It's About Time!

[mabfan]

Last year, as maybe one or two of you might recall, gnomi got me the bestest birthday present ever. This year, she's gotten me another perfect birthday present.

Even though my birthday isn't until the end of next month, I asked her to order the present for me early so I could have it as soon as possible. So she placed the order last week and the present arrived yesterday. Which means, amusingly enough, that I got my birthday present on her birthday.

So what is this wonderful present? The Casio WVA104HLA-8V Wave Ceptor Atomic Watch. Click on the link for a picture and a list of specifications. For those of you who are unfamiliar with "atomic" watches, note that the watch itself doesn't contain an atomic cesium clock inside. Instead, it has a radio receiver, and it calibrates itself to the official United States time via a radio signal sent each night from Fort Collins, Colorado. (For those of you who want to know more, the official US time is provided by the Time and Frequency Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in cooperation with the Time Service Department of the United States Naval Observatory.

What this means to me is that every morning, I can be assured that I have the exact US time, calibrated down to the second, blinking away on my wrist.

Why is this gift so perfect for me? Two reasons.

• All my life, I've been obsessed with knowing the correct time. When an event happens in my life, I like to be able to look at my watch and say that this is the exact moment of said event. Or if a historical event takes place, I will search for information until I know as precisely as I can the time of the event. With this new watch, I will always know the real time.

• The watch has both an analog face and a digital face. I happen to be fond of analog watches, both because of my need to know what clockwise and counterclockwise means when doing electromagnetic force equations, and because of the word "analog." (Think about it.) But digital displays are much more convenient when it comes to reading off the exact time. So now I have the best of both worlds.

The only problem is that now I have to stay off of airplanes and starships, or else the relativistic time dilation will mess up the watch's timekeeping. Plus, I wouldn't be able to get the signal from Fort Collins...

Comments

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

That is indeed extremely cool (though their page needs editing--unless they wanted to show all the info twice). And so is the present you got last year. :)
Question, though--when you go to a different time zone, does it automatically reset itself, or only once a day when it recalibrates?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Question, though--when you go to a different time zone, does it automatically reset itself, or only once a day when it recalibrates?

When you first set the watch, you choose a "home city" within the US or a "world city" within one of the 29 available timezones. When you travel, you need to choose a different home or world city that matches the timezone you're in.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I have a similar watch; it is in fact quite cool. You have to tell it what time zone you're in, though-newer models will presumably have GPS receivers in them, to obviate the need for this tedious chore :-)

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Heh. I love it. You're such a geek, and that's why we love you.

And yes, the watch sounds unspeakably cool!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I'm so geeky the other thing I did yesterday was finally get a Star Trek communicator ring tone for my cell phone. And I think it's cool!

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

But, does it have alarms for sof zeman kriat shema, etc.? According to the GRA or the Magen Avraham?

I agree it is a cool first step. :>)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

It's a strictly secular watch. Believes in evolution and everything. :-)

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

But ... wasn't yesterday *gnomi's* birthday? No doubt you reciprocated with something appropriate. :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

He got me UFO earrings from Angelwear Creations (one of the lovely perks of my birthday and Arisia being so close together). I am a happy camper. :-)

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I look forward to seeing you with them.

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

The only problem is that now I have to stay off of airplanes and starships, or else the relativistic time dilation will mess up the watch's timekeeping.

Have you tried reversing the polarity?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_opus_/]

Great gift!

Do the analog hands also match the atomic time automagically?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

They do indeed.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_opus_/]

That wins, right there.

[ithych.livejournal.com]

Very shiny!
(though having an actual cesium clock on your wrist would be even cooler)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the clock would be too heavy for my wrist. However, they are working to make them smaller and less massive. One day, perhaps, we will all wear cesium clocks on our wrists.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

How heavy can an atom of cesium be? I mean, really!

But I must say, this watch sounds like a fine present. More than fine, perhaps. Hyperfine, maybe.

[crackboy.livejournal.com]

One of the things I remember from CSW assembly was, at one point, we needed to know what time it was for some reason, and you got up and announced that you set your watch to the atomic clock every week and then you estimated how much your watch would be off by now, given how off it usually was by the time you reset it. It was impressive.

[malkaesther.livejournal.com]

LOL. Its been a while since I've seen anything other than fundraising about CSW. I graduated from there in 1985. I can so picture this assembly.

[fynixsoul.livejournal.com]

Woah, CSW people! Who are you?

Man, I remember that assembly too...I also remember Michael talking about his watch on 9/11, for similar reasons.

[fhwqhgads.livejournal.com]

The issue was that people were coming to class like, 3-5 minutes late, blaming their watches/clocks, and the teachers were sick of it.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Have a similar one (mine has the calculator, telememo, etc. features, but seems to no longer be sold by Casio); congrats, you've now become the go to person on New Year's Eve to do the midnight countdown. : -)

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

hm, you *could* leave it at home when you vacation via airtravel, but then you wouldn't know when all of the neat things occur that happen to you while away...

Happy early birthday!

(and it seems you both did quite well by each other in your respective gifts! nice!)

[fynixsoul.livejournal.com]

Wait, you can't take it on a plane? Is that any plane trip, or one that hops more than a given number of time zones?

A very cool gift all in all...I love the whole analog AND digital aspect of it. And so very you :-)

[surakofb5.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! Yup, that's definitely a fantastic gift. I want one. :)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Very cool!

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

When an event happens in my life, I like to be able to look at my watch and say that this is the exact moment of said event.

I'm not sure if this will poke your particular obsession, but the thing that caused me to really fall in love with watches (mechanical movement watches, that is) was the Ulysse Nardin Trilogy of Time collection. With one of these, not only would you know the time -- you'd know where Pluto was, too (at least with the Planetarium -- be sure to click on each watch, as they all give different astronomical information).