[time-nuts] Plus-minus 1sec per century wristwatches coming...??

[Michael Baker]

Jeff Mock posted the URL of an article on the history of
quartz oscillators in wristwatches which I found quite
fascinating.

Here is its Tiny-URL:   http://tinyurl.com/35nsct

Following the recent announcement of super-tiny atomic
clocks no larger than "a grain of rice" I am anxiously
anticipating the introduction of wristwatches capable of
+/- a few seconds per century.

See the NIST announcement here:
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From:  http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/miniclock.htm

The heart of a minuscule atomic clock —believed to be 100 times smaller than any 
other atomic clock— has been demonstrated by scientists at the Commerce 
Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), opening the 
door to atomically precise timekeeping in portable, battery-powered devices for 
secure wireless communications, more precise navigation and other applications.

Described in the Aug. 30, 2004, issue of Applied Physics Letters, the clock’s 
inner workings are about the size of a grain of rice (1.5 millimeters on a side 
and 4 millimeters high), consume less than 75 thousandths of a watt (enabling 
the clock to be operated on batteries) and are stable to one part in 10 billion, 
equivalent to gaining or losing just one second every 300 years.

In addition, this “physics package” could be fabricated and assembled on 
semiconductor wafers using existing techniques for making 
micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), offering the potential for low-cost 
mass production of an atomic clock about the size of a computer chip and 
permitting easy integration with other electronics. Eventually, the physics 
package will be integrated with an external oscillator and control circuitry 
into a finished clock about 1 cubic centimeter in size.
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Mike Baker
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