Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Automatic hand adjustment

Manual receiving function (which means you can calibrate the watch without waiting for its scheduled calibration time which is the middle of the night). Receive results display function (which means the watch will let you know that it has successfully calibrated). World time in 24 time zones. Automatic hand adjustment. If the hands become misaligned (as hands sometimes do due to magnetism or shock), it will automatically realign them. Bright titanium case and bracelet. Water-resistant to 10 ATM (that's 10 BAR, 100 meters, or 330 feet). Seiko plans to start *** these watches available in Japan in September of this year, and then in Europe at some point in the future. Yes, the US is conspicuously missing from their plans, but don't worry -- once they're available, I will most definitely get my hands on one (I already have a trip to Asia planned for November), and I'll be sure to post a couple reliable sources. It's not clear whether this watch will calibrate with the atomic clock in Rugby, however I have come across several other watches that do. Thanks, Nick! Daniel Webb wrote in to let me know that the Casio WVA-440 synchronizes fine with the time signals transmitted from both the UK and Germany. Thanks, Daniel! It does not look like these watches will calibrate in the US or in Japan, though. Dirk Schillmoeller wrote in to let me know that Seiko's claim to be the first to offer a worldwide atomic watch is actually incorrect. It turns out Junghans already has at least two watches that calibrate in the US, Japan, and in Europe. Their site is entirely in German, but I was able to read enough to confirm that Dirk is correct.