World's first atomic Wristwatch

onform

Accurate to one second per thousand years, not a great looker though.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/846511652/the-worlds-first-true-atomic-wristwatch-the-cesium/description

Mredsnapper

onform wrote: »

Accurate to one second per thousand years, not a great looker though.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/846511652/the-worlds-first-true-atomic-wristwatch-the-cesium/description

Battery lasts 28 hours though.

art

8 backers

For a $6000 pledge you will be one of the lucky six people who will obtain the very first Cesium 133 prototype watches. ...

How's that work then!!?

Wibbs

I think it's fantastic.

MagicMarker

How deep can I dive in it?

syklops

Marty: You built a Time Machine? Out of a DeLorean?
Doc: I figured if you're going to travel through time, why not do it in style?

A concept clearly lost on the designers of that watch.

Wibbs

Well I suppose they are working to the limits of the battery and chipset and it's a kitchen table build, but yep, good engineers on a mission they are, but designers they are not.

Forgetting for a moment why the main watch manufacturers haven't jumped on this, if I was someone like Apple say, I'd be marching in and buying that concept outright, using the corporate muscle and internal skillset to scale it down as much as possible, properly design it* and I reckon it would sell and sell well.

While other tech companies might be racing to get the first useable smart watch to market, they could avoid the race entirely until the actual market establishes itself(and then sweep in. Lots of Mp3 players around before the iPod dominated the market), but it would keep their watches in the public eye with the tagline most accurate watch ever made. One second in a thousand years. etc

I can see one way of bulk reduction, get rid of the current dial which would have some depth to it and use a slimline LCD/LED "dial". A programable one where you could have the choice of a digital display across the whole watch(maybe with milliseconds counting down) or an analog if that was what your bag was.



*though if it were Apple, I'd get someone other than Ive to design it.

Mredsnapper

Wibbs wrote: »

Well I suppose they are working to the limits of the battery and chipset and it's a kitchen table build, but yep, good engineers on a mission they are, but designers they are not.

Forgetting for a moment why the main watch manufacturers haven't jumped on this, if I was someone like Apple say, I'd be marching in and buying that concept outright, using the corporate muscle and internal skillset to scale it down as much as possible, properly design it* and I reckon it would sell and sell well.

While other tech companies might be racing to get the first useable smart watch to market, they could avoid the race entirely until the actual market establishes itself(and then sweep in. Lots of Mp3 players around before the iPod dominated the market), but it would keep their watches in the public eye with the tagline most accurate watch ever made. One second in a thousand years. etc

I can see one way of bulk reduction, get rid of the current dial which would have some depth to it and use a slimline LCD/LED "dial". A programable one where you could have the choice of a digital display across the whole watch(maybe with milliseconds counting down) or an analog if that was what your bag was.



*though if it were Apple, I'd get someone other than Ive to design it.

Im not convinced. Aren't there protocols for syncing to atomic clocks without have to carry one around on your wrist?

Wibbs

There are, radio controlled watches that sync to an external atomic source, but they are externally driven as such(and can vary more than some might imagine). A fully independent "atomic" watch with this level of accuracy would be a selling point. There is an existing albeit small market for very high accuracy quartz as it is. With a big name behind it I could see that market open up, and IMH a techie name like Apple/IBM/Samsung would be better and have a wider market beyond watch nerds.

Mredsnapper

Wibbs wrote: »

There are, radio controlled watches that sync to an external atomic source, but they are externally driven as such(and can vary more than some might imagine). A fully independent "atomic" watch with this level of accuracy would be a selling point. There is an existing albeit small market for very high accuracy quartz as it is. With a big name behind it I could see that market open up, and IMH a techie name like Apple/IBM/Samsung would be better and have a wider market beyond watch nerds.

Yes, but there also NTP. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol which would work well with a network attached watch.

Wibbs

So, it's still not nearly as accurate as a portable atomic clock and again it's not independent. How far does a network run on the oceans or the air, or space? The independence and accuracy is the selling point.

Think back further in timekeeping to a more analog version of radio synced clocks. Since the early days of aviation and radio time signals were broadcast to help with navigation(the Weems method is worth a perusal on this area), so that pilots and navigators could sync their personal watches with a universal time to work out their position. For the last 80 odd years there was a "network" time. Even so the race was on for ever more accurate independent watches and clocks. From mechanical chronometers to electronically switched escapements to tuning forks to ultimately(for the moment) quartz. An atomic watch on the wrist would be about the ultimate in this evolution.

Would it go mainstream? Maybe, maybe not, however the story of quartz timekeeping started with huge clocks in labs and universities and the first available quartz wristwatches cost as much as a family car(no really), yet here we are 40 years later and if you wear a watch(and you're not a watch nerd) chances are it's a quartz, with a movement that costs less than 20 quid to the trade.

Mredsnapper

Wibbs wrote: »

So, it's still not nearly as accurate as a portable atomic clock and again it's not independent. How far does a network run on the oceans or the air, or space? The independence and accuracy is the selling point.

Think back further in timekeeping to a more analog version of radio synced clocks. Since the early days of aviation and radio time signals were broadcast to help with navigation(the Weems method is worth a perusal on this area), so that pilots and navigators could sync their personal watches with a universal time to work out their position. For the last 80 odd years there was a "network" time. Even so the race was on for ever more accurate independent watches and clocks. From mechanical chronometers to electronically switched escapements to tuning forks to ultimately(for the moment) quartz. An atomic watch on the wrist would be about the ultimate in this evolution.

Would it go mainstream? Maybe, maybe not, however the story of quartz timekeeping started with huge clocks in labs and universities and the first available quartz wristwatches cost as much as a family car(no really), yet here we are 40 years later and if you wear a watch(and you're not a watch nerd) chances are it's a quartz, with a movement that costs less than 20 quid to the trade.

Yes, I hear where you are coming from. And if it was a truly 'independent' device that would be fine. But the fact is that it runs off AAA batteries and needs to plugged in to be recharged every day. Most things are getting dummer and using the cloud for services - this watch seems to me to be going its own way. That's comendable maybe, but to me it looks like more of a novelty item. Wibb's you are 1 million×million times more knowledgeable about watches than me. But in this case Im just never going to agree with you.

Wibbs

Yea the battery issue really needs to be addressed. I'd reckon a big multinational techie corporation with the resources it could bring to bear could improve that. I'd also agree the cloud is making large inroads, but the segment of the market that looks for independence will remain. On the novelty front? I'd agree again M, however look at the sales of mechanical watches, a real anachronism(no pun) in the modern world, a throwback, a novelty, yet while quartz sales have remained static in the last decade and everybody has a clock on their phone/PC*, those mechanical sales are going up year on year. Longines, a name few non watch nerds would recognise sell over a million of such units a year. Now the appeal for mechanical is a wide subject involving nostalgia, old style engineering, man jewelry and indeed some snobbish stuff with some, I still reckon a market ready and stylish atomic watch would have more than a fair chance at a stab in the market.




*while PC clocks are nearly always bang on the money, I have been surprised how much smartphone clocks can vary. I've no idea why as they're supposed to sync like a PC? My iphone is currently a minute fast.

syklops

Mredsnapper wrote: »

Yes, but there also NTP. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol which would work well with a network attached watch.

I recently googled the time on my smart phone. Why the flup is the time on my (google-owned) Android smart phone different to the time that Google says it is? Not by a few seconds either, by a couple minutes. As Wibbs says, having an independent accurate source of time would definitely be a selling point.

Mredsnapper

syklops wrote: »

I recently googled the time on my smart phone. Why the flup is the time on my (google-owned) Android smart phone different to the time that Google says it is? Not by a few seconds either, by a couple minutes. As Wibbs says, having an independent accurate source of time would definitely be a selling point.

The clock on you phone needs to be set up to use network time so that it sync's with voda or o2 etc. Unfortunately, I have seen cases where the time source (network) has accuracy issues. There are apps availabke that will sync over ntp to regular ntp pool servers and they may prove more accurate. I use ntp in work for server synchronisation where times have to be the exact same accross multiple servers and it works but again the time source has to be accurate.

jefferson73

Happy enough with my GS +-10 sec a year
and my citizen +-5 seconds a year.

Ghost Train

I like the idea but hard to see it ever being mass market with gps timing being so cheap
This looks to be along similar lines, proper pocket watch, slightly more stylish, might cost a bit
available early 2014
http://www.hoptroff.com/products/no-10

Wibbs

jefferson73 wrote: »

Happy enough with my GS +-10 sec a year
and my citizen +-5 seconds a year.

Hell J, I'm near delirious with my 1916 Longines that runs +/- 5 seconds a week. Though in fairness that's effin mad good for a really old fart like that. Actually my 1975 Bulova quartz/tuning fork Accuquartz wouldn't be too far off your Citizen.

Maybe it's just me being as old a fart as my Longines, but I like the idea, however niche, of an independent watch being that accurate.

I was given a book about John Harrison when I was a kid and that sealed my fate as a WIS/Watch nerd. Reading of his large pocket watch that was accurate to a couple of seconds per month and this remember is in the 18th century. Oh the sadly non moving picture of his grasshopper movement vied with the first series of Charlies Angels for my boyhood attention.

Though looking at it now with older and more prurient Carry on Sid James' eyes, there may have been some crossover involved. :eek::D

Again as a kid I had the horn for Omega's Marine Chronometer Quartz of the 1970's.

An incredibly accurate standalone watch. PLus one of my boyhood TV heroes wore one.

And he was as scrawny as me so...

Sadly I never ended up with one on my wrist. I came close in the mid 90's and for little enough money too(around 200 punts), but it wasn't fully working so I bailed. *kicks self*. I believe they chew through batteries in 6 to 8 months and are near impossible to repair, so that assuages my regret. Well... not really.

Ghost Train

Here's more about the other watch I linked to, gives more info about the technology (once you get towards the end), plus bit of history etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--yW9I-bzc8

jefferson73

the X33 Skywalker looks interesting.

Pat Mustard

I bet that Casio will produce a solar powered G-Shock atomic watch within five years. Looking forward to that.