While many of us no doubt look to kill some time during the day, at the Olympic Games keeping time is crucial. And with the London 2012 Games the official Olympic timekeepers Omega will be unveiling the latest technology to track the various competitions.
It can reportedly monitor athletes’ performance to the nearest one thousandth of a second. But this is more than just a stopwatch. This year’s games will see 450 professional timekeepers, supported by about 800 trained volunteers, working 420 tons of equipment that includes 390 scoreboards, 180 kilometers of cables and armed with the latest time keeping devices. His is a long way from the single timekeeper using 27 stop watches in the Berlin Games in 1936!
Omega Olympic Timekeeping History
BBC History of Olympic timings