Opuscula Time on My hands

I CONFESS TO BEING “ANAL” ABOUT TIME.

For no particular reason, it seems that since I stared wearing a watch, I expected that time piece to be accurate.

If the watch or clock has a sweep second hand, I wanted that level of accuracy even if I had no way to check it.

Now there is a way.

WHEN I WAS a young lad in Air Force blue (actually, most of the time in khaki, but never mind) I had a friend who owned a jewelry store. He insisted I own a Bulova Accutron “Spaceview.” He took my old Bulova and gave me the Spaceview¹ over my strong objections. He had one, I had to have one.

It WAS an interesting watch – a see-through that intrigued me. It was pretty accurate, and that was important.

Its accuracy was due to a “tuning fork” mechanism that transmitted an “A” tone to the watch’s movement.

My jeweler friend eventually “traded” my Spaceview with another watch (I no longer own) to save with his as collectors items.

I don’t know the original retail price of the Spaceview, but one is offered now for $3,000!

Since then I have had a number of “lesser” watches, the $20 retail variety. When the battery died, the watch went into a drawer and I bought another.

Accurate? Yes. Flat DC current is, as anyone who ever worked with things electrical knows, is straight-line steady. As long as there is current.

Time marches on.

Somewhere along the line I bought a La Crosse wall clock that synched with WWVb, the signal sent from the ytterbium-powered clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado.

As with all time pieces before it, it “died.” I don’t recall the cause of its demise.

ANYWAY, my sons collect watches, and one year I was “gifted” with a Casio MT-G.

Fantastic watch.

Synchs to WWVb in the U.S. (and other clocks in Europe and Japan).

BUT, for at least 10 years, no battery worries.

The watch is solar powered. In fact, according to Casio, any light source will do to charge the internal battery.

I’m not a “geek,” that title belongs to my second born, but I do appreciate things “technical.”

Now I have a watch on which I can depend – assuming I “park” the watch near a window to receive the WWVb signal. (Apparently the Casio has a very small antenna to receive the signal. The watch has a tiny dish antenna icon that displays when the signal is successfully received.)

Ahh, there is a problem.

When I’m reading or beating on a keyboard, I take the watch off. I usually “park” it by a window to catch whatever sun is available. (Where I live, that usually is “a lot.”)

If I’m on the computer, I can check the tiny digital clock at the bottom of the screen, but I currently use a Microsoft operating system and I don’t trust the clock’s accuracy. (It’s been “off” several seconds from the Casio on more than one occasion.)

What I NEED, I told myself, was another La Crosse wall clock.

I found the La Cross page for digital wall clocks and looked for one that tickled my fancy.

One did. (Actually, several did, but I’m price conscious.)

Not only did it meet my accuracy requirements, it, too, synchs with the ytterbium-powered clock (etc.), but it also shows both inside and outside temperatures. The clock comes with a wireless thermometer that is hung in the shade and transmits the temperature to the clock. It’s not as precise as the clock’s primary function, but “close enough.”

I never understood why temperatures are measured in the shade. Why not under the sun where we walk, play, and work? And then add humidity to jack up the “feels like” temperature even more. Local summer temperatures often are in the mid-90s and a “feels like” temperature of 105 is all too common.

The only thing the clock lacks is solar power, but how much sun would a wall clock normally receive? Batteries are supposed to last two years in the clock and a year in the temperature transmitter.

The clock has the same signal indicator as the watch, but because it’s antenna apparently is bigger – makes sense, the clock is a great deal bigger than the watch – it doesn’t need to snuggle up to a window, even if it’s not facing toward Denver CO.

An acquaintance has two similar clocks. One is “on the money,” the other, due to its location, “not so much.”

Both the clock and the watch far surpass the Accutron’s ±1 minute-a-month promise since they are synchronized daily with the ytterbium-powered clock etc.

I admit to being a pedant. If I have a “something” that is supposed to perform to a specific standard, I want that performance. The Accutron, with an guaranteed accuracy of ±1 minute-a-month was OK as long as it met the goal. (The trouble was, if it gained or lost a minute-a-month consistently, after a few months it could be “off” by a noticeable amount.)

Time marches on, and as it does, its accuracy increases.

‘Course even the F-2 ytterbium-powered clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado has to be adjusted occasionally. Accordng to NIST,²

NIST-F2 would neither gain nor lose one second in about 300 million years, making it about three times as accurate as NIST-F1.

Even if WWVb is using time from F-1, a 100 million year accuracy, while it may not be “good enough for government work” (ergo the need for F-2) it should be “good enough” for me.

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Sources

1. http://www.accutronspaceviewwatch.com/

2. http://tinyurl.com/y95eev73

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