The CW&T Time Since Launch is a thoughtful piece of horological art celebrating life’s important moments

Jamie Weiss

As dangerous as it is for a watch journalist to say, time is a human construct. Well, at the very least, it’s tricky. Our world isn’t static; things change – that’s why scientists talk about spacetime – but the way we measure time, whether that’s with watches or otherwise, is mostly something that we human beings have come up with to make sense of our world. But there’s beauty in measuring time (case in point: mechanical watches), and there’s value in commemorating the important things in life… And there are few more beautiful or whimsical ways of recording time than the CW&T Time Since Launch.

The creation of NYC-based husband-and-wife designers Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy – who have previously experimented with timepieces, such as their Superlocal clock and head-scratching Solid State Watch – describe it as “a single-use, long-scale launch clock”. The Time Since Launch is an ultra-minimalist, but highly emotive way to mark and celebrate life’s big moments. As they put it, you can “use this very long-scale timepiece to mark the beginning of your epoch”, or “elevate an otherwise arbitrary moment to super awesome status”.

Essentially, it’s a skinny LCD clock suspended in a borosilicate glass tube and sealed with thick aluminium end-caps with rubber gaskets. At the end of one of these caps is a pin with a chain on the end. Pull the pin, and the Time Since Launch will start counting up, which it will do so for the next 1 million days (or 2,738 years). It’s like a grenade, except you wouldn’t want to throw it… Also, before you ask, you can only do this once: pulling the pin burns your launch time into the chip’s silicon, making that moment yours forever. CW&T won’t backdate Time Since Launches, either.

Its minimalist display shows days, hours, minutes, and seconds since launch, and doesn’t use much electricity to run. CW&T explains that the Time Since Launch “consists of only essential electrical components to mitigate potential failure points.”Additionally, the Time Since Launch ships in a “pre-launch mode” which periodically cycles through each display segment to ensure even wear and tear up until launch time. This pre-launch mode has the added benefit of looking super cool – like it’s some sort of alien device just waiting to be set off.

It’s powered by AA batteries (specifically, it ships with two Energizer L91 Ultimate Lithium batteries), and according to their calculations, the Time Since Launch has a conservative run time of over 150 years. When it does come time to change out the batteries, it’s as simple as pulling off one of the ends and swapping new batteries in. About 6 months before it is time to change the batteries, its display will indicate that the batteries are low, and during the swap, backup capacitors will keep the real-time chip powered and running without losing time.

 

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CW&T also explains that the Time Since Launch uses a low-power, real-time clock chip with a temperature-compensated crystal oscillator that is extremely stable at room temperature and can hold its frequency at less than ±2.5 parts per million (ppm). They claim this level of accuracy is 10 times better than a normal quartz watch crystal: “if you were to shoot a basketball from a court in NYC to a hoop in Philly with ±2.5ppm accuracy, you’d miss by one foot.” Take that, IWC.

Personally, I think this is a triumph of design – the juxtaposition between its industrial, futuristic minimalism and the highly romantic, personal nature of its function is brilliant. I want one for my wedding. In a confusing, postmodern, often very nihilistic world where nothing makes sense and the ravages of time threaten us all (I often wonder about how, seeing as most people don’t take film photos any more, how many memories we might all lose to data rot), the Time Since Launch is a tangible and beautiful way to record, remember and elevate the passage of time.

The CW&T Time Since Launch retails for US$420 and is available from CW&T’s online boutique. It can also be laser-engraved with a custom message for an extra US$15, and a wall mount will set you back US$30. Find out more here.