reach: every major market across the world
Revenue: $74.45 Billion (2013)

Sources: 
http://www.inc.com/30years/articles/jeff-bezos.html
http://www.statista.com/topics/846/amazon/

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The Wooden Clock Sculptures of James Borden

We live in a world defined by factories. From the cartons that hold our milk to the beds we sleep in, everything has been designed in a way to make them easy to produce, trendy, and ultimately disposable. Though American style is more colorful and varied than the grim brown boxes of communism, the lasting effect is perhaps not much more substantial.

It’s for this reason that a clockmaker like James Borden can stand out. The man behind Timeshapes, Borden uses his early education in humanities to bring a worldly approach to his magnificent clocks, some of which are so stunning that they can sell for prices north of $15,000.

The Beginnings of a Clock Artist

Though Borden supports his family with his art, the money seems to be a secondary concern. Traveling through his background, you can see that clockmaking was always a passion. Growing up in rural Illinois, the young James Borden had a fascination with timekeepers of all stripes. His hometown of Rockford gave him access to one of the most extensive private clock collections in the country, and this early exposure fanned the flames of his curiosity. These flames blossomed into wildfires during a trip to Germany. He was fortunate enough to set eyes on the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Munich, a monstrous tower clock that has delighted townspeople and tourists since 1908.

That was in 1980, and it led him to embrace clockmaking for a full year. He spent his hours whiling away in his parents’ basement, developing clocks of various styles and disciplines, never thinking that his hobby would lead to employment. It was only a diversion, even if it consumed his days and nights.

Borden attended school to pursue a degree in humanities, and his interest in the history of cultural civilizations informed his early work. He may not have followed his love of Greek history or Renaissance art into a lifelong study of anthropology, but he let those interests work their way into his clockmaking. Even today, Borden’s finest pieces suggest a simpler time, when he might have been a village craftsman, building clocks that would pass into history themselves as cultural landmarks.

Following His Clockmaking Dream

Borden attended Wartburg Theological Seminary in Iowa in pursuit of his ordainment. Halfway through his schooling, the thought of the clocks he’d left behind became too great to ignore. He started to tinker again, realizing that a passion such that he felt could not be relegated to a mere hobby. Still attending seminary, he opened up a clock shop on the side, repairing and restoring antique pieces for Dubuque residents and making money from his skills for the first time. Seminary school was far from a total loss; he met his wife Barbara while attending Wartburg. After getting married, they moved in together just above the clock shop.

Over time, Borden moved away from fixing clocks for customers and back into the true heart of his passion: designing them from scratch. Like most burgeoning artists, his first attempts were closely in line with the traditions of the time. Gradually, he put more of himself into his productions. He broke away from the old traditions and started creating pieces that were as concerned with form as they were with function. He minimized, removing the panels and cabinets that would typically be used to hide the gears away. He celebrated their inner workings rather than obscuring them with ornamentation. Instead of making them look half-finished, though, this approach to clockmaking gave his pieces a unique craftsmanship that would come to define his life’s work.

Borden moved to Minnesota with his family, leaving the shop behind and settling in to his new role as a freelance clockmaker. The work was slow at first, and he sold pieces whenever and wherever he could. He traveled to art shows and craft fairs, renting booths where he could display his clocks in and amongst the handmade jewelry and paintings. A friend suggested that he travel to a major show put on by the American Craft Council in Baltimore to get some exposure. He followed that advice and immediately took his fledgling career to the next level.

Selected Pieces of Clock Art by James Borden:

Walnut Floor Clock

Walnut Floor Clock by James Borden

This walnut specimen seems to take its inspiration from the mathematical compass, twisting in on itself to give center stage to a couple of immense wooden gears. Standing seven feet tall with a full three feet of width, its slender frame balances two teardrop counterweights on either side of a hanging pendulum.

Cherry Wall Clock

Cherry Wall Clock by James Borden

There is something faintly nautical about this cherry wall clock, and like many of Borden’s finest works, it could easily be disguised as something other than a clock to the uninitiated viewer.

Spalted Maple Table Clock

Spalted Maple Table Clock by James Borden

In this unique table clock, Borden crafts a medieval appearance from spalted maple. Using the discoloration of the tree’s fungi, he has created a clock that achieves decorative depth without the use of paint or excessive finish.

Suspended Clock

Suspended Clock by James Borden

Designed from a mixture of woods – walnut, white oak, cherry, and box elder – this suspended clock proudly boasts the natural character of the trees. The twirls and curlicues that finish the graceful curves accentuate the carved invention of the piece.

Long Island Jewish Medical Center Clock

Seeing one in person is probably the only way to fully appreciate the intricacy with which Borden’s clocks are made, but this video showing one of his astounding pieces from all sides comes close.

A Clockmaker’s Passion

It’s been smooth sailing for James Borden lately. Though he still travels to craft shows and public exhibitions to sell and show off his work, he also makes a significant amount of his money from private buyers. According to a 2014 interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Borden’s clocks go almost exclusively into homes, a fact that seems to bring him the highest joy. Most of his clocks sell for between $5,000 and $10,000 each. In 2005, he was honored by Fine Woodworking magazine with the Best New Artist in Wood award. Some of his other awards include Best in Show at the 2007 Milwaukee Fine Furnishings event and the Gold award at the 2013 Smithsonian Craft Show.

Today, Borden’s career is flourishing as he continues to get more mainstream exposure for his handcrafted masterpieces. Each Timeshapes piece is as unique as the clockmaker himself while still retaining his signature preferences. Some stand alone, some mount on the wall, and almost all of them expose their gears and pendulums for maximum effect. Few, if any, display the numbers because Borden believes they steal the simplicity that he appreciates in a well-made clock. Best of all, none of them are mass-produced or done to fit a trend, and that fact alone makes them a treasure to behold in the early years of the new millennium.

For your many years of fine service to clockmaking, Mr. Borden…Online Clock salutes you! 🙂

On April 15, 2013, Doyle New York auctioned a collection of jewelry and goods from the estate of Consuelo Vanderbilt Earl, daughter of railroad magnate William Vanderbilt. The entirety of the auction took in more than $1.5 million, but it was a Cartier mystery clock that dominated the discussion. Sold for a record $515,000, the clock was a prime example of Cartier’s famous Model A clocks that enjoyed a brief period of enormous popularity in the early decades of the 20th century. While some wondered why anyone would pay such an extravagant sum for a clock, others wanted to know more about this treasure from another era.

What is a mystery clock? What, indeed, is the mystery? It is in search of those answers that we delve into one of horology’s most interesting stories.

The Mystery

Mystery clocks may have lost some of their magical appeal in an age of David Copperfield, movies with thousands of special effects, and digital technology that few laymen understand comprehensively, but they still have a few things going for them. Anyone even slightly interested in the making of timepieces throughout history will take great joy in the craftsman’s quality of these special clocks. What started as a simple magic trick became a cherished, rare treasure from some of the finest clockmakers around the world. But start as a magic trick, it most certainly did.

The Magician’s Chime

Picture yourself in a grand French theater. A former watchmaker named Jean Robert-Houdin takes the stage to tepid applause. This watchmaker has brought an array of wonders and illusions with him, and the most interesting one seems to be a holdover from his horology days. It is a magical clock, and there seems to be no way of telling how it works. It shouldn’t work, by all accounts. It has no gears, the hands seem to float independently of any guiding mechanism, and the clock gives no indication to the viewer of how it operates.

Robert-Houdin, often cited as the father of modern-day magic, had invented the first mystery clock. Careful: this is not the famous magician known by the stage name “Houdini“. Instead, Robert-Houdin is the magician who Harry Houdini named himself after, in homage to his precursor. While Robert-Houdin wanted only a device that could lure audiences into the French theater he had built for his performances, he had created a timepiece that drew other clockmakers to discover the secrets behind its operation.

Jean Robert-Houdin and one of his Mystery Clocks

Houdin’s Legacy

Great inventions – particularly when they are so specialized – have a way of becoming lost to time. Thankfully, this was not the case with Houdin’s mystery clock. What could have been a trick that showed up only in the performances of derivative magicians became a template for clockmakers like Andre Romain Guilmet. Throughout the later decades of the 19th century, Guilmet developed several mystery clocks of his own. The most popular clocks were made from elaborate figurines with pendulums that swung from their grip without obvious cause. The secret behind its performance was in the small platform upon which the figurine stood. It moved too slightly to be seen by even a close observer, but the movement was sufficient to keep the pendulum swinging in time.

Cartier Popularizes the Mystery Clock

Ask anyone with even a passing interest in the subject of mystery clocks, and they will be intimately familiar with French jeweler Cartier. It is from this famous jewelry-maker that some of the most exceptional examples of mystery clockmaking come. The credit for this reputation belongs to a man named Maurice Couet. A watchmaker by trade, Couet designed a clock for Cartier that he called the “Model A.” With gold-plated hands, an 8-day caliber, and a Swiss lever escapement, it would have found a comfortable home in the Cartier collection even without its mysterious operational qualities.

Those mysterious qualities, however, were exactly what made the Model A famous. No longer were mystery clocks hidden away in French magic shows and available only to French customers. Though Cartier was French as well, the reach of his jewelry firm was vast. Couet’s Model A wowed appreciators throughout Europe with its floating hands, neither of which seemed to have any point of fasten to even the most minute cog. Of course, we now know that both hands were mounted to a flat disk made from crystal, its serrated edge rendered invisible to the outside onlooker. Racks secreted away in the sides of the clock drove the serrated discs. What’s fascinating about Cartier’s mystery clocks is that they lose very little of their aesthetic appeal even when the “trick” is revealed. Timeless creations bringing together the twin disciplines of art and science, Couet’s Model A clocks were an instant sensation.

The Junghan Touch

In the early years of the 20th century, Junghan was the name to know in the clockmaking business. The German-based company was the top-selling timepiece manufacturer in the world, so it was perhaps only a matter of time before they introduced their own take on the mystery clock. These ornate clocks were called “swingers,” and they were made with delicately-detailed figurines representing various animals, historical figures, and relevant-to-the-time references such as “Bat Boy.”

Americans Take a Crack at the Mystery

Ansonia took their cue from Junghan, and began making figurine-based mystery clocks that enjoyed a brief period of substantial popularity in the U.S. One of their most enduring clocks went by the simple name, “Gloria.” This clock was so striking that it was used by jewelry stores in Ansonia’s home state of Connecticut to attract shoppers to their windows. The winged, angelic figure of Gloria stands astute on her perch, a clock ball resting in her palm. The ball is the secret to the clock’s machinations, hiding away the gears and cogs within what seems to be a decorative accent.

The Advent of Electricity

Following the first World War, electricity went from something in museums, libraries, and the homes of the rich to the common household power source it is today. It was only natural that the next generation of mystery clocks would use this mysterious power to further obscure their wondrous secrets. A Dutch clockmaker named Leendert Prins was among the first to make the electric mystery clock a reality when he patented one for advertisement purposes. His used four invisible discs to pull off the trickery, and it was not long before several American clock companies joined the fray.

Tiffany and Boots Boy were only a couple of the American companies that turned mystery clocks into a widespread 1950s fad. One of the most exceptional mystery clocks from this time period was made by an Illinois company called the Jefferson Electric Co. It was known as the Golden Hour, and it attracted fans of both the clean design and the inscrutable mystery behind its workings. Radium paint was the secret behind the hands, which glowed in the dark and kept perfect time in spite of the seemingly clear face of the clock. These Golden Hour clocks were a remarkable step forward in mystery clock design, but much of their popularity was due to their relatively low asking price. For just $25, a family could own a mystery clock of their own.

Famous Mystery Clocks

The art of mystery clocks has been responsible for some of the most stunning timepieces of the last three centuries. To fully appreciate the elegance, craftsmanship, and magical appeal of these clocks, you really have to see one in person. Failing that, however, let’s take a closer look at some of the most celebrated models of its rich history.

The Golden Hour

Manufactured by the Jefferson Electric Company from the 1950s to the 1980s, the Golden Hour held a motor in the socket of the clock, driving the glow-in-the-dark hands which were attached to clear plates in the center. The strategically-built frame hides the gear rim from the viewer’s eyes. Though Jefferson was based out of Illinois, there is some evidence that their clocks were produced by a contractor in the Netherlands.

Gloria

The Ansonia Clock Co. of Connecticut was responsible for this mystery clock, and it remains one of the most enduring specimens to this day. This clock and its sister-creations “Juno,” “Fisher,” and “Huntress” were built in the early part of the 20th century. The mechanisms of the clock are secreted away in the ball held by the winged figure central to the piece. A recent auction saw one of these Gloria clocks go for more than $5,000.

Robert-Houdin’s Original Mysteries

No visual tour through the history of mystery clocks would be complete without including an example from the innovator himself. Although Robert-Houdin had no obvious interest in seeing his invention become a worldwide cult phenomenon, his stage trick became much bigger than his French show.

The Model A

If Robert-Houdin was responsible for planting the seed, Cartier and their master clockmaker Maurice Couet were the parties most responsible for the flourishing crop. Couet’s Model A mystery clock remains one of the most highly sought-after examples of the craft. It is said that the Model A was the first mystery clock to cross the Atlantic, having been sold to American billionaire J.P. Morgan in the early decades of the 1900s.

The Junghan Elephant

The German clock company Junghan developed many mystery clocks throughout the years, but it is their elephant clock that truly captures the imagination. Built in the 1930s, the piece encapsulated Junghan’s swinging-clock style and incorporated a prominent animal the way many of their clocks did at the time.

The Shinto Shrine

Another fascinating piece from the Cartier collection, the Shinto shrine clocks were created in the roaring years leading up to the Great Depression. One of the first portico clocks were sold to opera diva Ganna Walska, and the magnificence of the piece cannot be overstated. The base of onyx, the exceptional rock crystal, and the delicate gold plating conspire to make one of the most outstanding clocks of the early 20th century. That it is a mystery clock is almost a footnote.

The Mystery Clock in the 21st Century

Reproductions dominate the mystery clock field these days. The only new examples being made are limited to hobbyists. It is clear that the “fad” of the mystery clock is one whose time has, at least for now, passed into history. Still, auctions like the one for Vanderbilt’s collection demonstrate that these classics are still prized by collectors. This isn’t likely to change for some time. Collectors will always have an interest in great timepieces of the past, and mystery clocks remain exceptionally collectable because their designs match so much of what we prize in today’s minimalistic market.

Could Mystery Clocks Make a Comeback?

It’s certainly possible, though the simple pleasures of hidden mechanisms may have a hard time wooing a population that has seen digital clocks, atomic clocks that won’t go out of time in a hundred years, and, of course, online clocks. Still, if you happen to come across an elephant swinger or a pristine Gloria in a shop somewhere, don’t hesitate to pull out your wallet!

The biggest mystery may be how lucky you were to come across one of horology’s most interesting developments.

It’s been more than 60 years since Dick Tracy introduced the concept of the two-way radio watch to comic readers around the country. As is the norm with these things, what was once fantasy has become a reality. Today’s smart watches are capable of things Dick Tracy would have found implausible in his day. With functionality that goes well beyond just keeping time, today’s smart watches are part of the same technological progression that has given us smartphones, iPods, and Google Glass.

While the smart watch is certainly capable of much more than your average analog timepiece, the functionality it offers is not anything new to the tech sector. They certainly can’t do anything that your smartphone can’t do, and there is plenty they can’t do that your smartphone can. Where they do excel, of course, is in their ability to shrink the tech down to size while streamlining the apps you need to get by. What’s important to remember, though, is that we are still in the infancy of miniaturized technology. Tomorrow’s smart watches could make the iPhone of today look like something from the stone ages.

What is a Smart Watch?

Most 30-something adults can remember when calculator watches came on the scene. These wonders made a watch more than just something to tell time with. With early computer technology inside, the calculator watch was one of the first steps towards the ultra-portable computers we have today. Early versions of the smart watch were capable of playing games, calculating math problems, and even performing simple translations.

The ones on the market today, of course, are much more advanced. Capable of running a full operating system, playing audio and video files, and taking pictures, today’s smart watch is essentially a computer on your wrist. Color screens, touchscreen capability, Bluetooth connectivity, and the ability to run apps are a few of the more common modern-day features.

Because a smart watch is much easier for a runner to wear than a cell phone, it’s no surprise that much of the industry’s focus has been on fitness. Sport watches provide several features that speak to the fitness crowd. Activity tracking technology, GPS functionality, and training apps make the watch a dream come true for runner, lifters, and other athletes. Many smart watches also include features that measure your heart rate, track your route, spit out lap times, and transition easily between various sports.

Early calculator wristwatches were difficult to use, but they had a certain amount of Geek Appeal !

The Major Players in the Smart Watch World

The smart watch has been hailed as the next big thing for several decades now. Today’s smart watch lineage can be traced back to the Pulsar NL C01. Made by Seiko in 1982, the Pulsar was hardly impressive by today’s standards. Storing only 24 digits of information, the NL C01 and its immediate successors failed to grab anything more than a highly tech-focused customer base. 1990 saw the technology move forward with the introduction of the Seiko Receptor, a watch that could also function as a pager. It wasn’t until Samsung’s 2009 S9110 and its Bluetooth connectivity, however, that the future started looking bright for wearables.

Like any other facet of technology, smart watches are pushed forward by a handful of innovative companies and brands. Pebble Technology, Sony, Samsung, and Qualcomm are a few of the visible companies at the top of the food chain. It’s not an insignificant market by any means; nearly two million smart watches were sold in 2013. The vast majority of these were for the Android operating system, and a healthy subset of these were produced by Samsung. Of course, this doesn’t predict lasting market domination by Samsung and Android. As we’ve seen in other areas of technology, the winds of change are swift and merciless.

Today’s Current Top Smart Watch Models

Samsung is the early leader in the smart watch arms race, pulling away from the competition with its Galaxy Gear. Retailing for just under $300, the Galaxy Gear has sold more than 300,000 units since its debut in 2013. Though Samsung has run away with the early lead, it is far from critic-proof. In their review of the watch, tech-focused website DigitalTrends.com noted the watch’s slow gesture-response time, its relatively limited selection of compatible apps, and its poor notification system. Still, if you’re looking for reasons to discredit the whole smart watch field, you have to remember how far we are from the finish line. Early MP3 players were equally as unimpressive.

Other top sellers include the Pebble Smartwatch, the Sony SW2, and the budget-priced GSM Quadband. Early crowd sentiment seems to favor Pebble’s version of the technology. Its high Amazon ratings and generous critical reviews have made it the benchmark for mass-market smart watch technology. Reviews are still trickling in for the 2014 Pebble Steel, and we will have to see if they retain their critical dominance with an influx of new competitors.

The Current Breed of Smart Watches

One of the most exciting things about delving into an emerging technology like the smart watch is seeing what’s around the corner. There are no shortage of innovations being made in the field. Just this year, Google announced that they were throwing their hat into the ring with Android Wear. Besides bringing with it integrated features like voice command, social media applications, and fitness functionality, Android Wear will doubtlessly continue to solidify Android’s OS dominance in the smart watch world.

As you might expect, though, Apple isn’t too far behind. While they have been slow to enter the race, plans are already on the table for an iWatch. Rumors abound when it comes to Apple’s new wearable, but facts about the device’s development have been slow to emerge. Industry speculators expect to see the iWatch hit the market by either the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, at which time we could begin to see a seismic shift away from the Android platform.

As speculation increases on Apple’s intentions and Google’s plans begin to crystallize, we have a number of smart watch choices ready for market. CES 2014 provided industry critics and tech-fans alike with an insight into the next generation of smart watches. Some of the standouts included:

Pebble Steel – Building off crowd-sourced financing, Pebble developed their original smart watch with their investors in mind. The Pebble Steel remains true to the technology of their popular original while adding some aesthetic changes meant to appeal to a wider customer base. Since the “ugliness” of today’s smart watches are what many consider its biggest weakness, the Pebble Steel is a fairly significant step in the right direction. Pebble has also introduced an app store in the hopes of attracting innovation from tech companies.

Omate TrueSmart – It’s not surprising that an emerging technology in the 2010s would be so commonly funded by crowd-sourcing. The Omate TrueSmart, like the Pebble, was funded through donations. It goes a step beyond the typical smart watch’s limitations by cutting out the middleman. Most smart watches connect to laptops and iPhones through Bluetooth, but the TrueSmart acts as its own phone. With the help of an integrated SIM card, Omate’s entry into CES allows you to make calls, text, e-mail, and browse the Internet without the assistance of another device.

MetaWatch – MetaWatch’s 2013 involvement in the smart watch category was mostly mediocre. Their presentation at CES 2014, however, shows that this is a company bound for greater things. Dropping the “Watch” part of their name in favor of the cleaner-sounding Meta, they have stripped the smart watch to its essentials in the hopes of attracting a slew of new users. If the smart watch can make the jump from tech-geek chic to mainstream acceptance, it will be led by the sleek, efficient models embodied by Meta.

Kreyos Meteor – Along with Pebble and Omate, Kreyos managed to secure its funding through crowd-sourced financing. The resulting model was on display at CES, and fans were impressed with the level of professionalism emanating from their exhibit. Counting on support from the fitness demographic, the Kreyos Meteor is packed with features that should appeal to anyone with an active lifestyle. Apps that can analyze your golf swing or count your calories prove that Kreyos has done their best to hit their market niche. You can pre-order the Meteor for $169, but there is no word yet on when their ultimate release date will be.

What The Future Holds For Smart Watches

With all of the major software and hardware companies involved in the smart watch market, the future may look inevitable for wearable technology. Of course, this isn’t necessarily the case. Fitness and health features currently dominate the wearables market. Bands, bracelets, and watches provide a benefit to active lifestyles that don’t permit lugging around a tablet or even a phone. But the question remains whether or not the masses will see a reason to add a new device to their growing collection of mobile computers.

Anyone with an eye on technology can predict the future of something as basic as the microchip, but predicting the market rise of something as niche as the smart watch invites a lot of folly. We never know when the next big thing will take over the marketplace. Beats headphones are more highly priced than many of their critically-acclaimed competitors, but they are running away with the marketplace due to design and advertising. Now companies like Sennheiser and Audio-Techina are shifting their approach to copy their success. Better, in business, isn’t always “better.”

Of course, a murky future doesn’t prevent research companies from making inferences from data trends. Juniper Research did just that in 2013, predicting that smart watches would find universal acceptance over the next few years. While only a million smart watches were shipped to stores in 2012, Juniper expects to see more than 36 million shipped by the end of 2018. NextMarket sees even greater things ahead. They predict sales of more than 300 million by the end of 2020. Whether these numbers materialize or not depends on a few factors.

If smart watches are ever to penetrate the mainstream, they will have to do so through two primary avenues. Better aesthetics and better marketing will see smart watches finally get their chance to shine on a new level. Once these watches are fully able to replace your smartphone, you may also see more people willing to trade one for the other. Will we see that happen in the next few years? If not, customers will probably need to see some significant price drops before they spend their money on a supplementary device. Today’s smart watch technology may require a price under $100 to see mainstream acceptance.

With Google, Apple, crowd-sourcing, and consumers hungry for the technology, however, smart watches could very well be poised for their big breakthrough.

If you’re an early adopter, there are several excellent models hitting the shelves this year alone. Be sure and inform yourself regarding the different features and technologies available before you make your purchase.

But, if you’re the type that prefers to wait until things settle a bit, you can probably save a lot of money by waiting to see which direction the winds blow first!

Whenever human beings hear an ugly sound, The Amygdala, which is the emotional part of the brain, modulates the auditory part of the brain so that our perception of the negative noise is heightened. This is why ugly sounds seem so intense when we hear them.

The Sound Humans Love To Hate The Most:

The Online Alarm Clock’s alarm sound: it’s an annoying beep, beep, beep that has been affectionately referred to as “The Sound of Robotic Crickets Mating“, but it’s truly effective at getting you up and at ’em, even at lower volume levels!

[ Pssst: If you really need to use different alarm sounds, you can use just about any YouTube Video as your alarm sound with our Video Alarm Clock. ]

Or here…check out the cool Motion Infographic or video version of “Online Clock’s Most Hated Sounds”:

If you like our Infographic or our Video, please feel free to share it on your blog or your favorite Social Media website! Here’s a preview image to make it look good when you share it:

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this…but we’re quite sure that we had even MORE FUN making it for you…

🙂

There’s something oddly exciting about seeing a new section pop up on OnlineClock.net, isn’t there?

Well, we think you’re going to like our newest addition to the family. If you head to our home page, you’ll find a new link titled “Can’t Sleep?” Because many of our users rely on the Online Alarm Clock to wake them up in the morning, a few of you probably browse the site while battling insomnia. Sometimes the best answer to insomnia isn’t to try to force sleep but rather to treat your mind to a little bit of nighttime stimulation. Our new online games are relaxing, simple, and just the ticket for those long nights when sleep seems a million miles away.

The Dreaded Specter of Insomnia

Most of us have experienced insomnia at some point in our lives. While chronic sleeplessness should be addressed by changes in your lifestyle and/or medical intervention, it’s normal to have trouble falling asleep from time to time. Some estimates say that as much as 40 percent of the adult population struggles with insomnia in any given year. 10 to 15 percent of those adults have chronic issues with the disorder. Our Online Alarm Clock Games aren’t meant to cure chronic insomnia, but they may work perfectly to address the occasional problem.

The Online Gaming Generation

The concept of online browser games is unlikely to be a new one for most of our visitors. According to the latest research, nearly 60 percent of the country plays video games of some sort(!). Some choose to play on a console, others prefer online games, and many more have found themselves enthralled with mobile games. Our new online games certainly don’t aspire to be the next installment of Call of Duty, but the simple approach is best when you’re trying to get your brain to settle down and go to sleep.

Insomnia and Gaming

If you have 40 percent of Americans struggling to sleep and 60 percent playing video games, logic would suggest there is at least some overlap in the two demographics. While studies have shown that video games can actually cause insomnia, the online browser games we’ve introduced to the site aim for just the opposite. These are simple games that don’t require you to wake up and think about your choices. They don’t require a great deal of coordination and skill. These are games meant to hit your relaxation center in a way most modern games don’t.

Introducing the Online Alarm Clock Games Section

For years, we’ve prided ourselves on expanding the site every chance we get. Not content with merely being the Web’s number one destination for clocks and timers, we’ve introduced background videos, blog articles on sleep and time management, an online radio, and much more. When we learned that many of our visitors were fans of online games, adding a section devoted to simple browser games was a no-brainer. The Online Alarm Clock Games include:

Online Crystal Ball

Our sour-faced fortune teller will answer any question you ask him. With answers that range from thoughtful to hilariously abstract, the Online Crystal Ball will give you plenty to think about while you doze into a peaceful slumber.

Tic Tac Toe

What could be simpler than a rousing game of Tic Tac Toe? If you haven’t played this childhood classic since you were a kid, you may find it a perfect way to wind down after a tough day. Test your time-worn strategies against the computer.

Pong

It wasn’t the first arcade game to be developed, but Pong managed to achieve mainstream popularity before Pac-Man was a twinkle in his creator’s eye. Now that classic game is back and on our site! Challenge the computer to a vigorous tennis match. Don’t worry; you won’t break a sweat.

Reflex Tester

This simple game is designed to see how fast you can react to a certain event. In this case, you will be asked to click a button when a box changes colors. If you notice your reaction time slowing, it might be time to give sleep another try!

Lucky Number Generator

Everyone needs a little bit of luck in their lives. If you believe in the power of numbers, our Lucky Number Generator may be able to unlock your good fortune. Maybe the comfort of knowing your lucky numbers will bring you the peace of mind necessary for restful sleep.

Roll Dice Online

The great thing about dice is their randomness. You can use them in a variety of situations whenever you need chance to decide something. A lot of us run into problems sleeping because a difficult decision is weighing us down. You may not want to trust fate to make major life decisions for you, but maybe it can help you decide where to eat lunch tomorrow!

Snake

What is it about the simplest games that seem to addict us the most? Few games are as simple as Snake, but the challenge of collecting as many red boxes as possible will keep you occupied while you wait for your brain to wind down. Don’t let your snake hit the edges!

Flip a Coin

If our Roll Dice Online game gave you too many options, maybe you need to reduce fate to just a couple of choices. Our Flip a Coin game will give you a random heads-or-tails result, giving you an excellent way to decide whether to play more games or try sleep one more time.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Believe it or not, the concept behind this competition goes back 2,000 years to the Chinese Han Dynasty. Now you can play it at OnlineClock.net. Interestingly, the Chinese must also be given credit for having some of the world’s first mechanical clocks, which started turning up around 725 A.D.

Online Stopwatch Games

If this collection of games isn’t enough for you, we’ve also linked out to our Stopwatch Games. These three games take advantage of our online stopwatch by providing timed challenges that can get your reflexes moving.

Games and sports have been around as long as written history, and they may have existed long before then. We use online games to challenge ourselves, pass the time, and keep our brains sharp. It may seem counter-intuitive to turn to games when you can’t sleep, but we believe that a quick round of Tic Tac Toe or Snake may be just the solution for the occasional wide-awake evening! Next time you can’t get across the bridge to Dreamland, try our Online Alarm Clock Games instead of counting sheep. Just don’t forget to set your alarm before you drift off!

And finally…a further bit of background information regarding why we added this new Online Alarm Clock Games section to our site.

Not All Of Our Web Projects “Make It”

Just about everyone who’s been active on the Internet for the last eight years is familiar with our Online Alarm Clock. But the truth is, we’ve actually created dozens of different websites over the years. Some of them become popular in their own way, such as our online text editor Edit Pad, or our online decision maker YesNoMayBe.info, but some of them do tend to linger in obscurity.

One such site that was lingering in obscurity was our simple online games site that we are now taking offline. Although the site failed to reached a decent-sized audience while it was online, we still think that the content (the mini browser games found on the site) is pretty cool, and would find its audience, if somehow introduced to enough people. That’s why we came up with the idea of taking the original games site offline and moving this content over to OnlineClock.net.

Of course, most of you probably don’t need to know this and probably don’t care; but we just wanted you to get the entire story, since we’re writing about our new Games Section here at length.

No late night gaming! (Yeah, right)

So please…next time that you can’t sleep, or at any time of the day that you could use a few minutes of fun, check out our simple Online Alarm Clock Games which are now online and, like everything else on OnlineClock.net, free for everyone to use…with no user registration required!

Please let us know what you think of our new games section, and make recommendations for new kinds of games for us to add, by using the comments form below!

Do you ever get uncomfortable when your microwave clock is a minute or two off from your oven clock?

This mild time differential may not seem significant, but it provides a snapshot of how we regard the ethereal nature of time. Scientists in the field of Metrology (the science of measurement), however, see things in a different light. Using atomic clocks, they are able to measure time to a precision impossible with traditional elector-mechanical timepieces. These clocks have long been the standard by which any other timekeeper is measured, and they are only getting better.

The Atomic Clock

Atomic clocks work off the natural oscillation occurring within the atom. At all times, the nucleus engages in a never-ending dance with its electrons. This dance is measured and predictable. The atom’s mass sets the frequency of the oscillations, and it is through their steady, dependable rhythm that an atomic clock can harness unparalleled reliability.

Clocks have used some form of oscillation to keep their time reliably since the beginning of clock-making. What sets atomic clocks apart is that their oscillations are not subject to the natural whims of the environment. Clocks based on water pull, pendulums, chronometry, and the earth’s rotation will all lose time due to these changes. Because the inner rhythm of an atom remains unchanged, clocks that rely on their oscillation are the most accurate in the world.

Improving on Excellence

When you ask someone for the time, you’re probably happy if you can get an estimate within five minutes of the mark. Metrologists, however, are still working diligently to improve on the atomic clock. Today’s standard-bearing atomic clocks work by using cesium, an element that becomes agitated when microwave frequencies reach a certain state. Dr. Alan Madej of the Canadian National Research Council is just one scientist working on the next generation of atomic clocks. Through the research at Madej’s lab and others, atomic clocks are moving away from microwaves and into the use of laser light. Known as optical-lattice clocks, these new timepieces can split the second into smaller intervals. This increased dissection leads to even greater accuracy.

Alan Madej

Madej and his associates have developed a single-ion clock which is able to measure the 430 trillion light waves per second it takes to energize a strontium atom. The clock converts the measurement of these light waves into individual ticks, allowing them to measure time at a microscopic level that surpasses any of the atomic clocks in current use.

Of course, Canada’s NRC is just one Metrology Lab of many. Labs around the world are focused on creating the next advances in atomic clock technology, and it is the spirit of competition between them that drives us to new heights in accuracy. A team working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado has developed what is now being called the most advanced clock in the world. Under the guiding research of physicist Jun Ye, the team was able to create an atomic clock that would stay accurate to the second for up to five billion years.

Technology and Theory

Jun Ye and his team may have accomplished greatness in developing their new clock, but the theoretical underpinnings that make the advancements possible have been around since the early 2000s. It was then that researchers realized that holding Sr atoms in optical latticework would prevent them from being agitated by outside factors. Unfortunately, laser stability was not reliable enough to make the clocks work until 2013. The research Ye and his team has conducted led directly to better laser technology that could then be applied to their new atomic clock.

Accurate Time and its Importance

Is there any practical reason to have a clock that will still be accurate after five billion years? Certainly, it is unlikely to have much affect on our day-to-day lives, a fact that the top Metrologists in the world readily admit.

That said, advances in clock technology have the potential to affect other technologies across a wide spectrum of fields. For instance, today’s advanced computer networks rely on precise atomic clocks to work correctly. The same can be said for the national GPS system, which couldn’t figure out your exact location without the reliability of atomic oscillation. Jun Ye is on record as envisioning a future where increasingly accurate atomic clocks can help scientists study quantum physics, look deeper into the space-time continuum, and explore theoretical concepts such as black holes.

Jun Ye

A History of Progress

Of course, we weren’t always obsessed with timekeeping as a species. Up until the 17th century, people relied on general, inaccurate measures of time predicated on gravitational pull, the sun, and other methods that could not be reduced to minutes and seconds. It was not until Italian mathematician Tito Livio Burattini proposed a definition of the second in 1685 that Metrology got serious about getting accurate time. Burattini’s definition was 1/86,400 of a solar day, and it was based on the rotation of the earth on its axis. Though this definition was accurate enough for both laymen and scientists for hundreds of years, it fell short of providing scientists with the accuracy they needed for 20th century technology.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity introduced new problems into the mix, and scientists immediately began conducting experiments that might lead to a more reliable unit of time. To study his theories, provide radio broadcasting, and distribute electricity effectively, society needed to rethink Burattini’s time measurements through steady oscillations the earth couldn’t provide. By 1955, scientists were using atoms to tap into a new cosmic pendulum, giving us the most accurate clocks the world had ever seen. Using these new methods, the scientific community redefined the second by using cesium atoms. By breaking the link between time and the earth’s rotations, science was able to define time in a way that wouldn’t degrade in the same manner.

The Present and the Future of Atomic Clock Research

Atomic clock research isn’t limited to the advances made by Jun Ye or Alan Medej. Other types of atomic clock technology have been developed using hydrogen, rupidium vapor, and of course cesium. Some advances are geared toward making the clocks smaller, decreasing their cost, and reducing the amount of power they need to function.

We live in a world governed by precise time. You may not care too much about the difference between 8:05 and 8:06, but without greater accuracy many of today’s technological wonders would be impossible. Everything from the stock market to mass transit depends on accurate time. In the future, there will almost certainly be new technologies and devices that require atomic accuracy to work properly. Until then, researchers at Canada’s NRC, America’s NIST, and other laboratories around the world will continue to push us forward into a brave new millennium.

By using your computer’s time settings, which are usually updated via time servers over the Internet, Online Clock is playing its own small part in helping to ensure accurate timekeeping!

Editor’s Note: You might ask, why are we publishing this, which is essentially a press release, on our own blog? It’s because we find that many press release sites have unfortunately become pretty spammy in this modern age…

OnlineClock.net has released new Ambient Background Wallpapers, which you can now find live on the Online Clock website.

After eight years of giving users the tools they need to track time and stay productive, the Internet’s original Online Alarm Clock site once again ups the ante.

For nearly eight years, OnlineClock.net has been the standard-bearer when it comes to free time tools on the Internet. Never satisfied with resting on their laurels, the popular site has now added ambient background videos to its ever-growing array of clocks and timers.

“The time was right for this,” says the owner/creator of OnlineClock.net. “One of our original goals with the site was to provide users with a tool that could keep them focused on their work. These background videos have been specifically chosen for their calming qualities. Waterfalls, fireplaces, aquariums.” He laughs before adding, “You’ll either get a lot of work done, or you’ll be fast asleep in no time.”

Videos featuring soothing background ambience are nothing new, of course. Fireplace simulation DVDs have been around as long as the players themselves. By integrating these sounds and visuals into their already-useful clock feature, however, OnlineClock.net once again raises the bar. Users have the option of turning on these backgrounds with the click of the mouse, and the site provides a number of options for customizing the experience after that. Clock size, sound control (by choosing videos without sound), and background type are all modifiable.

Studies have shown that most people are more productive when they can block out the mania around them. Work-at-home moms, workers contending with a noisy office, and students who have to make do with studying at a crowded Starbucks must find ways to turn off the world and focus. For many, that means listening to music. In some instances, unfortunately, music can be as distracting as conversation. By implementing soothing sounds and videos, OnlineClock.net has turned their already useful website into a supercharged productivity furnace.

Background Videos That Pop and Sizzle

While there are a few sites already online that boast moderate background noise, none have incorporated the range of choices provided by OnlineClock.net. Not satisfied with putting up a single style, the site has instead given their users the freedom to choose the video that best suits their mood. Selections include:

Online Rain Backgrounds

The site’s various rainy day backgrounds simulate the sounds of an afternoon shower, giving users a peaceful rhythm without the slightest chance of getting wet.

Virtual Fireplace

With four separate videos, OnlineClock.net provides the warm atmosphere of a virtual roaring fireplace without any of the smoke or fuss!

Virtual Aquarium

Fish swim to and fro, giving users the sounds and ambiance of a bubbling aquarium. There are several cool virtual aquarium backgrounds to choose from!

Online Washing Machines

Anyone who grew up in a house with a washing machine can probably relate to the cozy atmosphere of clothes tumbling in the background.

Running Water Scenes

Most people can agree that running water is among the most soothing sounds in nature. OnlineClock.net has those sounds (and sights!) on hand to make the workday as peaceful and calming as a babbling brook.

Shutting Out The World

According to a 2012 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, moderate noise is superior to both low amounts and high amounts when it comes to creativity and higher-level thinking. For people who want to maximize their productivity when they sit down to complete a project, ambient background videos can be the key that unlocks the door to a rich, effective session. When combined with OnlineClock.net‘s extensive collection of timers and alarm clocks, even the most easily-distracted user can unlock their inner productivity dragon.

Of course, visitors to OnlineClock.net don’t need to be under a deadline to take advantage of the tools on display. The alarm clocks can be used as a reminder to do something later in the day. They can be used to time practice sessions or bring an end to a short catnap. The background videos are mesmerizing enough to be a point of focus all on their own, providing users with ambient sounds and images as conducive to meditation as they are a constructive work session.

Free of Hassle and Free of Charge

While a fireplace DVD may cost $5 and an alarm clock as much as $50 or more, OnlineClock.net continues to provide users with productivity tools free of charge. In fact, the creator of Online Clock got the idea for these new animated video background while strolling through the video aisles at a local Walmart and seeing various DVDs and Blu-Rays offering ambient background scenes, which to him seemed on the one hand strangely humorous but also…downright useful. True enough, he purchased a couple of these videos and tried them out at home, only to think, “Hey, what if we were to make an online version of this!”. The rest, as they say, is history.

There is no fee attached to the site’s many features, and the site is free of annoying registrations and privacy intrusions. As ever, users need only navigate to the site to experience everything OnlineClock.net has to offer!

Editor’s Note: End of Press Release 😉

Here’s a Video Version of our Infographic:

OnlineClock.net’s Top 15 Online Time Management Disasters

1.  I’ll just check Facebook one last time (Facebook addict checking Friends) – Uselessness Score: 2/3
2. I wonder what new videos they have on Amazon… (person sitting at desk surrounded by Amazon packages) – Uselessness Score: 3/3
3. Am I still the highest bidder on eBay? (person with steam coming out of ears, looking at ‘you’ve been outbid!’ message on screen) – Uselessness Score: 1/3
4. I wonder if those new followers unfollowed me? (secret agent peering at Twitter logo around corner) – Uselessness Score: 2/3
5. That’s it. Just one more quick game of Bejeweled (show screen of Bejeweled with a person’s head falling down instead of jewels…there are X’s for eyes) – Uselessness Score: 3/3
6. I’ll just check to see who’s online today playing Call of Duty (skeleton full of cobwebs sitting playing Call of Duty) – Uselessness Score: 2/3
7. I wonder what’s happening on Google News right now (show person with a very long beard checking Google News) – Uselessness Score: 0/3
8. I’ll go on Skype, but I’ll set my status to ‘Away’… (show chat screen with person chatting with dozens of people simultaneously) – Uselessness Score: 2/3
9. I’ll just check to see if I got a new Email (show person hitting ‘Refresh’ infinitely…) – Uselessness Score: 1/3
10. Just give me two seconds to check my Tumblr… (lots of cat memes being shown on Tumblr page) – Uselessness Score: 2/3
11. What’s all the rage on Reddit right now? (rage comic: F.UUUUUUUUUUU) – Uselessness Score: 0/3
12. Did anyone new flirt with me on my online dating website? (opening envelope with hearts & flowers & cupids flying out) – Uselessness Score: 2/3
13. Two words: Browser. Games.(Show firefox juggling balls) – Uselessness Score: 2/3
14. Did I FINALLY get a plus on Google Plus? (Show a desert scene with tumbleweeds) – Uselessness Score: 1/3
15. YouTube (Enough said!) – Uselessness Score: 3/3

Time Management Disasters Preview Image:

The clock is known as the Colgate Clock, and it has a very long and interesting history.

It’s owned by Colgate-Palmolive and Company, and it made its debut in 1924. The clock was designed specifically to be seen from a great distance, and for many years, it was considered the world’s largest clock. Although it’s probably way down the current list of the largest clocks in existence, it’s still thought of fondly by the people of both New Jersey and New York. They are very proud of this landmark; it’s always been there to help keep them on time for work and scheduled events.

Traveling Through Time: The Colgate Clock’s History

The highly recognizable octagonal clock faces Manhattan Island, and it debuted on December 1, 1924.

The surface of the clock is 1,963 square feet and 50 feet in diameter. The minute hand measures 25 feet in length. The hour hand stretches out to 20 feet. The clock is adjustable, and the clock’s accuracy is within one minute of the correct time. There was once a small master clock at Colgate that was used to synchronize with the time of the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. The mechanism of the Colgate Clock is much like a traditional wall clock. It uses weights and wheels, but it is powered by 28 large-volt batteries, which are rechargeable.

The Colgate Clock was, at one time, the largest clock in the world, making it one more thing that New Yorkers and people from New Jersey liked to boast about (including the then-mayor of New York).

The original Colgate Clock, as it appeared in Jersey City, New Jersey, atop the old Colgate factory building.

After enduring the elements for over 31 years, the clock was stopped for repairs on June 13, 1955. The laminated wooden hands were waterlogged, and the steel trusses that supported the hands were rusted. The replacement hands were made of porcelain steel facing, and the hour and quarter-hour points were lit with fluorescent lighting to replace the old incandescent lighting. The replacement of the clock’s hands took much longer than expected. This prompted hundreds of calls to the company from New Yorkers who were counting on the clock to keep them on schedule(!). The clock’s restoration during this time was completed on July 29, 1955.

Colgate’s landmark clock is a replacement for an earlier and much smaller one. The earlier clock was designed by Warren Day, and it was built by the Seth Thomas Company for the centennial of Colgate’s founding in 1906. This older version measured 38 feet in diameter, and the face was made of stainless steel slats. It was installed in 1908. The clock had a large sign used to advertise Colgate’s products. It was illuminated at night by 1,607 lights. When replaced by the present-day clock, it was retired to a building owned by Colgate located in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

The Colgate Company

Colgate was founded by William Colgate. He began as a manufacturer of starch, soap and candles with a shop in New York City. Colgate eventually moved the company to Jersey City to make starch; many people thought it was a mistake. Instead, the company flourished. In 1908, Colgate opened a large complex in Jersey City. The company once produced soap and perfume, but it eventually gave up the production of perfume. After William Colgate died, his son reorganized the company as Colgate and Company. It began to produce brands such as Cashmere Bouquet, which was one of the first milled perfumed soaps. Colgate also revolutionized dental care with the production of toothpaste, which was sold in jars. Colgate was one of the first companies to sell toothpaste in collapsible tubes.

In 1910, Jersey City became Colgate’s corporate headquarters. It merged with the Palmolive-Peet Company in 1928. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1930. Colgate occupied a modern plant for its time over the six-block area of York, Greene, Hudson and Grand Streets in the 1950s. The Colgate Clock overlooks the Hudson River, and the original sign beneath the clock was removed in 1983; it was replaced by a new sign bearing the Colgate name. After 141 years in Jersey City, Colgate decided to leave for improved facilities that the original manufacturing complex couldn’t provide. The old complex was torn down and lowered to ground level. The sign was removed, and the clock became an iconic landmark in New Jersey. It’s a welcome and familiar sight to New Yorkers. The clock is currently maintained by Goldman-Sachs.

Colgate Clock Renovations

The Colgate Clock is currently being refurbished once again. Hurricane Sandy and time itself created the need for major repairs on this iconic landmark. The clock was bolted into place on its frame in September, 2013. It was installed slightly higher than before. Projects such as this one are quite expensive. Grants were procured to complete the repairs so that New Jersey and New York can continue to enjoy this wonderful landmark, which represents a time when factories dominated the Jersey Shore. We hope that all renovations for this classic timepiece will be completed soon!

Old clocks such as the Colgate Clock must be maintained so that their rich histories can be preserved. Although our current time can be tracked with a great deal more accuracy, old clocks possess a charm that newer devices just don’t seem to have. This American company was an important part of the Industrial Age. It should be kept running for as long as possible.

An old-fashioned package of Colgate’s Octagon Bar Soap, showing the octagonal shape that inspired the shape of the Colgate Clock!

For those of you who might be curious, the octagonal shape of the clock is fashioned after the original shape of a product that Colgate called Octagon Soap. This soap was quite harsh; it contained lye, but at the time, lots of people used it for their laundry detergent. There are even tales that kids would use it to wash their hair, but it had a bleaching effect that was quite noticeable. Later, this soap was manufactured in bars, and it was used as a hand soap that removed heavy dirt and grime.

A package of Colgate’s Octagon Soap Powder, which was also used as laundry detergent.

If you are ever in New York, look over the Hudson River at this marvelous clock; think about what it represents.

Try to imagine the warm and fuzzy feeling that New Yorkers and people from New Jersey feel when they see this clock, which they have looked at since their early childhood. Particularly, any stroll through Battery Park in New York made it difficult not to notice this popular landmark. In addition, the Colgate Clock has been featured in many Hollywood movies, perhaps most prominently in “The Insider” (1999) with Al Pacino and Russel Crowe.

A scene taking place in Battery Park from the great, classic 80s movie with Madonna, “Desperately Seeking Susan”. Somewhere in the background, if they’d just turn around, they’d see the Colgate Clock!

In the meantime, OnlineClock.net will continue to keep the precise time for you. We don’t have the bright lights of the old Colgate Clock, but we DO have some unique clocks and timers to help keep you on schedule. And many people would argue that we’re on our way to becoming a classic clock in our own right. 😉