[time-nuts] US New Year countdown - accurate?

Hi folks, Ignoring the travesty of a lyric change on John Lennon's classic song, did anyone check to see if the clock countdown in Times Square was actually accurate? In times gone past countdowns have been notoriously off (worst I saw was a tv personality using his own watch and it was 25 seconds out). Oh and why we're at it here is my worst time-nut story... Pulled up in a "Loading Zone 8-6pm" at 18:00:10. Got out, came back 4 minutes later to find a parking officer giving me a ticket. Me: "Look at the time (showing my watch) - it's 6:04" Him: "Not by my watch" (which said 5:59 at that point). Me (massive sarcasm voice): "So. Let me get this straight. Despite worldwide time standards keeping clocks accurate to billionths of a second and costing millions of dollars, all that is now been binned and we now keep world official time by your watch. Is that right?". Him: "Bu..." Me (interrupting and pulling out mobile): "Let's listen to the national time standard shall we?" (I dial and put on speaker - his watch is a good solid 5 minutes slow). Him: Walks off screwing up ticket. The sheer arrogance of the "Not by my watch" comment irks me to this day. Jim