Boulder is home to one of America’s timekeepers

Samantha Jarpe
·2 min read

DENVER (KDVR) — While you likely check your watch or phone for the time several times a day — or even several times an hour — have you ever though about just how that time gets in your pocket?

It turns out that highly accurate atomic clocks situated in Colorado — more specifically in Boulder — play a role in making sure you’re able to know to the millisecond exactly what time it is.

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Official U.S. time

The official U.S. time is calibrated through a joint partnership between the National Institute of Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Both serve as the official timekeepers of the nation and help maintain Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) alongside other nations.

According to NIST, over 20 atomic clocks located in Boulder are used for their part of the partnership.

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Interestingly enough, even though the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. is the other partner in the timekeeping business and the primary location of its clocks is in the nation’s capital, Colorado still has something to do with it.

The USNO Alternate Master Clock, which is located on Schriever Space Force Base near Colorado Springs, also works to keep accurate time on behalf of the Navy and Department of Defense.

Why it matters

While you may not think a few milliseconds or nanoseconds matter, accurate timekeeping is vital to some of the things you rely on every day.

According to NIST, high-speed communication, banking and stock transactions, and even power grids rely on precise synchronization to function properly.

For the most part, your devices will calibrate to the official time automatically, which is how you’re able to know exactly when to start your lunch break down to the millisecond.

You can actually calibrate the time on your computer by using the government’s official time website.

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