Yes, as others have stated this is an old technology. I don't really understand why this is not more common in the modern day. it's not really that expensive to implement and they did it with analog chips back in the day...<p>Why do we have to set the time on our clock radios or on our microwaves or whatever? Why don't they just always use this Tech. I don't understand. All you have to do is allow people to store an offset for the time zone, and RTC issues are a thing of the past.
I spend most of the time out of range, but the technology is simple and robust enough that you can use headphones or a phone speaker as a very, very short-range transmitter. You hardly need to sync every day, either. I've had most success with <a href="https://einoko.github.io/DCF77.js/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://einoko.github.io/DCF77.js/</a>
I wore a G-Shock Wavecepter while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. I recall that on both of my shipboard deployments (2004 and 2006) I was very excited to have my watch set time automatically. It indicated that I was finally nearing the U.S. East Coast. It helped to be an aircraft mechanic on night crew, as I was usually on the flight deck when it tried to set time.
Related thread with local transmitters of time signal: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27769403">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27769403</a><p><a href="https://github.com/hzeller/txtempus">https://github.com/hzeller/txtempus</a> (A DCF77, WWVB, JJY and MSF clock LF-band signal transmitter using the Raspberry Pi)<p>ios and mac app: <a href="https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/49109/pips-a-radio-time-signal-generator-for-ios-mac" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/49109/pips-a-radio-time-s...</a><p>(time sync over rf is super cool; I would be super interested if anyone has links to field surveys of time signal availability, potential gaps in coverage, and maps of said data.
Casio are the best watches I've ever owned. Radio sync on a watch is awesome for creating "drop the mic" moments showing how far out the clocks are on a multi-million dollar machine in a datacenter despite how much the big consultancy thinks they are synced to UTP via "atomic clocks".
If you're interested in buying a Casio watch that does this they tend to be called Waveceptor, I'd recommend looking at one that's also solar powered (tough solar).
I inherited one of these Casio Waveceptor watches from my father.<p>It routinely will set itself to a totally random time far into the past/future. I've wondered if maybe contemporary wireless devices interfere with the time sync radio. Another possible factor is the watch itself is ~20 years old.
I have an alarm clock with this system (or I think it's this, it's from Oregon Scientific) and it has this "automatic clock sync" feature.<p>I have it disabled. Once it was set to a random time, and I lost an important meeting because the alarm didn't ring at the correct time. The usual time doesn't deviate more than a second or so every few years, when I need to change the batteries and set it again so it's useless.<p>This automatic feature would be perfect if it acted as a "press this button to setup" or at startup, but the issue is that the messages are sent very sporadically so you either need to wait almost a full day for it to sync (clocks are not always listening, so it needs to coincide the "push" and the "listen") or set it manually.
They misspelled Mainflingen, where the German DCF77 transmitter is located, as "Mineflingen", which is basically spelled phonetically (for English speakers).
My $0.02: Junghans solar radio watch. Analog display, smartphone app. Runs up to 21 months when fully fed. Never buy a battery again.<p><a href="https://www.junghans.de/en/collection/watches/junghans-radio-control-solar/force-mega-solar/18143644?c=553" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.junghans.de/en/collection/watches/junghans-radio...</a>
I'm curious why we don't just use GPS's UTC time broadcast to set time? I understand that using GPS to track satellites and find location is power hungry, but I can't imagine that simply receiving a time and setting a clock is any more power hungry than this system.
I’m from
Germany — we drove to Arizona from California a few years ago and were too late for check in which was super annoying. I got a SEIKO Astron watch that synchronizes the time via GPS after that and couldn’t be more satisfied; it also runs on solar and holds a charge of 6 months for when there’s no sun (i.e. Antarctica). This watch is so precise it’s my absolute time reference. When I’m traveling I keep my Apple Watch at home and only wear the SEIKO; the Apple Watch is pointless anyway if you’re stuck in the desert for more than a few days.
I have the all black GW-2310FB. I’ll be honest, the gray digits on black background can be a little impractical in low light (it does have a very good backlit if you press the button). But it looks awesome and I have no regrets. Love it. And for those of you that are militant about your IDE’s dark mode, this could be the watch for you too.
<a href="https://www.casio.com/us/watches/gshock/product.GW-2310FB-1/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.casio.com/us/watches/gshock/product.GW-2310FB-1/</a>
That was (and still is) a great technology, but in the last couple of years Casio has bluetooth-enabled watches that can sync with your phone (that is syncing with the base station, which syncs with GPS). Bluetooth adds about $10-20 on top, but works indoors and outdoors, day or night or on-demand, all around the world.<p>(The usual Casio G-Shock time deviation is under 20 seconds per month, so there's that.)
Had the GW9400. Now using GWG2000<p>Works flawless in Seoul and Beijing. A month in South Bay and flawless too.<p>There is no signal for this back home in Singapore. What I do - since we also don't know when they're gonna shut off the radio towers - is use an app on my Tab S8 Ultra, set my watch's time zone to Tokyo, leave watch right next to speaker and go do something else. After some beeps and minutes : my watch time is readjusted.<p>No fiddling.
I've been using a radio controlled clock for many years. At some point I noticed it was more frequently reporting it had been unable to sync properly. I'd never noticed this before. Turned out the UK time signal had moved from Rugby to Anthorn. It really seemed to negatively impact reception.
I have Casio GW-M5600. It's a perfect watch.<p>- Looks like classic G-Shock.<p>- shows correct time always (time sync)<p>- never runs out of battery (solar charging).
Cool to have this multiband technology, but what about the southern hemisphere? Assuming they have time signal transmitters, too: Do watch manufacturers have different SKUs that can receive signals in the southern hemisphere? Is it possible to have a watch that receives these signals truly worldwide?
I wish Casio would bring back the WV-300 form factor: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t79GeZkTJLY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t79GeZkTJLY</a><p>The closest modern replacement is the GMW-B5000, but that's quite large and expensive compared to what they were doing in 2008.
Good read on the accuracy of radio controlled clocks: <a href="https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/2429.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/2429.pdf</a>
I'd be curious to see a proper signal map for this service. I've been the proud owner of a Casio Oceanus for a little over a year now. I can count on one hand the number of times the watch has synchronized via radio.
For anyone in the Iberian peninsula, I've had some luck using UK's radio on mine.
Be mindful to try it at night, and if the meteorological conditions allow.<p>Hope there were more stations...
I have a wall clock that syncs with an atomic clock in Colorado, which was cool at first but I live in Arizona now which doesn’t observe daylight savings so it’s often wrong by an hour now.
Either get Gshock GWM5610-1 which is solar and synced for good price, or get Garmin Instict Solar for all bells and whistles and also unlimited power in theory.
not working in SEA, though :/ there are some tricks with apps synthesizing a electromagnetic radio signal via speaker activity but i never got this to work.
I have one in the south of Spain and it doesn't work practically anywhere and definitely not where I sleep (since it can be set to synchronise after midnight automatically)<p>I bought it in part because of this feature and it was quite sad. These quartz watches are good but they still drift substantially after a few months.<p>Thankfully I heard of the DCF77 emulator app thanks to this thread and I will use it.