Polio Watch One, the first from a series of five collectible watches as part of the Time to Act programme to fight polio.

I’m always thrilled to write about unique watches, new technological breakthroughs and beautiful designs, hence this blog. But there is one subject that beats all of them on my list of priorities and that is Charity. There is nothing more noble than Charity, since it enriches that who receives and that who gives. Recently I stumbled on this project that will raise funds to eradicate Polio trough the sale of a special watch, keep reading to find out more.

Time to Act

The Time to Act programme is the revolutionary project of the Rotary Club Marseille Rive Neuve. It consists of the introduction of 5 innovative collectable watches – one a year over the next 5 years. Developed in Switzerland, each watch will be created by 5 eminent persons. Each watch will contain a special mechanism or microprogram which will symbolise Rotarians’ daily battle in working towards a world without polio.

Polio Watch One

This watch designed by Marc Alfieri uses a Swiss-made movement, specially developed for the programme. The buyer – the “donor” – can actually see the progress of the fundraising on the dial of the watch in real time. This is achieved by a symbolic representation of the polio virus placed at 6 o’clock over a hidden, rotating world globe. This “virus” will then disappear gradually, following the progress of fundraising.

Once the virus disappears from the dial, a terrestrial globe will appear and rotate around its axis 24 hours a day as a symbol of a Polio free world! This unique movement interacts with an Application for iPhone or Androïd via Bluetooth which will receive the fundraising progress and information via the internet. The application will also show the progress of fundraising country by country and it will provide the watch with an automatic time and time zone setting.

Polio Watch One will be delivered in a 5-compartment case

Polio Watch One will be delivered in a 5-compartment case to encourage each donor to be involved through to the end of this marvellous adventure. The objective of this program is to raise a staggering US$ 500 million for the Polio Plus Foundation which, in turn, will promote better public awareness of Rotary International and its actions worldwide.

It will be on sale on www.poliowatch.com, Polio Watch Facebook page, or www.rotary.org and other partner sites. The price of the watch is US$ 650, of which $150 will be directly credited to the Rotary Foundation and the fight against Polio.