NEW YORK, NY, October 9, 2026 — Singapore Scientists Build Most Precise Clock in History. The device would gain or lose about one second over the course of approximately 260 billion years. That is 20 times the current age of the universe.
How the New Clock Works
The device was constructed by scientists from the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore. One is dependent upon a lone ion of charged lutetium, a rare earth element. The team then measured its frequency to nineteen decimal places — a world record.
Two advantages of lutetium over elements previously used in record-setting clocks. Related: Federal physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have sought similar precision with other elements, such as aluminum and strontium. As a result, the transition for lutetium is much less susceptible to variations in temperature and magnetic field.
Beating the Previous Records
This is now the most accurate clock ever made, about four times more accurate than its previous record-holder. The instrument was a calcium-ion clock constructed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan. It also beats a clock based on aluminum ions unveiled by US researchers last year.
The Singapore team constructed two identical lutetium clocks to check the outcome. For a period of 200 hours, they kept comparing the two. The result yielded the most accurate atomic-clock comparison yet published between two devices.
Why Such Precision Matters
GPS Navigation, financial trading timestamps and global communications networks already rely upon atomic clocks. By way of timekeeping alone, ultra-low-cost precision opens more avenues for science. Follow-up work using strontium clocks in the US demonstrated how these same gains map on to new physics sensitivity.
Researchers say such clocks with this level of precision could detect very small fluctuations in Earth’s gravitational field. That could one day bolster efforts to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This might also help searches for difficult-to-detect phenomena such as dark matter.
Towards Re-imagining Time Itself!
Internationally, the definition of the second is based on 1960s cesium atomic clocks. International standards established by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures define fundamental units of measurement. There were long debates among the scientists if we should redefine the second using a more accurate optical atomic standard. Revolutionary discoveries such as this lutetium clock make a more permanent change all the more convincing.
But there’s no global scientific agreement on any official re-definition, and confirming it would take years of additional testing. Researchers would first have to replicate similar accuracy in more labs around the world. The Singapore team intends to develop a smaller, portable version of their clock next.
Next Steps for the Research
Atomic clocks like this one are still too fragile and elaborate for routine use outside the lab. Physics research compiled by the American Physical Society explores how laboratory optical clocks can be adapted for field deployment. This technology could be miniaturized, potentially making portable high-precision timekeeping possible beyond the confines of a controlled laboratory. This would enable novel navigation, geodesy, and fundamental physics research opportunities in the domain.
For now, the accomplishment represents another step in humanity’s centuries-long quest for accurate time. Every new record is pushing closer to a limit imposed by quantum mechanics itself. To make these techniques even better, researchers feel they will have to keep fine-tuning for some time to come.
A Global Race for Precision
It brings Singapore into the small club of countries developing atomic clocks. Over the last decade, the United States, China and a handful of European nations have battled for precision records. Most any new progress rides on the coattails of techniques developed by competing research labs.
Even amid this competitive dynamic, collaboration remains the norm. Publishing detailed methods enables research teams to improve on one another’s results and allows others to replicate those findings. That free flow of information has served to quicken the pace of precision advances across the discipline.
It relies on grants from national science agencies for funding to pursue these kinds of fundamental physics research. Science policy resources from the National Science Foundation outline how public investments drive breakthroughs in quantum measurement. For example, Singapore has spent heavily on quantum-tech research from as early as 2013. That investment is now returning dividends: a true world record in accurate measurement.
