David Llamas at the University of St Andrews

Internet Time

Internet Time is a new way to tell time, invented and marketed by the Swiss watch company Swatch. The current Internet Time is the same all over the World (no time zones or daylight saving time adjustments).

The current Internet time is:

Note for Internet Explorer users: The java applet might not run on your local desktop due to the security concept of the Explorer.

Theory

New time unit - the .beat

Instead of dividing the virtual and real day into 24 hours and 60 minutes per hour, the Internet Time system divides the day into 1000 ".beats". Each .beat is 1 minute and 26.4 seconds.

New meridian

Internet Time is based on a new Meridian (as opposed to the Greenwich Meridian). This new Meridian goes through Swatch's office in Biel, Switzerland and is called the BMT Meridian.

BMT - the reference for Internet Time

BMT, another invention of Swatch, Biel Mean Time, which is linked up to the Central European Winter/Standard time - which is UTC + 1 hour. When it is Midnight in BMT, the Internet Time is @000 beats, Noon is @500 beats. Time unit conversions

Beat Unit	Conversion	Unit	Beat Conversion
1 .beat	= 0.001 day	1 day	= 1000 .beats
1 .beat	= 0.024 hours	1 hour	= 41.666 .beats
1 .beat	= 1.44 minutes	1 minute	= 0.6944 .beats
1 .beat	= 86.4 seconds	1 second	= 0.01157 .beats

Advantages of the Internet Time system

It uses the normal decimal system, instead of the ancient 24 hour, 60 minute, 60 second system which makes time telling more complicated.
.beat time calculations are easy, @345 + 456 .beats = @801, compared to e.g. 3:45:20 + 2 hours, 25 minutes, 45 seconds, where the seconds, minutes and hours must all be added.
No need for time zone conversions - the Internet Time is the same everywhere.