Info on Chuck Noland's "Egg Timer" from Cast Away

[firereverie]

In the beginning of Cast Away, Chuck is providing training in Russia and posts himself an "egg timer" to see how long the trip took through the supply chain. I thought it was an interesting prop, given the character's relationship with time, but I'm having trouble tracking down any information on it. Does anyone have information on who made that timer, if the company is still around (assuming this was a found item)?

 

[Astyanax]

Welcome to the RPF!

While I don't have any information just yet, here's a sharper screenshot to help out:



Thanks in advance, and good luck!

 

[firereverie]

Welcome to the RPF!

If you haven't found anything here in these forums, it looks like an opportunity for you to do some research and see if you can share your findings with the rest of us!

Thanks in advance, and good luck!

Unfortunately, I've yet to find any good info as of yet. There is this Reddit post from 4 years ago but there doesn't seem to be useful leads. I considered making anouther Reddit post, but being aware of the RPF I thought this might yield better results and be a good home for whatever information the internet is able to churn up.

 

[Astyanax]

FWIW, I'm finding nothing even close on Google, even with a nice sharp image search...I'm not convinced it was a found item.

 

[Astyanax]

Nothing online matches a "CHRON-FX" or "CHRON-EX" company name either. This had to have been made for production.

 

[firereverie]

FWIW, I'm finding nothing even close on Google, even with a nice sharp image search...I'm not convinced it was a found item.

That is also certainly a possibility. I'd made the assumption based off the nature of the object that it was likely found, but also definitely hadn't ruled out that it was a made item.

For what it's worth, we do see Tom Hanks stop the timer in the film after removing it from the FedEx box, so it did have at least that much functionality. Makes me wonder if it was an actual timer that they designed a new casing for to make it more visually engaging, big enough to be effective on camera, and Greeked.

 

[firereverie]

Nothing online matches a "CHRON-FX" or "CHRON-EX" company name either. This had to have been made for production.

I did those searches as well, even tried "CHRON-CX" prior to the higher res capture you provided and had similar results. Same with image search.

It's also unfortunately possible that it was a found object, that there wasn't a huge demand for oversized stop watches, and the company and product are long since defunct, maybe even were prior to filming. That said I do find it suspicious that the numerical display on a timekeeping device would have periods as separators rather than colons, so that could be a clue as well.

 

[firereverie]

Tom Hanks stops the clock with a button on the top while there is also a button on the face labeled as 'stop'.

While not definitive to either found or made, it does make me think made object, given that it appears to be a different style button from the rest of the assembly and is conveniently located to allow Hanks to stop the clock without having to turn it away from the camera.

 

[CB2001]

I think it might have been something constructed, mostly because of the large display for the numbers. Typically, something like a stopwatch would be smaller, and would barely be seen due to the display face. This comes off as constructed to me because the display is large enough that the camera would pick it up. But, I could be wrong.

 

[ElectroDFW]

I think it might have been something constructed, mostly because of the large display for the numbers. Typically, something like a stopwatch would be smaller, and would barely be seen due to the display face. This comes off as constructed to me because the display is large enough that the camera would pick it up. But, I could be wrong.

It's also LED which is a power hog, not LCD like standard timers. But since LEDs are easier to see on camera vs LCDs, (ala Doc and Einstein's stopwatch clocks in 'Back to the Future') it is more likely than not to be customized in at least *some* way. My concern is where they found an octagonal hand-sized casing?

 

[CB2001]

It's also LED which is a power hog, not LCD like standard timers. But since LEDs are easier to see on camera vs LCDs, (ala Doc and Einstein's stopwatch clocks in 'Back to the Future') it is more likely than not to be customized in at least *some* way. My concern is where they found an octagonal hand-sized casing?

The octagonal case could very well be scratch built out of thick gauge styrene/resin casted, or may be a custom order from a manufacturer. Again, I could be wrong. I do know there are some octagonal electronics enclosures that exist now (they’re more perfect octagonal shape, not the shape seen in the picture of the timer), but hard to know if they existed back then.

 

[moviebuff5]

The red On/C and off buttons are falling in, and the "clear" from On/C is duplicated with a black reset button. My guess is the red buttons are off a calculator with those labels.