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If you want a reliable time piece, may I recommend two hard to find watches.

First there is the Seiko SLL033 Perpetual Calendar.

Its features include:

1) Perpetual calendar automatically adjusts for odd and even months
including leap years up to February 28, 2100.
2) Calendar indicates date and can also indicate month.
3) Second hand can indicate number of years since last leap year.
4) Highly accurate with a yearly loss/gain rate of less than 20 seconds.
5) Water-tested up to 50 meters.
6) Magnified date window.
7) LumiBrite hands and markers.
8) Double locking clasp.
9) Battery life of approximately 10 years.
10) $270 retail.

I got mine on the internet for about $160.  It is an excellent watch.
It uses 6X the normal quartz rate of 32 KHz, or 192 KHz to get its high
accuracy.

---

The second watch to recommend is much more expensive, about $1000 on the
internet.

It is the Omega 1552.30 Perpetual Calendar with thermal compensation

This watch has a thermally compensated movement.  If regulated, these
watches
are incredibly accurate.  A PhD friend of mine who works at the Jet
Propulsion Lab
has a regulated Omega which, after an entire year, is exactly on with WWV.
Years
ago he had another thermally compensated twin-quartz watch which was
perfect, and
then one day he noticed it was off by exactly a second.  A leap second had
been
inserted!  (They don't insert leap seconds much any more now...)

Anyway, I have not regulated mine, which means opening up the back and
adjusting
the controls inside to get perfection.  I want to, but I have not yet bought
a nice
case opening tool.  I don't really want to scratch up a $1,000 watch!

I bought the watch as a master timepiece for use with my sextants in case of
GPS
failure.  I wear it when I get dressed up.  Otherwise I use the Seiko, which
is
a great watch for the money.

Neither of these watches has tons of features and gizmos.  For that I have a
Casio
watch with altimeter, barometer, magnetic fluxgate compass, etc.  I have not
yet
bought a GPS watch though... they are just too big for my taste.

Dan

-----Original Message-----

From- Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of brian whatcott
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 3:26 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Re: Online WWV time?

I am tempted to rig a box with a velvet covered aluminum block, in which
three chain store five year battery analog watches could be kept.
Temperature stabilization is so helpful that a watch on your wrist
maintained at a fair 98 degrees Fahrenheit can give a chronometer a run
for its money.

At least 2 of the 3 have a fair chance of surviving for a year or two....

brian whatcott 

   

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