The system would re-sync the clock at several thousand stations every single minute. In 1944 a Swiss engineer named Hans Hilfiker designed a new system that would synchronize clocks at each station using signals that traveled via telephone cables. During the era of mechanical timekeeping, this was a very manual process that required regular synchronization. Trains not only needed to be on time, but train stations each needed to know the same time.

If you are a train historian then you know the pivotal role that the railroad industry had in precision timepieces.

In the 1940s Switzerland wanted the clocks in each of their train stations to be synchronized. The story starts with a Swiss desire for accuracy – naturally. So the logical question is why? According to Mondaine, the Swiss SBB Railwaya clocks have been doing this for about 70 years. The seconds hand quickly moves to catch up with correct time. The strange part is that when the seconds hand reaches “O,” it just stops for a full two seconds, and then jumps ahead to keep telling the time. On a white background, the incredibly legible clocks have black hand hour and minute indicators along with a red seconds hand tipped with a large circle. The design of the clocks has been memorialized in Mondaine watches, and later in Apple devices, as they’ve “borrowed” the design in some versions of iOS. I was probably standing at a train station in Switzerland for a half dozen times before I first realized a peculiar thing about the clocks.

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