The Magic Moment of the Mondaine stop2go! Why does the second hand stop after each minute for two seconds?

A unique feature of the Swiss Railway (SBB) Clock to ensure smooth and absolutely precise departures of Swiss trains on the full minute for the last 70 years. An ingenious design by a Swiss engineer employed by SBB, that ensured train punctuality would become a visible concept across the globe.

A timepiece that ticks off the minute at 58 seconds continues to charm and intrigue; Swiss watchmaker Mondaine has incorporated this unique motion within its Mondaine - SBB/Official Swiss Railway Watch.

The fascinating execution of “stop2go”, like on the original clock, features the famous red second hand that turns full circle in 58 seconds and then waits at 12 o’clock for the black minute hand to move on, before jumping one marker forwards, starting its next rotation. Two seconds which sometimes can change our life?

Mondaine asked designer Martin Drechsel, to come up with a design for the new watch. As a tribute to its industrial background he framed the stainless steel case with two matt-brushed stainless steel braces, fading to the horns to fit the strap. The crown has been built as a functional switch for easy time setting of the new and unique movement, which was developed by Mondaine, to ensure clear visibility of the 12 o’clock second stop and iconic dial. The crystal is made from scratch resistant anti-reflective coated sapphire glass.

Special development and construction

A regular quartz watch runs with one motor to gear the hour, minute and seconds hand. The Mondaine SBB stop2go movement needs 2 motors: one to turn the seconds hand and the 2nd motor drives the hour hand and inducts the minutes hand jump. An important hallmark of the Swiss station clock is the smooth drive of the red seconds hand; to convert this to quartz watch a special trick was needed. Instead of moving each second one step forward the seconds hand moves in 4 little paces every second. This makes the impression of a continuous gliding like seen on the Original on each Swiss