Those who crave a little more precious time at this hectic time of the year will get their wish: At 7:59:59am on New Year's Day, Hong Kong Time - New Year's Day - a leap second will be added to Co-ordinated Universal Time, or UTC.

Hong Kong standard time, exactly eight hours ahead of UTC, will be delayed by one second. The whole process will be completed in two seconds at 8am on January 1.

UTC is a stable and consistent timescale based on atomic clocks and is used around the globe. It follows the Earth's rotation, an astronomical timescale. The Earth does not rotate evenly, though, due to changes in the atmosphere's circulation and other events. This has triggered a tiny difference between the two timescales.

By introducing a leap second, the timescales will be reconciled so that they are within 0.9 seconds of each other.

Since the UTC's adoption in 1972, 23 leap seconds have been introduced. The last one was on January 1, 1999.

Click here for more information on leap seconds.