Omega olympic clock stops working after 1 day.

Just a day after a grand unveiling in Trafalgar Square, the official Olympic countdown clock in London has stopped working.

The clock made by official Olympic timekeeper Omega was the main focus of the celebrations marking 500 days until London 2012 gets underway next July.

However, company officials admitted that embarrassingly the timepiece had stopped just 24 hours after going into operation.

London 2012 chief Lord Coe, London mayor Boris Johnson and sports stars such as Jessica Ennis were in attendance for the unveiling on Monday.

Olympic champion rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson performed the unveiling of the clock in Trafalgar Square.

Problem

A statement from Omega admitted that embarrassingly for them the clock had stopped and they were looking for a solution to the problem.

"We are obviously very disappointed that the clock has suffered this technical issue," said an Omega statement.

"The Omega London 2012 countdown clock was developed by our experts and fully tested ahead of the launch in Trafalgar Square.

"We are currently looking into why this happened and expect to have the clock functioning as normal as soon as possible."

The clock, which is 21ft high, 16ft long and weighs around four tonnes, took 10 people two days to assemble.

The clock was designed to reflect the look of the Games, according to Omega. The beams of light on the clock are inspired by London and its connection with the Meridian line in Greenwich, the home of time.