The steel digital clock measuring 6.5 meters tall and five meters long froze with 500 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes and 56 seconds to go before the start of the Games. It had been unveiled on Monday by London Olympic Organizing Committee (LOCOG) chairman Sebastian Coe and four British Olympic gold medalists, coinciding with 6.6 million Games tickets going on sale.
"We are obviously very disappointed that the clock has suffered this technical issue," a spokesman for Swiss watchmakers Omega said in a statement. However, a LOCOG spokeswoman laughed off the malfunction, adding "it is not our clock." Trafalgar Square is where Londoners gathered in 2005 to hear their city announced as winning bidders. Omega said the clock, with its unique design for 2012, had been developed by experts and fully tested ahead of its launch.
"We are currently looking into why this happened and expect to have the clock functioning as normal as soon as possible," a spokesman added.
