Internet Time and Sputnik 99

Internet Time and Sputnik 99

From Tech Tales by Corbin Davenport

May 4, 2025 · 40 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the introduction of Internet Time by Swatch and the resulting international controversy.

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. Follow on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/techtalesshow.com Follow on Mastodon/Fediverse: https://mas.to/@techtales Support the Show: https://techtalesshow.com/support 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 •…

People in this episode

Host: Corbin Davenport

Guest: Cody Toombs

Topics covered

  • Internet Time
  • Swatch
  • advertising controversy
  • radio frequencies
  • space exploration

Keywords

  • Internet Time
  • Swatch
  • Cody Toombs
  • advertising
  • radio frequencies
  • Mir space station
  • technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Swatch, Russia

Places: Mir space station

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