China Got Something Right

Background: In 1999, there was a fad for counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the start of the year 2000. Along these lines, for Christmas 1998 someone bought me a "Countdown to the New Millennium" clock that counted down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the beginning of 2000. For 372 days, it ran smoothly. Once 1/1/2000 arrived, it could be converted into a typical clock.

Apparently some capitalist (whether American or Chinese, I know not) realized that people were amused by these and repurposed them into "Countdown to Retirement" clocks after the year 2000 had arrived. Someone bought my father one during 2000; at that time, he had almost six years to go. It kept time smoothly until the date he set in 2006. He actually waited several months longer to retire, but after he did, he gave the clock to me, figuring that as the oldest child, I might actually retire first.

As of today, the clock reads 10,000 days. Tomorrow, it will read 9,999...and so forth.

The surprising thing is that both these clocks are still running after over a decade of use...on the same batteries! Neither one has had the batteries changed since they were purchased. Both of them say "Made in China" on the back.

So what we have here is a Chinese-made product of a high level of quality. Incredible.