Internet Time and Sputnik 99

04/05/2025 40 min
Internet Time and Sputnik 99

Listen "Internet Time and Sputnik 99"

Episode Synopsis

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