14 DAY TRIAL // The world has a history of starting big and miniaturizing things after every big invention, but Richard Hoptroff, the man behind Hoptroff Watches, decided that atomic watches shouldn't go through the same. So he went ahead and built a pocket atomic watch which, despite its retro look, has a very high-end core that promises to tell time with perfect accuracy for at least 5 billion years.
Well, in theory. The parts will probably ground to nothing due to friction by then, but theoretically that's the time it would take for an error to emerge.
After all, an atomic clock measures time based on an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical or ultraviolet sections of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms.
In layman terms, atomic clocks (or in this case watches) are the most accurate way to tell time, that humans know of anyway. After all, they can outlast the world.
The new device is called Hoptroff No 10 Atomic Pocket and has an SA.45s CSAC on the inside, a device created by Symmetricom.
It is an atomic device that uses lasers to excite atoms, while a microwave resonator measures their atomic transitions.
“It keeps time with a precision that makes it good to within one and a half second every 1.000 years,” Hoptroff told Theprodigalguide website “This means it is the most precise watch in the world by a factor of 5,000.”
The Hoptroff No 10 Atomic Pocket Watch has a round circuit board inside, covered by tiny stepping motors that drive a bunch of hands and a green LED blinking light.
The watch comes in gold, or will come once it is finalized and ready for production. 3D printing technology, specifically selective laser sintering, will be used to create the watch case from gold. But more on that later.