Hoptroff is a provider of distributed timing services, based in London, England.
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founders | Richard Hoptroff, Simon Kenny, David Hulbert |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| Products | Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS) |
| Website | hoptroff.com |
The company was previously a watch manufacturer based in London, England, known for its atomic clock and high accuracy watches.[1][2][3][4][5]
History
editHoptroff was founded in 2010 as Hoptroff London by Richard Hoptroff,[6] a physicist with the original intention of supplying smart mechanical watch movements to the industry.[7] In 2012, the company incorporated Bluetooth Low Energy technology[4] to its watches for the movement and sync with the mobile phones for configuration in order to display internet connected information.[6][8]
In April 2013, the company unveiled its first atomic timepiece in London, which conceptualized it as a new variety of time regulation devices in clocks and watches, that could be placed alongside the balance spring, quartz crystal and the pendulum.[5] After the launch, the brand gained a reputation for the most accurate watch ever produced[9] and was mentioned in several media outlets, such as New York Times, Engadget, The Telegraph and others.[10] In 2015, Hoptroff London launched a classic quartz watch range with a claim to being the first watchmaker to achieve better than one second per year accuracy in its quartz watches.[11][12]
In 2015, the company repositioned itself as Hoptroff London Limited and started work building a proprietary network of timing hubs, incorporating Grand Master atomic clocks, in London, New York and Tokyo.
In 2020, Hoptroff successfully raised £982,700 through crowd funding, with the goal towards developing a global distributed timing network.[13]
Technology
editHoptroff London watches are advertised by the company as "The most accurate timepieces in the world”. Its atomic timepieces use chip scale atomic clock technology,[14] where a small vessel of Caesium 133 is exposed to 130 °C.[15] A laser is used to excite the atoms and a microwave resonator which causes the hyperfine transition frequency of the atoms. The resultant watch after this process has a higher accuracy of 1.5 seconds every thousand years.[16][17]
However, the technology used its quartz timepieces is still unknown to the public.[15]
As of 2015, the company moved away from watch production to focus on high accuracy time synchronization software for companies operating across distributed infrastructure.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ STEPHEN DOIG (6 October 2015). "Hop stuff: meet the maker of the atomic watch". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ Timothy Barber (7 November 2013). "A true original on Clink Street". City A.M. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ Kate Doherty (31 July 2013). "Hoptroff to unveil atomic pocket watch at Salon QP". Watchpro. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ a b Daniel Cooper (1 May 2013). "Hoptroff's atomic pocket watch is the ultimate rich guy accessory". Engadget. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ a b Tony Smith (1 May 2013). "Brit horologist hammers out 'first' ATOMIC-POWERED watch". The Register. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ a b Chris Hall (17 April 2014). "Call that a smartwatch? THIS is a smartwatch..." Yahoo News. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ Chris Newlands (7 November 2014). "The Hotblack Stockmarket, a British-made smartwatch". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ FELICIA CRADDOCK (18 March 2015). "Dreaming Designs for Land and Space". New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ Judy Mottl (8 March 2015). "Apple Watch Edition Has Serious Competition And Its Name Is Hoptroff No.8 Diary Watch". Tech Times. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ "The Watch That Tracks Your Favorite Stock". Bloomberg. 19 November 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ "A weekend of firsts at SalonQP". 12 November 2014. PAUL O'NEIL. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ "SalonQP: fine-watch fair returns". The Daily Telegraph. 14 October 2013. Archived from the original on 25 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ "Hoptroff London Limited successfully raised £200,000 - Apr 2019". www.crowdcube.com. Retrieved 2020-08-21.
- ^ "HotBlack ― The smartwatch dedicated to football". 29 June 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ a b "About Hoptroff". Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ "British "C" Power – The Hoptroff No. 10 Atomic Pocket Watch". Beckertime. 13 November 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ Paul O’Neil (26 August 2013). "Lab - HOPTROFF - The world's most accurate watch". Retrieved 16 October 2015.