Oops! Olympics Clock Breaks After 1 Day

Well, this isn't a good omen. The official countdown clock to the 2012 Olympics has stopped just one day after its grand unveiling. The clock, a host city tradition, was installed with great pomp and circumstance in Trafalgar Square on Monday, with a pack of British gold medalists on hand to commemorate the occasion. One official proclaimed it an "important milestone" that would provide "a daily and hourly reminder" of the impending event.

But within a day the 21-foot-tall clock had stopped working, its countdown frozen at 500 days, seven hours, six minutes, and 56 seconds, the Guardian reports. Omega, the sponsor that provided the clock, says it doesn't yet know why that happened. "The Omega London 2012 countdown clock was developed by our experts and fully tested ahead of the launch in Trafalgar Square," a spokeswoman said. "We are currently looking into why this happened." (More 2012 London Olympics stories.)