CLOCKWORKS
BUILT TO WITHSTAND THE WHITEOUT.
In Colorado’s high alpine, whiteout conditions can erase the horizon.
The white-tailed ptarmigan endures the mountain through changing seasons, adapted to cold, snow and exposed terrain.
We named Ptarmigan for that resilience. It is the standard we are building toward: precision that holds as the environment changes.
THE MODERN WORLD TAKES ITS TIME FROM SPACE.
GPS broadcasts precise time from atomic clocks aboard satellites.
Telecommunications networks, power grids, financial systems and defense systems use it to synchronize operations.
GPS changed the world. It also left critical systems dependent on timing signals from space.
CRITICAL SYSTEMS SHOULD CARRY THEIR OWN TIMING AUTHORITY.
Ptarmigan is building autonomous optical clocks designed to keep precise time inside the systems that use it.
On land. At sea. In the air. In space.
When GPS or another external timing reference is unavailable, the clock keeps its frequency authority with the mission.
BUILDING AN AUTONOMOUS TERRESTRIAL TIMING NETWORK.
One Autonomous Clock gives a mission system its own precise local timing reference.
Once aligned, autonomous clocks are designed to maintain precise frequency agreement without continuous steering from GPS or a master clock.
Deploy enough of them, and those independent timing authorities can become the foundation of resilient terrestrial timing infrastructure.
CHINA IS BUILDING TIMING BEYOND SATELLITES.
A 2024 U.S. National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board comparison described China integrating satellite timing, terrestrial broadcast and national fiber timing.
The same comparison noted fragmented U.S. telecom fiber timing, and no deployed national terrestrial broadcast timing layer.
Source: U.S. National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board, 2024.
SPACE
TERRESTRIAL
FIBER
AMERICA NEEDS A TERRESTRIAL TIMING LAYER.
Ptarmigan is building the autonomous clocks that can make one possible.
BUILT IN BOULDER.
Ptarmigan was born from five years of optical atomic clock research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), one of the world’s leading centers for precision timekeeping.
We’re bringing that precision beyond the laboratory, building the foundation for a world where critical systems carry their own timing authority and distributed networks operate with optical precision.
PRECISION FOR THE WORLD OUTSIDE THE LAB.
ON THE MISSION.
BENJAMIN HUNT
Clock Architect
PHILLIP KLEIN
Company Architect
JOE MOAK
Product Builder
JUN YE
Precision Pioneer
ANDREW LUDLOW
Portable Clock Pioneer
BUILT TO WITHSTAND THE WHITEOUT.
When the horizon disappears, precision holds.