... of Lenin’s call for the Russian Revolution—the Swiss watchmaking company Swatch proposed a radical solution to the inconvenience of time. It branded this effort “Swatch Internet Time.” Swatch Internet Time would, like its radical precursor, French Revolutionary Time, be decimal. However, rather than...

...) architectural projects of mop-topped former London mayor Boris Johnson, while from Zurich, Adam Jasper examines Swatch’s short-lived effort to eliminate time zones. In Egypt, Mona Abo-Issa joins the bandwagons of energetic fans following around the country’s retired war heroes, and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani looks...

..., in Hong Kong, at dinner one night we were interrupted by a furtive Chinese salesman with a large book of fabric swatches that he thrust eagerly into my father-in-law’s face. He glanced casually at them, then waved off the salesman. “Why?” I asked. “Communist Chinese,” he sniffed, “You can’t count on...