Jeff Bezos’ “Millennium Clock” Idea Is Drawing Comparisons to Watchmen

2019 is officially in the books, but the movies and television shows from last year are continuing […]

January 1, 2020, 10:20pm

2019 is officially in the books, but the movies and television shows from last year are continuing to make an impact — even in unintentional ways. On Wednesday, The New York Times shared an article about the legacy of Y2K, which included an interesting tidbit about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. According to the article, Bezos has donated $42 million to help make a “Millennium Clock”, a clock that would theoretically operate for 10,000 years. The device, which has been in development for decades, has been expected to be housed inside of a mountain on Bezos’ ranch in Van Horn, Texas.

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Jeff Bezos has spent at least $42 million to construct the so-called Millennium Clock in Van Horn, Texas. Some have said the giant clock that is designed to run for 10,000 years could change lives and reshape our relationship with time. https://t.co/F4IQ35f7P5
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 1, 2020

While Bezos’ involvement in the campaign isn’t anything new (Wired did a profile about Bezos’ role in 2011), the detail has taken on a very specific life on social media. In addition to questioning the specifics of how the Millennium Clock would work (and what other humanitarian causes could use that $42 million), there have been quite a lot of comparisons to HBO’s Watchmen. The series, which “remixed” the story of the iconic graphic novel, featured a subplot involving Lady Trieu (Hong Chau), a trillionaire who begins to influence and exploit the goings-on of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This included constructing a Millennium Clock (yes, really), a giant and elusive structure that was expected to tower over the town.

Ultimately, the Millennium Clock played a surprising role in the show’s season finale, and was used as a way to attempt to absorb the powers of John Osterman/Doctor Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), and not to actually tell time for 10,000 years. Still, the comparison to Watchmen is a little uncanny, which fans have been poking fun at on social media. Here are just a few of our favorite responses.