Saint-Gobain Crystals (Ceramic Materials) is supplying sapphire panels for the unprecedented 10,000 Year Clock project. The six 30x30 cm panels will form part of a window located at the top of a mountain in west Texas (United States), which allows solar light in to operate the clock for millennia.

Saint-Gobain Crystals’ sapphire was selected for its resistance to sand storms and the desert environment. The 10,000 Year Clock is a project initiated 25 years ago by The Long Now Foundation. Sixty meters tall, it will be buried in the Texas Mountains and watch 10,000 years go by. This is the first of a series of clocks to be built all over the world.