h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I mean why choose a new meridian? It just makes it more complicated. So why did they choose a new meridian? That should be in the article, I think. Was it for commercial reasons (Swatch in Switzerland) or is it because the meridian shouldn't matter in Internet time?

Also, has the idea gained any general acceptance?

I agree! There already is a universal time which is the same all over the world. It is called UTC and is established by time labs in a number of different countries. I don't see any reason to adopt another one.

You can calculate UTC from your own local time very easily by adding or subtracting a fixed amount. The only way to work out "Internet Time" is to have a separate clock. Made by Swatch.

Many people have attempted to decimalise time, including the French just after the revolution, but we're all used to hours, minutes and seconds.

What we should be working towards is getting everybody to use the 24 hour format. There are still lots of people who insist on write 1:15 pm and 7am. There are even people who write 12:15 am meaning just after noon.

The only reason why Swatch enaugerated the Beil Meridian was so they had somewherte local to calculate their internet time from. Coincidently, this meridian is identical to Central European Wintertime (+1GMT).

So far, the only things that use UIT are overpriced Swatch watches, and a plethora of freeware internet time converters.

Another thing Swatch haven't taken into account is the units. Normal clocks have units of 1 second, a Beat has a unit of 1 minute 26 seconds. So which is more useful? the existing system.

What's next decimalising the calendar? I can imagine the fun that will cause. There was trouble when the calendar was converted from Julian to Gregorian, but that was just adding a leap year and moving the days on a bit.