Editing Swatch Internet Time (section)

==History==
Swatch Internet Time was announced on 23&nbsp;October 1998, in a ceremony at the Junior Summit '98,<ref name="mit-news-1998">{{cite web |last1=Wright |first1=Sarah H. |title=Kids from around the world Swatch and listen at summit |url=https://news.mit.edu/1998/summit-1118 |website=MIT News |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=10 July 2022 |date=18 November 1998}}</ref> attended by [[Nicolas Hayek|Nicolas G. Hayek]], president and CEO of the Swatch Group, G.N. Hayek, president of Swatch Ltd., and [[Nicholas Negroponte]], founder and then director of the [[MIT Media Lab]]. During the summit, Swatch Internet Time became the official time system for [[Nation.1]], an online country (supposedly) created and run by children.

===Uses===
[[File:SwatchBeat1.jpg|thumb|A Swatch watch showing {{Proper name|.beat}} time in the bottom part of the display]]
During 1999, Swatch produced several models of watch, branded "Swatch {{Proper name|.beat}}",  that displayed Swatch Internet Time as well as standard time, and even convinced a few websites (such as [[CNN.com]]) to use the new format.<ref>{{cite web
| title=TLDR #15 - Internet Time
| work = [[On the Media]]
| url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/tldr-15-internet-time/
| date=2014-02-17
| access-date = 2018-09-18}}</ref> [[PHP]]'s idate() function has a format specifier, 'B', which returns the Swatch Internet Time notation for a given time stamp.<ref>{{cite web
| title=PHP: date — Format a local time/date
| url=https://secure.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php
| work=[[PHP]] Manual
| access-date = 2018-09-18}}</ref>  It was also used as a time reference on [[ICQ]], and the online [[role-playing game]] ''[[Phantasy Star Online]]'' used it since its launch on the [[Dreamcast]] in 2000 to try to facilitate cross-continent gaming (as the game allowed Japanese, American and European players to mingle on the same servers). In March 2001, [[Ericsson]] released the T20e, a [[mobile phone]] which gave the user the option of displaying Internet Time. Outside these areas, it is infrequently used. While Swatch still offers the concept on its website, it no longer markets Beat watches.{{Citation needed |date=July 2015}} In July 2016, Swatch released Touch Zero Two, its second wirelessly connected watch, with Swatch Internet Time function.

===Beatnik satellite controversy===
{{See also|Sputnik 99}}

In early 1999, Swatch began a marketing campaign about the launch of their [[Sputnik 99|Beatnik satellite]], intended to service a set of Internet Time watches. They were criticized for planning to use an [[amateur radio]] frequency for broadcasting a commercial message (an act banned by international treaties). The satellite was intended to be deployed by hand from the ''[[Mir]]'' space station. Swatch instead donated the transmitter batteries for use in normal ''Mir'' functions, and the satellite never broadcast.<ref>{{cite news
| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/320560.stm
| title=Hams jam space spam
| date=1999-04-16
| work=[[BBC News]]
| access-date=2018-09-18}}</ref>