by firewolf34 on 8/16/23, 7:41 PM
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...
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.
by topynate on 8/16/23, 8:14 PM
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
https://einoko.github.io/DCF77.js/by vlachen on 8/16/23, 8:23 PM
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.
by toomuchtodo on 8/16/23, 7:53 PM
by gm3dmo on 8/16/23, 8:21 PM
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".
by psychphysic on 8/16/23, 7:46 PM
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).
by 1MachineElf on 8/16/23, 7:54 PM
I inherited one of these Casio Waveceptor watches from my father.
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.
by TrianguloY on 8/16/23, 8:21 PM
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.
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.
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.
by joeig on 8/16/23, 7:53 PM
Back in school, we learned how basic binary protocols work using DCF77 as an example. We decoded it on a piece of paper. Good old times.
by tcmb on 8/16/23, 7:36 PM
They misspelled Mainflingen, where the German DCF77 transmitter is located, as "Mineflingen", which is basically spelled phonetically (for English speakers).
by tempodox on 8/17/23, 2:32 PM
by wsc981 on 8/17/23, 4:55 AM
I just wish this time sync feature wasn’t limited to only Western world and East Asia.
A nice feature, but not usable in Thailand, where I live.
by friend_and_foe on 8/16/23, 10:22 PM
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.
by jiehong on 8/16/23, 8:09 PM
Got a Pro-Trek PRW-30, and this works flawlessly.
It syncs almost every night, and takes into account DST just fine.
by 19h on 8/18/23, 2:01 AM
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.
by DeathMetal3000 on 8/17/23, 1:35 AM
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.
https://www.casio.com/us/watches/gshock/product.GW-2310FB-1/by Animats on 8/16/23, 7:32 PM
Great technology, works fine, at least 10-20 years old now.
by maratc on 8/17/23, 11:46 AM
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.
(The usual Casio G-Shock time deviation is under 20 seconds per month, so there's that.)
by IamTC on 8/17/23, 2:01 AM
Had the GW9400. Now using GWG2000
Works flawless in Seoul and Beijing. A month in South Bay and flawless too.
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.
No fiddling.
by Grazester on 8/16/23, 7:35 PM
I have a citizen watch with this. Tends to keep time just fine. Though so did all my other quartz watches until the battery dies
by globular-toast on 8/17/23, 7:47 AM
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.
by nabla9 on 8/16/23, 10:11 PM
I have Casio GW-M5600. It's a perfect watch.
- Looks like classic G-Shock.
- shows correct time always (time sync)
- never runs out of battery (solar charging).
by tcmb on 8/16/23, 7:40 PM
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?
by p1mrx on 8/16/23, 8:24 PM
I wish Casio would bring back the WV-300 form factor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t79GeZkTJLYThe closest modern replacement is the GMW-B5000, but that's quite large and expensive compared to what they were doing in 2008.
by jcul on 8/16/23, 9:22 PM
by itisit on 8/16/23, 7:46 PM
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.
by spookie on 8/17/23, 10:03 AM
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.
Hope there were more stations...
by ajhurliman on 8/16/23, 7:35 PM
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.
by tamimio on 8/16/23, 11:09 PM
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.
by saagarjha on 8/17/23, 9:46 AM
I had one of these when I was a child. I now have an Apple Watch on my wrist, go figure.
by 2-718-281-828 on 8/16/23, 8:48 PM
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.
by veave on 8/17/23, 9:13 AM
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)
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.
Thankfully I heard of the DCF77 emulator app thanks to this thread and I will use it.