Hoptroff will launch its atomic pocket watch complete with its own caesium gas chamber at Salon QP, in November.
London-based movement manufacturer Hoptroff’s No. 10 movement has been used to in the world’s first atomic-powered pocket watch.
The atomic clock, which is said to provide extreme accuracy, differs from radio-receiving watches because it actually contains a caesium gas chamber inside a temperature controlled oven – a laser to excite the atoms and a microwave resonator to measure their atomic transitions in order to measure time.
The No. 10 watch has a self-contained accuracy of one and a half seconds per thousand years.
Hoptroff managing director Richard Hoptroff said: "It would be nice to strive for even greater accuracy but relativistic effects start to kick in and time becomes subjective – in the eye of the beholder, so to speak." He adds: "The atomic physics package is supplied by Symmetricom, who originally developed it in collaboration with the US Department of Defense for use in cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles where it is needed to continue navigating in the presence of GPS radio jamming.
“As far as we know it is the first time an atomic time source has been used in a pocket watch movement and it delights me that it was achieved right here in London, not Le Locle or Tokyo."
The watch is said to measure 82mm in diameter and to be 25mm thick and only 12 are initially planned.
Salon QP 2013 runs from November 7 to 9 at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
