The beams of particles that travel around the accelerator ring at the Large Hadron Collider must operate in a vacuum in order to avoid collisions with gas molecules. In total the LHC contains a vacuum some 54 km long (approx. 33 miles) and is rated as an UHV or Ultra High Vacuum, with 10 times less gas pressure than the almost-vacuum at the surface of the Moon.

The longest wooden chain measures 254.69 m (835 ft 7 in) and was made from one single piece of wood. It was created by Peter Gwerder (Switzerland) in Schwyz, Switzerland, on 12 July 2012. The chain is composed of 1,506 wooden rings. The original spruce tree trunk which the chain is made of measured 34 meters.

In terms of the number of individual parts, the world’s most complicated wristwatch is the Piguet/Muller/Gerber Grand Complication watch, which contains 1,116 parts. It was most recently added to by master watchmaker Paul Gerber (Switzlerland) and is owned by Willy Ernst Sturzenegger, Territorial Earl of Arran (Switzerland).

Mark Dossenbach (Switzerland) was able to perform 16 continuous spins breakdancing on one elbow at Zug, Switzerland on 19 August 2005.

A ‘D’ colour Internally Flawless pear-shaped diamond weighing 100.10 carats was sold for SF 19,858,500 ($16,561,171; £10,548,444) at Sotheby’s, Geneva, Switzerland on 17 May 1995. It was purchased by Sheikh Ahmed Fitaihi (Saudi Arabia), who obtained it for his chain of jewellery shops in Saudi Arabia. Info taken from attempt ID: 75735, info has been used before in earlier books.

The record per carat is $1,375,938 (£854,705), for a 7.03-carat fancy vivid blue modified rectangular brilliant-cut diamond sold at Sotheby’s, Geneva, Switzerland, on 12 May 2009. The total which it sold for was given in Swiss francs = CHF 10,498,500 or £6,000,000 ($9,959,000). The diamond was cut from an original stone, which weighed 26.58 carats, discovered in the Cullinan mine in Gauteng Province of South Africa, the same mine that produced the largest rough diamond in the world, from which was cut the Great Star Continue reading →

Although more expensive limited-edition mobile phones exist, the most expensive handset commercially available is the Ulysse Nardin Chairman, which also is the first mobile phone to contain a self-winding rotor mechanism, like an automatic watch, that supplies backup kinetic energy to help keep the battery charged. Running Google’s Android operating system, models range from $13,000 to $50,000 (£8,600 to £33,000) for precious metal versions. The phone includes a lacquered wooden docking station with built-in speakers. It has a 3.2-inch touchscreen (81 mm), offers high-definition video Continue reading →

The world’s most expensive watch commercially available is the Super Ice Cube by Chopard, Switzerland which retails at $1,130,620 (€905,365) (£616,881). The watch has 66.16 carats of diamonds which includes 288 trapeze cut diamonds, 16 centre stones and 1,897 brilliant cut diamonds. The Super watch is part of the ice cube range that includes ones made from pastel sapphires, black diamonds and rubies. As featured on the Forbes list of expensive watches.

The record for the most fuel-efficient vehicle is 0.01857 litres of petrol for 100 km (15,212 mpg) and was achieved by PAC-Car II from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland, on the Shell Eco Marathon in the Michelin Technology Centre, Ladoux, France, on 26 June 2005. (Or 3,836 km/l – see attachment).

The most muffins sold in one hour is 6,060 and was achieved by Oswald Nahrungsmittel GmbH Steinhausen (Switzerland) at the Lucerne train station in Lucerne, Switzerland, on 12 March 2011. Oswald Nahrungsmittel GmbH organised this record attempt as the kick off program for their new product “muffin cake mix” and their 60th anniversary. All 300 employees took part in the event. They were divided into 5 sales groups which were positioned in the whole city. Each muffin was sold at 2 Swiss Francs (SFR) per Continue reading →