Reply With QuoteI use the BBC's pips, or the atomic clock my son has. But the thing to do is always use the same source, if that source is of a known accuracy.
Is there an official, proven formula for checking the accuracy of your watch?
My watch has a hack feature and I set it to the second to match the time on timenaddate.com. I set it on monday morning and when I checked this morning my watch matched the timeanddate.com time to the second.
Am I doing it right?
I use the BBC's pips, or the atomic clock my son has. But the thing to do is always use the same source, if that source is of a known accuracy.
A £65 Casio edifice,
or the old dog of a Gshock.
The other sources are less reliable.
Even this one seems to drift off a bit.
http://time.gov/widget/NISTtimewidget.swf
For obviious reasons, I do not check the accuracy of my quartz watches.
When it comes to automatic watches, which I usually buy used, I am used to checking them thoroughly during a whole week. I check the time on the text-tv (that is how we call it in Sweden) after half a day to a whole day (to ensure that the movement is well loaded) and check after one day, two days, aso to get an idea of the time difference against a well known source. I am used to switching between wearing the watch at night or leaving it on tha table, to get an idea of how it affects the accuracy.
After one week, when I have a good idea of whether my watch goes too fast or too slow, I usually set the time so that I do not have to bother for roughly a month, i.e. only if the difference does not overcome +/- 10 sek a day, otherwise I think that a trip to the nearest watchmaker is a must.
I think that it is enough, since you have to set the date every two months, you can even check and correct the time then. But iot depends of course of what you want to do with your watch.
i use this one
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.co.uk/
I check mine using the atomic clock online, i did use the bbc news clock on the banner but that doesn't show the seconds.
So basically it's as I thought. Check against any reliable and accurate timesource.
Simple really!
Thanks to those who replied.
Apart from the suggested q&d there are several methods discussed on the TC quartz subforum on WUS and Catalin is the TZ-UK in house expert.Originally Posted by Pudspud2005
+ 1 for the GMT site
Casio Pro Trek Tough Solar or Eddies Dreadnought above.
“Don’t look back, you’re not heading that way.”
I have literally NEVER checked the accuracy of a watch. Does this make me a bad person?
I promise I'll do it at least once before I reach the mythical 250 post mark *
(* - if only so when I start punting on my old tat I can write things like "running to about +2 seconds a day" and the like)
use the time on my imac ....
accuracy is not very important for me unless it's 15 minutes a day :-)
I use the 'Time' Emerald Sequoia app on the iPhone!
Time.is
Or the iPhone app for it.
That or the dreadnought as theyre both in synch.
Same here, it's a great little app.
Cool. I'll check this one out as I normally visit the atomic clock webpage.
Jumping on the iPhone bandwagon... if you go to time.is and then click 'Add to homescreen', it puts a nice little app icon on your homescreen and the exact time is only ever a single tap away.
I use it a lot to measure the accuracy of the few in my watch box.
Me too, it's great. Or http://www.atomic-clock.org.uk/atomic-clock.php
> i did use the bbc news clock on the banner
good luck with that, because it just displays the local time of your computer - which is OK if you sync to a reference. this is also true of the clock with the second hand on the bbc.co.uk home page.
i use some G shock radio/solar thing that i wear for running. bizarrely, instead of being tuned to Rugby it often reports that it's synced to the German signal (zey haf vays off making you tock)
I downloaded a Time Application for the iphone and set my watches to it.
Can't say I've checked a watch tbh, I don't care much within reason. I do set the watch against a Casio radio controlled wave ceptor.
When the boss tells me I'm late, but my watch says I'm on time, I figure my watch is inaccurate....
Me too, it's great. Or http://www.atomic-clock.org.uk/atomic-clock.php
Yeah I use this one too, works well for me
Andy
Am I pointing out the obvious in suggesting those of you using internet sources to check risk the inaccuracy of different latencies based on your connection at the time?
If mines worked I would check it against the speaking clock :D
Exactly how accurate do you need it to be, and just what is the time lag of the hack signal between a fast connection and a slow connection?
(not enough to matter given the human reaction time lag, I'll wager)
Could be 250ms, 1/4 of a second?
Rugby closed a few years ago, they use a clock somewhere in Cumbria now I believe.
> Exactly how accurate do you need it to be
not very - it's just interesting :)
> and just what is the time lag of the hack signal between a fast connection and a slow connection?
i don't think that matters. i think NTP (network time protocol) based systems ping the time source to get the network latency. they then adjust the signal they receive accordingly.
> Rugby closed a few years ago, they use a clock somewhere in Cumbria now I believe
yup - forgot about that : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthorn_radio_station
what's the point in checking at all if you don't care about accuracy?Exactly how accurate do you need it to be, and just what is the time lag of the hack signal between a fast connection and a slow connection?
(not enough to matter given the human reaction time lag, I'll wager)
I'm surprised by how much people check the accuracy based on this thread. I'll use a source as has been mentioned to set a watch that hasn't been worn for a while, but then I'll leave it and live with the small drift it experiences before I decide to wear something else. Very rarely do I need to know the time to the nearest minute let alone second.
I use a radio controlled watch.
Of course to do it "right" you should follow t he C.O.S.C. criteria (or similar)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COSC
Personally, I wear them for a few days, having set them to the speaking clock (or, now, my G-Shock atomic) and get an average daily gain/loss.
After that I just set them about 30 seconds fast (or slow) so that the watch will be accurate within 30 seconds for the next couple of weeks or so (given a 4 second daily drift).
Cheers,
One duty as officer of the watch in the "old days" when I was at sea was to wind the chronometer. This is done at a set time of day, and the time checked against a radio signal and recorded. This was to allow estimation of an accurate time.
That reminds me, my IWC is running at an infuriating -2. Is there a consensus on a good overnight position to encourage faster running?
I have a couple of radio controlled watches and they are in synch and also with the time on the BBC News on TV. However my iPhone is consistently 2 seconds faster than these time sources. Also if I have the DAB radio on when the BBC news is on there is a time lag even though they are using the pips so you think it is accurate. The moral is chose your time source and stick with it. I know my watches are accurate if I walk into a meeting and don't get scowls for being late. :lol: :lol:
Radio controlled G Shock, just about the best available to mortal man.
See that's what I don't get. Why is such a small number infuriating? What's that? A minute a month, amazing for a mechanical device. Personally I don't wear mine long enough to care. 2 days and I'll be wearing another which will have invariably stopped and need setting anyway.
Only because it is losing. If it was gaining two seconds a day I would be ecstatic.
You are pointing out the obvious - and you're wrong.
Time synchronisation over a network using NTP (Network Time Protocol) is extremely accurate, the latencies are of course taken into account, as stated on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol:
All computers I am maintaining use it, here's a quick accuracy check for my workstation at home:NTP uses Marzullo's algorithm, and includes support for features such as leap seconds. It is designed particularly to resist the effects of variable latency by using a jitter buffer. NTP can usually maintain time to within 10's of milliseconds over the public Internet,[1] and can achieve 1 millisecond accuracy in local area networks under ideal conditions.
It is configured to use several time servers and it picks the best source at any given point, also does some neat stuff like accounting for the system clock rate errors based on previous adjustments so it is more accurate in-between checks as well. It is of course academic, but it is a better time source than an atomic-adjusted clock.Code:23:04 www ~ # ntpdate -q `cat /etc/ntp.conf | awk '/^server/ {print $2}' | tr "\n" " " ` server 140.78.2.62, stratum 3, offset -0.000766, delay 0.04053 server 212.33.33.36, stratum 2, offset 0.000806, delay 0.03297 server 86.59.13.46, stratum 4, offset -0.003489, delay 0.03706 server 213.235.200.199, stratum 2, offset -0.000649, delay 0.03789 server 213.235.200.208, stratum 0, offset 0.000000, delay 0.00000 server 80.64.135.105, stratum 2, offset -0.001298, delay 0.03760 server 137.208.3.51, stratum 2, offset -0.000815, delay 0.03804 server 213.129.242.82, stratum 3, offset -0.001528, delay 0.03783 server 88.198.34.114, stratum 0, offset 0.000000, delay 0.00000 server 66.111.35.60, stratum 0, offset 0.000000, delay 0.00000 21 Sep 23:05:54 ntpdate[11915]: adjust time server 212.33.33.36 offset 0.000806 sec
+1. Must admit my Tough Solar is getting more wrist-time than my ExpII just now, loving the accuracy and functionality. Stops me having to look up greenwichmeantime.com at work as well...
More confused now than when I started reading this thread :)
http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5/java
I use this - it is US time alright but the minutes / seconds are spot on.
Set by the digital clock on the platform at my train station every morning on the way to work!
I set my Seiko Spring Drive against my Casio atomic Edifice. Interestingly, if the Casio doesn't sync (in a quite built up area), it seems to be less accurate than the Spring Drive, which has been keeping superb time. I guess they put a decent bit of quartz in it :)
Another using time.gov but got an App on the iphone now after reading this thread :lol:
i just use my computer, isnt that accurate?
no, not unless you sync it to a time server.
I check accuracy with my Seiko atomic watch which is conviently stored with my autos ready for when they need setting.
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