observation, i have been intrigued by the idea of future mechanical watches built using nanoelectronics and micromechanical timing mechanisms that could be scaled to very tiny watch movements that perhaps could be hybrid analog (mechanical) computer-on-a-chip devices, so that a watch would have an electronics interface (LCD screen, other indicators) along with mechanical hands and timing, potentially. that said, today the Swiss technology seems thoroughly operating at the old scale (at least to outside views) in their watching, yet this scaling-down of watch movements seems a natural next step in the technological progression, perhaps a mechanical moore's law of some sort relating to physics tools enabling clockwork modeling at ever smaller scales, & also circuitry. so what if what today exists as a half-dollar (USD) medallion sized watch 'movement' tomorrow could be equivalent to the realm occupied by fabled smart dust, where the mechanism itself nearly disappears by comparison, say down to a centimeter if not a few millimeters for a mechanical movement that could rotate minutes and seconds hands on a watch display, that through magnification via lens could then appear at a normal watch scale for readability, etc. such that additional power would not be needed to gear a motor to drive larger scaled watch hands, or perhaps that would even be possible, given future energy options. the point here being the idea of mechanical timing operating at a lower scale, though also with increased timing precision. one way to consider it would be to have such a system synced with GPS for accuracy, and then adjust the mechanical watch hands to a synchronized time regimen. another way to consider it would be that something new is possible in this realm, including both mechanically, where a mechanical cantilever can be set to vibrate at a natural harmonic frequency (much like a quartz crystal used in timing circuits) if not mistaken, (these things used as frequency-combs for spectroscopy) [0], thus if consistent timing were achievable, perhaps this vibrational energy could be the basis for moving a clockwork mechanism, ratcheted gear by interconnected gear, to produce 'time' as it were. at the nanoelectronic side of things, [1] it would seem that at whatever the smallest scale of charged particle flow could be harnessed into circuits, that this then would build-up the electronics side of the watch, to interact with a mechanical circuit via additional info or data (communications, software, etc) though potentially also timing regulation, or smoothing out input or whatever may be possible. so perhaps the 'electronics' could be part of the timing circuit or exist beside it, functioning independently in parallel. or that the accuracy of the timing could be generated via electronics (say a more accurate crystal frequency or resolution for the timing circuit, that either adjusts or corrects it or drives it). so thinking about extremes and what-ifs, the idea here is to consider what may be possible if reaching such a capacity for a watchmaking and what might change as a result of this kind of technological advancement, especially in terms of time. needless to say, today mechanical hybrid watches and "smartwatches" have comparably low resolution timing accuracy when compared to the most accurate atomic clocks in use for standardized time keeping. so too, the idea of network 'timestamps' appears to propagate as a way of maintaining time on network-reachable watches, such that an Internet Time Server relays a time signal to a device which then sets its clock to that remote standard, perhaps not unlike issues of web serves and routers and how time is maintained and used to coordinate and route event data. and it is to question this existing scenario (in particular electronic and computer-based watches and devices) as this relates to issues like encryption and random-numbers and hashing functions, if the "time" of a device is managed remotely and in some major sense, inaccurate at a local level, or not unique to a particular space-time and instead managed by a centralized though inaccurate timekeeping system which is never actually synchronized. in that there are huge gaps and losses of resolution (which may be a matter of perspective, in that 'time' may be viewed a construct) and yet, what if this has fundamental relation to how crypto functions, could function, or cannot function as a result. this consideration led to my observation of how having an atomic clock as a wristwatch movement would likely be possible in the above MEMs and nanoelectronics scenario. and what would that mean, if super-resolution timekeeping were available at a local level of interaction, where gravity or nano-fractional differences in time may be leveraged for unique non-reproducible running number sequencing that could generate hashes or be used for randomization or encryption of unique point-to-point timing where the keys are correlated to the unique timing of independent atomic watches. In that, consider GPS satellites that send out a time signal to a device and in their miniscule differences in arrival, location can be determined. what if the same is true of wristwatches, where each watch is like that, with relativism or the gap, instead of being a dead-area or deficit, becomes a basis for knowledge and a barrier or wall to outside peering into the connection, if a secure channel between watches could be established, and thus not 'tapped' into without a certain running timing sequence to discombobulate the merged streams as harmonized. It is just wondered if such atomic wristwatches could feasibly change the game for point to point or one-to-many communications in a secure communications protocol. or perhaps such timing mechanisms per device, as applicable, in terms of security (phone, bankcard, etc). it just seems that timing and encryption could go hand-in-hand in that their dynamics are potentially highly complimentary though also, the lack of such timing coherence then could allow negative relativistic dynamics in their place, where exploits could be based on inaccurate homogenous timing regimens that remove timing as part of a security measure or defense. 0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_spectroscopy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_force_microscopy 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoelectronics