when does the ball drop in new york

In New York’s Times Square, the New Year’s Eve ball begins its descent at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time and reaches the bottom exactly at midnight to ring in the new year.

Exact time and basics

• The Times Square Ball starts dropping at precisely 11:59:00 p.m. ET on December 31 and takes 60 seconds to descend.

• It comes to rest right at 12:00 a.m. ET on January 1, marking the official start of the new year.

Where it happens

• The ball is mounted on a special flagpole atop One Times Square in Midtown Manhattan.

• The whole moment is synchronized using an official time signal so the countdown and the ball’s motion line up perfectly with midnight.

Watching the ball drop

• Crowds gather in Times Square from the afternoon onward, with performances and festivities leading up to the 11:59 p.m. start of the drop.

• The event is broadcast and streamed widely each year, so people around the world can watch the ball drop in real time at midnight Eastern.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.