Time

Time and tide wait for no man.

Quartz Watch Accuracy

Bar chart showing plot of time in seconds

For 2023 I've begun tracking my quartz watch's monthly drift from the NIST atomic clock. I'll update the chart above as I can.

The first of the month, I compare the watch time with the NIST atomic clock time available at time.gov. I log the difference, if any, and then reset the watch (if needed) to match the NIST atomic clock.

Watches may be worn at random intervals. The watches are stored indoors. I acknowledge quartz movements are affected by temperature variance, and note that the environment is not modified in an attempt to stabilize temperature across the board. Watch battery life is unknown, however the watches were "new" as of 2023.

The goal of this log is to show what consumer quartz watches might be capable of in real-world use. Also, to highlight a personal desire to see high accuracy quartz (HAQ) technology implemented in consumer watches. While automatic clock sync technology is available in the form of atomic radio and GPS sync, technology exists for quartz watches to offer drift of 1 second per year without relying on a third-party service or technology (e.g. GPS). At this time the HAQ technology appears to be limited to expensive "jewelry" watches. I'd like to see effort made from companies like Casio and Timex to improve the time keeping technology in their watch lines to lower reliance on third party time sources for accuracy.