PATEK PHILIPPE T2 MODULAR INTEGRATED TIMING SYSTEM

“Since 1839, Patek Philippe has established a reputation for product quality and technical innovation of the highest order. These master clock systems are the outcome of the same stream of technological developments that led to the production of the quartz wristwatch. This was new ground that Patek Philippe broke by inventing the quartz chronometer and the 100 percent fully electronic master clock.” Advertising brochure, Circa 1975.

Patek Philippe developed master timing systems to be used in an array of business and services including airports, broadcast stations, hospitals, military, NASA and even the Vatican. This five rack system was made for a nuclear power plant in Germany and controlled its mother and subsidiary clock system for almost two decades. These Modular Integrated Mother Clock Systems were accurate to .02 secs per 24 hours, allowing an almost limitless amount of subsidiary clocks on a system to operate in sync and accurately. T2 systems, such as this system, allowed for uninterrupted impulse distribution for a large number of secondary clocks and enabled the remote control of the equipment. The point of these timekeepers was to ensure that the subsidiary clocks indicate the exact same time without interruption even if there was an electrical interference or failure. The signals were driven by the unit’s own internal crystal quartz oscillator, or by an external time base such as a radio signal. The top rack is a SPbC 24R master clock, the core of the time keeping system that houses the quartz oscillator; the second rack, a 50 Hertz generator, is the redundancy system that eliminates the possibility of a disturbance and disruption on the primary unit; the third rack is for monitoring minutes and seconds as well as voltage, and the bottom two racks show the time in a select grouping of subsidiary clocks. Each mother timing system was custom built with modular racks in order to allow for further expansion and customization as needed by the owner. This example is beautifully preserved and accompanied by its original documentation and instructions in German.

To learn more about these usual clocks, please read this article on Patek Philippe Electronic Clocks and see these videos:

Wonderful World of Patek Philippe Electric Master Timing Systems

The Story behind the World’s Largest Collection of Patek Philippe Electronic Clocks