Internet Time and Sputnik 99

May 4, 2025
40 mins

Episode Description

Swiss watch company Swatch came up with a new way to tell time in 1998, known as "Internet Time" or ".beats time." It led to an international controversy over advertising, radio frequencies, and Russia's Mir space station.

Hosted by Corbin Davenport, guest starring Cody Toombs.

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Watches:
https://www.swatch.com/en-en/webmaster-ii-sqb101c/SQB101C.html
https://www.swatch.com/en-en/great-australian-byte-sqz100/SQZ100.html
https://www.swatch.com/en-en/webstream-green-yqs1001ag/YQS1001AG.html
https://www.swatch.com/en-en/moon-or-beat-iv-yfs4010/YFS4010.html
https://www.swatch.com/en-en/sonic-the-hedgehog-sqk101/SQK101.html

Sources:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/swatch-wont-take-apple-to-court-over-iwatch-trademark/
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37350870
https://www.wnyc.org/story/tldr-15-internet-time/
https://www.wired.com/1998/12/time-for-a-change/
https://news.mit.edu/1998/summit-1118
https://segaretro.org/Press_release:_2000-02-24:_Sega_and_Swatch_Team_Up:_Two_Major_Players_Meet_in_Cyberspace
https://lpcwiki.miraheze.org/wiki/Ericsson_T20
https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/05/14/lost-in-space-en
https://www.wired.com/1999/04/spam-thats-out-of-this-world/
https://web.archive.org/web/19991110070006/http://www.ccr.jussieu.fr/physio/amsat-france/Press-rel-05.htm
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sputnik-40.htm
https://www.pso-world.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=883
https://web.archive.org/web/20010215002746/http://hamradio-online.com/1999/apr/arrl-swatch.html
https://latimes.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-swatch-beatnik-can/170703674/
https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=25685

Chapters:
0:00:00 Intro
0:00:27 Swatch & Internet Time
0:07:50 The Watches
0:16:44 Adoption of Internet Time
0:20:05 Sputnik 99
0:36:18 Swatch vs. Apple
0:38:00 Outro
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