Why Edinburgh's famous clock hasn't been on time since 1902
Tall, gothic and imposing, the Balmoral Hotel clock tower has punctured Edinburgh's skyline for 116 years, and has (almost) never told the right time - except for on 115 singular days. Confused?
When the Edwardian pinnacle of Princes Street, which overlooks Waverley Station, was completed in October 1902, the time was set to be three minutes fast in order to lessen the likelihood that passengers would miss their trains.
Those extra 118 seconds gave poor timekeepers just enough extra faffing leeway, the theory went, and it's a policy still in place today. You may even employ this trick on your own clocks. If you're someone who is perpetually, pathologically five minutes late to every appointment you attend, for example, try it - set your watch five minutes fast and you might start arriving bang on time. Or maybe not.
The Balmoral clock, which opened originally as the North British Station Hotel, does align with Greenwich Mean Time once a year, on the 31 of December - thus 115 times since its inception. New Year's Eve (Hogmanay, as its locally known) is a big celebration in the Scottish capital and to miss the countdown and the accompanying flurry of fireworks that explode at midnight would undoubtedly be a shame.
The original clock was crafted by Hamilton & Inches, a luxury Edinburgh-based jeweller with a Royal Warrant, and consists of four clock faces, each 13ft in diameter. It was wound manually until the 1970s, after which it switched to digital. At least twice since then, the clock suddenly stopped and required fixing, but it appears to be in good health today.
The tower itself was designed by William Hamilton Beattie towards the end of the 19th century, and stands 195ft from roof level to tip. As a hotel, it used to serve Waverley Station - guests at the time enjoyed the privilege of being escorted directly from the platform to the hotel lobby by way of a lift in the back.
Over time, and following changes such as the nationalisation of British railways in 1948, the establishment changed hands several times and underwent a number of refurbishments. It opened as The Balmoral (a name derived from Gaelic which means "majestic dwelling") on June 12, 1991, in a ceremony led by actor Sir Sean Connery.
Since then it's hosted many a special guest, among them J.K. Rowling, who completed the last book in her Harry Potter series in one of the hotel's suites.
On a marble bust residing in the room, the author wrote: "JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (552) on 11th Jan 2007". That bust is still there, encased in glass, and the door knocker is also in the form of a brass owl. Fancy a stay? That will be upwards of £2,000 a night.
Less novelty-steeped rooms start from £200, and the hotel carries a solid 9/10 rating from Telegraph Travel. Our destination expert Linda Macdonald surmises: "Although an Edinburgh landmark for more than a century, there's nothing old-fashioned about this Forte flagship. Luxurious bedrooms, a Michelin-starred restaurant, lavish afternoon teas in the Palm Court and a spacious spa add up to a sophisticated 21st-century version of a truly grand hotel."
But enough about hotels. Back to clocks. Here are ten facts you might not know about the world's most famous timepieces...
10 facts about famous clocks
The tallest clock on the planet is the one at Mekkah Royal Hotel, standing at 525ft. It dominates a government-owned complex of buildings in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; and the clock face is also the world's largest, at 141ft in diameter.
The tallest freestanding clock tower, however, sits on British soil. The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, located at the University of Birmingham, was built in 1908 and is 330ft tall.
London's Big Ben isn't actually called that - only the bell is. The actual tower that looms above the Houses of Parliament was formally named (if a little unimaginatively) Clock Tower, but was re-christened the Elizabeth Tower in 2012, in honour of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Probably Europe's most famous - and the world's oldest operational clock, some argue - is the Prague Astronomical Clock on the Old City Hall. It was installed in 1410 and death, portrayed as a skeleton, strikes the time.
The oldest surviving turret clock is the one at Salisbury Cathedral. Completed in 1306, it has no face and was designed instead to ring out on the hour.
Another grand, European clock tower is the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, found at the city hall in Munich, Germany. Its gothic style is reminiscent of Big Ben, but it was built much later, in 1908. Its mechanical figures re-enact stories from the 16th century to a little tune, ended by three chirps from a gold rooster. How charming.
In Berlin during the early 20th century, policemen used to stand on the top of what is now the Potsdamer Platz Clock and direct the traffic. Germany's first automated traffic lights were only installed in 1924. The clock that's there now was built in 1997 as a replica of the former tower.
Before the invention of the pendulum clock in 1656, clocks were only accurate to a deviation of of 15 minutes per day. The pendulum system, designed by Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, brought that deviation down to around 15 seconds a day.
When you look at the second hand of a clock and it appears to briefly freeze, you're hallucinating. Sort of. The effect is called chronostasis and it's your brain experiencing a false memory that causes your perception of time to stretch back slightly.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is currently building a huge 500ft clock among the mountains of Texas, powered naturally by Earth’s thermal cycles, which is designed to work for 10,000 years and tick only once annually. Why? To stand as "an icon for long-term thinking," he says. Right then.
