A time keeper at a factory is in charge of blowing the whistle for the lunch break at noon.
When it’s almost noon she looks at her watch and right when it strikes 12pm she blows the whistle.
One day she bumps her watch against something and she fears that it is a little off. Wanting to make sure that she can do her job correctly she decides to go get her watch set by a professional clock maker.
The woman goes to the shop and has the clock maker set her watch to the correct time. She tells the clock maker what she does for a living and that it is important that her watch keeps correct time.
The clock maker tells her that she needn’t worry because he set his watch by the clocks in the back and that he can be sure that they’re on time because he sets them every Sunday when the church bells ring at 6am.
The woman leaves the shop satisfied… but starts to ask herself… “How does the church know exactly when it is 6am?”
So she goes to the church and finds the bell ringer and asks him how does he know when to ring the bells and how does he make sure that he has the correct time.
The bell ringer tells her that he rings the bells right when his watch strikes 6am. “I’m sure my watch is accurate.” He reassures her. “I check it every day at noon when the factory goes on break.”
Jake is struggling through a bus station
with two huge and heavy suitcases when a stranger walks up to him and asks, “Have you got the time?”
Jake sighs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist. “It’s quarter to six,” he says.
“Hey, that’s a pretty fancy watch!” exclaims the stranger.
Jake brightens a little. “Yeah, it’s not bad. Check this out!”
He shows him a time-zone display for every time zone in the world. He hits a few buttons and from somewhere on the watch a voice says, “The time is eleven past six.”
Jake continues, “I’ve put in regional accents for each city. The display is of unbelievably high quality and the voice is simply astounding.”
The stranger is struck dumb with admiration.
“That’s not all,” says Jake. He pushes a few more buttons and a tiny but very hi-resolution map of New York City appears on the display. “The flashing dot shows our location by satellite positioning,” explains Jake.
“I want to buy this watch,” says the stranger.
“Oh, no, it’s not ready for sale yet; I’m still working out the bugs,” says the inventor. “But look at this,” and he proceeds to demonstrate that the watch is also a very creditable little FM radio receiver with a digital tuner, a sonar device that can measure distances up to 125 metres, a pager with thermal paper printout and, most impressive of all, the capacity for voice recordings of up to 300 standard-size books,” says Jake.
“I’ve got to have this watch,” says the stranger.
“No, you don’t understand; it’s not ready.”
“I’ll give you $1000 for it.”
“Oh, no, I’ve already spent more than that!”
“I’ll give you $5000 for it.”
“But it’s just not…”
“I’ll give you $15,000 for it.” And the stranger pulls out a checkbook. Jake stops to think. He’s only put about $8500 into materials and development, and with $15 000 he can make another one and have it ready for merchandising in only six months. The stranger frantically finishes writing the check and waves it in front of him. “Here it is, ready to hand to you right here and now. $15,000. Take it or leave it!”
Jake abruptly makes his decision. “Okay,” he says, and peels off the watch. They make the exchange and the stranger starts happily away.
“Hey, wait a minute!” calls Jake after the stranger turns around warily. He points to the two suitcases he’d been trying to wrestle through the bus station. “Don’t forget your batteries!”
