Quartz

[ceagle]

For the last couple of months, I've been conducting a fairly simple test. I found an amazing deal recently, one quartz watch and a digital watch, together for $15! (so I bought four)..
And, I've been keeping tabs on them to see how they fare... because, alas, digital doesn't = accurate.

I used to think "digital, how could it NOT be accurate?", but I've seen so many digital time apparatus phail at being accurate.... VCRs, watches, phones, car clocks, etc...

Quartz though... now THAT is supposed to be accurate. Or at least much closer to it.
I think the standard is that they shouldn't veer off more than a minute a year? Pretty good, but I was hoping to split the difference and find one that is close to dead-on some time. And if anything, I prefer a timepiece that runs a bit fast, rather than slow.

The report so far is: after almost three months, Quartz watch #1 is 7 seconds slow, Quartz watch #2 is 5 seconds slow, digital watch (#3) is 15 seconds slow, and digital watch (#4) is 40 seconds fast.

;P

Drat.

None of them are really all that spot-on, but *sigh* I guess they aren't too bad.

Comments

[aldi.livejournal.com]

To me, Quartz is synonymous of speed-locked turntables. Sadly, of all the turntables I collected over the years, only one is Quartz-controled and it's a belt-driven one!

The only thing in our home that keeps time accurately is the clock on my two Sony SL-HF860D super beta hi-fi VCRs, that went for $1000 each in 1988. When I change the time on them twice a year, they're always pretty close to the real TV time!
http://www.betamaxcollectors.com/sonysuperbetamaxmodelsl-hf860d.html

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Wow... the buttons and panels look a lot like my http://www.betamaxcollectors.com/sonysuperbetamaxmodelsl-hf900.html ....I wonder if yours is the Canadian version?

[aldi.livejournal.com]

I see the resemblance, but no. Mine aren't a Canadian model, just a different model from a few years later. :-)

[aldi.livejournal.com]

BTW in the link I provided, they show the wrong remote. Here's mine; RMT-160:
http://betamax.hostzi.com/srb1/RMT160.jpg

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the additional info, me friend! *snug!*

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Your post got me curious about accurate watches. I had heard about the atomic watches (the ones that actually tune in to the atomic clock wavelengths), but this discussion was very interesting:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/showthread.php?60203-What-Wristwatches-Give-the-Most-Accurate-Time

Considering the prices they're talking about for the ones that only lose about 4-5 seconds a year, your $7.50 specials are a pretty good deal! Me, I'd love a watch that gains time: I'm always running late and having a watch that gains time helps me to err on the early side rather than the late.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Cool article.. thanks!
Yep, I looked around for a little while too after thinking about this.. but seeing the prices made me reconsider FAST.

Luckily, the clock in my car and also my pager (my main timepiece) run a smidge fast :D
I think the pager gains a couple minutes quarterly, so I reset it when I change the battery usually (3 to 4 months).

One thing I didn't mention (that makes almost no sense) is that I have a digital alarm clock with a 9v backup battery, which is supposed to keep the time if the power goes out. ODDLY enough, it sorta does... but not that well.. often it's HOURS off if the power is off for a day... so it's not even really useful... LOL!

[orv.livejournal.com]

Quartz watches are only accurate compared to spring-and-balance-wheel watches. Accuracy depends entirely on how well the crystal is ground, and also to some extent on its temperature — if you wear it all the time to keep it at a stable temperature, the accuracy will vary less.

If you need a really accurate watch your best bet is one of the "atomic" radio-synced ones. They pick up a signal from WWVB in Ft. Collins and correct themselves once a day.

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

What he said. You can have a watch with a quartz oscillator, but the accuracy is only as good as the quartz crystal that the oscillator is referenced to. If it's off frequency or temperature sensitive/drifty, it'll be inaccurate.

For accuracy, yes, you want a clock that's tied to the WWVB transmitter or an NIST time server. (I haven't seen anything like a watch that uses the latter, but it must exist).

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Furthermore, Atomic watches are not that expensive. You can find them for < $30

Normal digital watches are always off several minutes per week or two for me, which is very annoying; so now I'm not going back to a non atomic one (though ATM I don't have a watch at all)

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

I haven't worn mine in a year because the battery is dead and I've been too lazy to open it (assuming I could even figure out how). I usually check the time on the phone, since that's synchronized up with an NIST time server.

I'm surprised nobody has come out with a watch that synchs up with a phone/smartphone via bluetooth or Zigbee.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

I believe this one could do it at least in theory, but you'd have to write the software yourself

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

Oooh...that's cool! Too bad I couldn't program my way out of a paper bag. Maybe somebody else will write some software for it though :)

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

They discontinued the phone service for us over here... :/

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Yaw... It looks like that is probably the absolute best option, all things considered...

One thing that I've noticed over the years (considering trends you've noticed too)... analog watches don't like me too much ;D ... I can wear them on special occasions, but they tend to not last very long on me when I try for extended times... ;P

But digital watches.. WOW!... I've even had some Casio ones that have fallen into scalding chemicals, and start working again two days later! :D

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*nod* I was wondering that :D
Certainly it's not a perfect 'practical' test... because they are sitting in one place and not being worn. Maybe, as you say, if I test it on the wrist for three months, it'll be more accurate. *waggletail*

[jedd-marten.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a batch of factory rejects that got "lost" on the way to the dumpster.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

hehheh! This was a Father's day promotion, and heh, the display is still up, with lotsa surplus watches on it :D

Sometimes sales surplus is good though... I was finally (after all these years) able to get myself a comfy recliner chair *yumyumyum* after a Super Bowl sale left a few dozen in the store ...

[atkelar.livejournal.com]

Well... "digital" watches are "quartz" watches too: after all, it's a little quartz crystal that is the timer for the digital chip. As Orv mentioned: Quartz crystals are essentially mechanically tuned to have a certain electrical frequency. They are pretty accurate when compared to almost anything mechanical. Usually they say "16.000MHz" or similar. Three decimals seems accurate but that's MHz - they may be off by as much as 999Hz in both directions. Temperature is also an issue which may very well be why clocks in cars vary soooo much. I made a habit to not adjust my car's clock other than the hour DST - and it's off by about 20-25 MINUTES within a year... funny enough: it stays off by about the same amount then. It's now three years that I've set it and it's a bit over 30 minutes off.
So: The commercials saying: "our watch is off by only x-seconds per year" are talking about the lab conditions, not wear-them-every-day conditions ;-)

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

They usually rate crystal accuracy in "parts per million" (PPM). So a 6 PPM rated 32.000 MHz crystal can be off +/- 192 Hz, which isn't much in terms of percentage, but it really adds up over time (no pun intended!).

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

If only modern manufacturing allowed for more testing... but the ratio of needs and acceptability in the consumer market doesn't really justify it in most cases I guess... *wingfuzzles ya*

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

That's pretty far off... yikes!

But yeah, you got me thinking... heh.. I test circuit boards a lot of the time, and it's rather rare that the chips and circuits come up accurate right down the middle :D

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Time is a man made construct and thus relative, my alarm clock I have set to the bus time so I make my bus, my wrist watch is set to work time so I won't be late to go home ;) And my world time function is set to Belgium time zone so I'll know what time it is where my foxy is. :)

To quote from the game "Broken Sword - The smoking Mirror"
"No I don't wear a watch...as my father used to say... 'I'm not into time man'"

oooo.. romance ^v^

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*waggles*
Indeed it is a construct, and all that cwazy relativity stuff, man... *spins eyes*... But yeah, things do "transpire" and "elapse", so we have attached numbers to that process in order to organize our lives and events around it... kinda like holding on to the handrail as we climb the stairs, or holding on to a rope while rappelling... :} It's our steady guide as we venture through the pathways uv life.. ^v^