Every night, if within range of one of the handful of radio towers, it will receive a time signal and adjust itself. Unlike a cell phone, it does not continuously receive signals and update near instantly. Not all locales are within signal range (not sure anywhere in Africa is).

 

One thing I've never quite understood is given the transmitters are rare, why don't they just transmit on AM or VHF frequencies that can take advantage of skywave so there's a good chance you can get the signal from almost anywhere, at least at night? You would think with so few receivers they would take advantage of skywave to propagate the signal. Sure, you might find you're off by a microsecond or two depending too much of skywave, but nobody who needed that level of accuracy would depend on it anyway.

 

Hello,

May someone please explain how it works in reality?

Model: AT8234-85L
When let’s say I come to Paris it will adjust time automatically? But how fast Immediately?
Is it working everywhere? In Kenya, let’s say?
Maybe someone knows how the time is adjusted ? It could be done as gmt in one hour jump without stopping the watch?
I don’t have experience with this type of watch, so don’t understand welll
Sorry for double posting the thread (Citizen as well), but here it’s quicker to get an answer

Thank you very much!

You set up it to time zone and it receives radio signal with atomic time (given it within reception range and signal is not blocked). Time and date get adjusted..
Watch have no idea where you are that is why it important to set it up for proper zone and generally follow instructions. IT working only where transmitters are.
There are 6 of them in the world.
You can google subject of coverage.

 

The fastest way would be to pull the crown out and manually adjust it.

Paris is close enough to the Mainflingen transmitter in Germany. So you could go through the process of resetting your watch immediately or just wait until 2am after you have manually adjusted to get the near approximate local time.

Resetting the time instructions

 

These are not like smart watches getting time signals off the web. As mentioned, the update occurs at night, it begins trying like 2am. There are coverage maps out there. Usually much of the US and much of Europe have coverage. Some of the JDM watches also have some coverage in Asia.

 

Thank you all for explanation and help.
You see I thought it wrong

In that way I don’t see it a lot better than my mechanical watch with a quick hour hand adjust

That’s the case, that you are not sure whether your radio control will work in specific countries..

for example the watch on a picture below costs almost in two time less, but I thought the bezel with cities gives ability to adjust automatically, so the price is higher
So in reality no difference

why I am looking at…, a lot of people in my circle recommend citizen to buy. However, I see that clasps in these watches have very tiny adjustments, which is not for comfort

what about Seiko Astron GPS? Is it the same as radio control?

Once again thanks for explanation !!

 

what about Seiko Astron GPS? Is it the same as radio control?

Or more generally, what other watches utilize this technology?

 

Automatic or quartz watches are not extremely accurate. Every day/week/month they tend to drift by a few seconds. This means that if you do not control and set the time yourself regularly (say, every few weeks or months), your watch will probably end up indicating a time that is wrong enough that you might miss your train.
Radio Controlled watches eliminate this problem by automatically syncing daily to an atomic clock. And that’s cool.
BUT:

• not many regions of the world are covered (Kenya is not)
• the watch does not know where you are. So if you are moving to a different time zone, you will need to manually adjust your watch (adjust Home City)

I would personally recommend a BlueTooth watch that syncs automatically to your phone. Your phone adjusts its time automatically based on your location, globally. So will your watch.

 

Radio atomic signal strength I have found can vary greatly from one place to the next. So it can be crucial the watch be placed on an unobstructed windowsill for reception. Some watches have to be facing a certain way too. If you live in a weak coverage area there is a good chance your watch will not receive signal and then behave just like any other quartz watch, and you will need to set it manually. Even if you live in a strong signal area, but your apartment / residence has buildings that obstruct the signal... it can be hit or miss. Not sure how that watch works but my Casios I can specify a time to sync. I have it set to sync every night at 3:00AM, when I am asleep.

 

 

It is a problem you have to leave phone screeching for 3-4 min at least.
It also don't change a need to correct time zone on the watch/clock manually in case of radio controlled watch.
Plus in case of watch it should be just right there.
With BT watch you just press button and it done in less than a second.

 

Could also use bicycle handle bars or any anchored and suspended metal pipe to improve reception (ideally at a window facing the direction of the transmitting tower)

.

 

Could also use bicycle handle bars or any anchored and suspended metal pipe to improve reception (ideally at a window facing the direction of the transmitting tower) View attachment 17335795 .

^ And that’s if you’re lucky enough to be within range of a tower 🤣

Using a RC app requires me to adjust my Home City twice even if I am not travelling (since I’m out of range, RC syncing is disabled for my Home City), and then spend an average 11 minutes with a screeching phone. Usually several attempts are needed.
Guess how long it takes me to manually sync my mechanical 3 handers?

What a great, modern tech! 🤣

 

Technology is your friend, but sometimes confusing.......

 

With a watch like this it will keep accurate time if within range of the time signals, but it doesn't know what time zone you're in. It's easy to change the time zone in the watch without actually having to reset the time itself. If you want a watch that automatically adjusts to different time zones then this is not the watch for you. I just purchased a very similar Citizen watch a few weeks ago and it's pretty easy to adjust the time zone.

 

Well, they definitely won't be making any in Australia, Africa, India, Russia or South America.

 

Shameless plug: I'm selling my Citizen promoter atomic/solar right now in the classifieds section! I didn't jive with it because of the 46mm diameter more than anything. I rarely wore it due to that, but used it several times per week to set my automatic watches since it's always accurate and is analog which makes setting the seconds on my automatics easy and painless.

I'll be getting another atomic with a smaller diameter once it sells...

 

I have a couple Pagani Design chronos with Seiko VK-63 movements.
They gain 2 seconds per month. That's from a sub $100 watch that doesn't need an outside reference.

Fredrique Constant has hybrid (sort of) smartwatches.
They look like a regular analog dress watch, but can display when you have an email, message, or alarm.

 

Honestly, my Citizen watches have always kept time to much better than 15 sec per month. I bought my latest one more because of its looks than its RC feature. I do like the ability to quickly change time zones, though. And Eco Drive, too. My first Citizen Eco Drive ran flawlessly for 20 years and was still running strong when I finally had it serviced a couple months ago.

 

So, what I understand that simple Apple Watch will take it much easier and a way more easier to set up and operate
Another thing with smart watches you need to charge it and that’s smt you don’t want to care about when you travel
I don’t take serious Tag and other high brand smart watches seriously, they are not cheap and will get outdated very quickly..
Bluetooth is not ok, I do often switch it off on my phone. The whole idea is to have an independent watch, but not to rely on your phone sync

All in all: simple Casio g-shock $150 with multi band solar will work absolutely the same as more premium Citizen?
for people (who is very old or use simple Apple) and who forgot to set up a date in simple quartz these watches will be tough to set up like your TV first time, what I saw from video instructions in this thread

I should get some just to try how it will be in journeys
Actually they are not $100, but their bracelet links are too big and clasps have little adjustment and in the watch I showed at the beginning the clasp is absolutely no adjustment, that’s so stupid how to get the right fit.. and it’s not $100-200 watch

 

So, what I understand that simple Apple Watch will take it much easier and a way more easier to set up and operate
Another thing with smart watches you need to charge it and that’s smt you don’t want to care about when you travel
I don’t take serious Tag and other high brand smart watches seriously, they are not cheap and will get outdated very quickly..
Bluetooth is not ok, I do often switch it off on my phone. The whole idea is to have an independent watch, but not to rely on your phone sync

All in all: simple Casio g-shock $150 with multi band solar will work absolutely the same as more premium Citizen?
for people (who is very old or use simple Apple) and who forgot to set up a date in simple quartz these watches will be tough to set up like your TV first time, what I saw from video instructions in this thread

I should get some just to try how it will be in journeys
Actually they are not $100, but their bracelet links are too big and clasps have little adjustment and in the watch I showed at the beginning the clasp is absolutely no adjustment, that’s so stupid how to get the right fit.. and it’s not $100-200 watch

It sounds like you're looking for smartwatch. If you have iPhone, you can't beat Apple Watch for travel and convenience. Time is always accurate down to the second and auto updates with the time zone changes. Travelers need and want accurate time and information. There's no watch that provides more accurate information at finger tip than Apple Watch.

G-shock with multi band solar will work the same as the premium Citizen. I don't have G-shock but have Casio S100 which only has multi band solar, Casio T200 which has both multi band solar and bluetooth, and Apple Watch. Like you I was curious about multi band solar and how it worked so I bought Casio S100 and T200 to play around with. Now my curiosity is satisfied and both my Casios are fine everyday and travel watch but still mainly serve as fashion jewelry compared to my Apple Watch.

 

If you normally carry a mobile phone, I think Bluetooth is the most practical option these days.

 

Has no one has mentioned GPS watches so far?Citizen Satellite-Wave, Seiko Astron, Casio MR-G ranges.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

So, guys what do you think about that watch at the beginning?
It’s a good one for purchase? Or no?

I found it’s funny chronograph just for 60 minutes and clasp with no adjustment
Do you think it’s ok for this money?

 

Buy what you like. For me it would be easy pass as I'm not a big chronograph fan. It's also pretty big at 45mm diameter and has really wide lug width at 25mm.

I much prefer Casio Oceanus T4000. It's smaller at 42.8mm case and 20mm strap width. But even so, I wouldn't buy Casio T4000 as I'm not a chronograph fan.

Casio Oceanus Classic Line OCW-T4000-1AJF | Sakurawatches.com