August 10, 2025 • 15 mins
Hey Watch Fans,
Atomic Time from an Atomic Watch to your wrist!
How you can get this precision from a Radio-Control, Satellite, or Blue Tooth watch.
Like WatchFanatics.ca on Facebook
Follow David @watchfanaticdavid on Instagram
AND
Please check out Carol at
IG: @spassense
AND
check out Kevin at
IG: @watchfanatics.ca
Atomic Time from an Atomic Watch to your wrist!
How you can get this precision from a Radio-Control, Satellite, or Blue Tooth watch.
Like WatchFanatics.ca on Facebook
Follow David @watchfanaticdavid on Instagram
AND
Please check out Carol at
IG: @spassense
AND
check out Kevin at
IG: @watchfanatics.ca
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, you're listening to watch fanatics podcasts. Here we talk
about watches, either myself or with my two watch collecting friends. Subscribe,
like and give us a five star rating if you
feel appropriate. Enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello everyone, welcome back. Today's episode was inspired by my
play watch, the Atari twenty six hundred collaboration, and I
was going to talk about this watch, but I think
everyone's sick of me and collaborations, and me and video
game collaborations specifically. But there was three things that attracted
(00:47):
me to this watch, one of course being the collaboration
with Atari official collaboration. Number two, one of the video
games on there is Missile Command, which I loved as
a kid growing up. I love Missile Command. And number
three it's Bluetooth and it's a unique type of bluetooth watch.
(01:10):
It's not like a smart watch. It just connects to
your device to get accurate time. And it being Bluetooth,
I really thought about do I have a Bluetooth watch.
I have digital I have collaborations with official license video games,
but I don't have a Bluetooth watch. And I was
(01:31):
actually contemplating a previous Bluetooth watch, the Cassio. They have
a Bluetooth watch as well, and I was very tempted
and curious about owning a Bluetooth watch. Still haven't decided
this Atari collaboration. I just might, but that's yet to
(01:56):
be decided because it looks too much like a smart watch.
So I'm on the fence there. Before I go into
talking about different watches, more specifically radio controlled watch, satellite watches,
and bluetooth watches, I think we have to talk about
(02:19):
atomic time. And that's the magic of these three types
of watches. It's going to sync up to atomic time,
and I think this is where we should begin our conversation. Basically,
atomic time is based on atomic clocks, and they measure
the vibration of atoms, usually atoms of caesium or rubidium,
(02:46):
and basically they're very precise, very accurate when it comes
to time. A caesium atom vibrates exactly nine billion, one
hundred and ninety two million, six hundred and thirty one thousand,
seven hundred and seventy times per second, and it measures
that as one second. And these atomic clocks are so
(03:08):
precise they won't lose a second for a million year.
So this is why we like to use them. As
a precise base for time. I'm in North America, so
just to let you know, the US National Institute of
Standards and Technology NIST, and there are similar agencies around
(03:30):
the world, but the NIST maintains atomic clocks that broadcast
time signals globally. Pretty cool, right, So let's get into
radio controlled watches. I have one. It's a Cassio, and
(03:52):
I like it. It's a it's a great watch. Actually,
I used to wear it to the gym or when
I go boarding or sometimes hiking, but definitely when I'm
in the garage working. It's a great watch. Illuminates, takes
a beating, it really does, and it's radial control, so
the time is accurate when it syncs up. And I'll
(04:15):
get into that. Basically, these watches receive low frequency signals
from an atomic clock station, and in North America there's
a station WWVB in Colorado. In Europe, like say Germany,
there's DCF seventy seven. But usually once a day your
(04:40):
watch will sync up automatically to atomic time that's coming
off these stations. And I say usually once a day.
You can program it to do it once a day,
or you can actually hit a button and it will
sync up when you hit that button. At least for
my castio'll when it is synced properly, and I do
(05:04):
it regularly, I have a very accurate, precise time piece. Now,
the great thing about this and any other time pieces
I will talk about is when you go different time zones,
you can sync up to the signal at the right
time and it will give you the precise time signature
(05:25):
for that time zone. Now, the problem I've had with
this watch, and you might have with other radio controlled watches.
You're limited to the signal. So if you're in a
region that doesn't get signal, you're out of luck. You're
gonna have to do everything manually. Sometimes if you're indoors,
it doesn't pick up the signal, so certain areas you
(05:46):
might have to be outdoors, especially regions that are a
little bit more remote, And you do have to sync
up with an atomic clock regularly. If you don't, you know,
any time will start losing its accuracy. So if you
want to boast precision, you have to sync up regularly.
(06:08):
Beyond that, I love it. I mean there was a
time I took it to Las Vegas. I was in
a jiu jitsu tournament and my friend who is dead
against watches for some reason, he challenged me to an
accuracy contest with the cell phone, and after I did
sync up, we were in sync. But because I didn't
(06:32):
sync up initially when we first did the test, I
was off. I was off by quite a bit. It
was a little embarrassing. But once we SYNCD up, he saw, like,
watches can just be as precise as your cell phone.
And guess what cell phones get their time from atomic clocks.
So a little fact there. So let's move on to
(06:58):
GPS watches or satellite watches, and I don't have a
satellite watch. I thought about the Saiko Astron. They had
a nice purple one. I can't remember what anniversary it was.
I really wanted one. But you know, popular brands for
satellite watches are Cisin, Sicho, Cassio. I'm trying to think offhand.
(07:24):
Do I know another one? I wonder if? Well? Those
three for sure, I know because I did look at
satellite watches from three of those companies. But let's get
into it. I mean, the amazing thing about these watches.
You have a device on your wrists that connects to
(07:45):
GPS satellite and these satellites are connected to atomic clocks.
The amazing thing about GPS signal it knows both your
location and the exact time when it does sync up. Again,
it's perfect for traveling, it's perfect for going to different
time zones. It's perfect for watch nerds that enjoy having
(08:07):
a piece that's communicating to satellite, something that's outer space,
which connected to atomic clocks, which is giving us precise time. Now,
the only problem with this, and what probably held me back,
was you're paying a higher price tag for a watch.
I think based on the watch and brand, maybe the
(08:29):
price tag doesn't command, but it's that GPS talking. It's
that talking to the satellite that really validates that cost.
And I'm not that super techy about it. I'm more
excited by radio controlled because it's more of an older technology.
But that's one of the cons I think with a
(08:53):
satellite watch is probably the price tag. And again, you
have to be in most likely outdoors for a clear
GPS signal, So you gotta be outdoors for that precision
just to sync up. But that's not a big con. Yeah,
(09:13):
it was a price tag that definitely held me back
from the Saiko astron But who knows. The more I
think about this more after record this, it would be
kind of cool just to say this watch, this thing
on my wrist is communicating to a satellite in space.
It's pretty wild. It is cool. Let's get onto what
(09:37):
spurred this my play Watch Atari twenty six hundred collaboration
being Bluetooth. Now. I battled with this idea because you're
getting precision, it's quick, and all you have to do
is be next to your phone. You don't have to
worry about location, you know, So I might get this
(09:58):
my my my a tari watch. But the thing that
held me back from the cast Yolk bluetooth is I
already have a cast Yolk and I love it. I
moddit it, love it. But now I see this my
play watch, that might be my first Bluetooth watch. As
(10:19):
I mentioned, a huge pro for this watch is that's
it sinks with your smartphone. Like I said, the smartphone
gets it's time from an atomic clock, usually via the
Internet server. It's a quick connection, it's reliable, it's fast,
and you don't have to worry about being indoor or
(10:42):
outdoor or in a region with signal. The only concern
is how far are you from your phone. Hearing me
say this out loud, I'm thinking, oh geez, I might
have to get this bluetooth my play at Tari twenty
six hundred Collap or maybe that Cassio. I mean, they're
(11:03):
in a range that you can probably justify a second
watch for a second function. I don't know up to you,
but for me, I'm leaning towards my Attire twenty six
hundred Collab. Now. Now, two disadvantages of a bluetooth watch
(11:25):
is number one, you do need a smartphone. Number two,
you do need to be by your phone. So for
whatever reason you're not near your phone, you can't sync up.
Whereas a satellite and radio control tower you just need
(11:49):
to be in their signal range. Right, something to think about,
And I'm just talking about this in terms of precision time.
There are advantages and other disadvantages to bluetooth watches, but
that's a different topic altogether. Now for precision time. If
(12:16):
you're wondering, what's the big deal with precision time? You
wake up and you go by your time, and you
and from day to day or for very personal use,
maybe not as important, but I think syncing up to
a precision time piece can help in certain industries, for
(12:39):
example communication, if you're doing business around the world different
time zones, it's good to be precise. Navigation, absolutely, you
want to be precise. Also, I'm not a financial trader,
but I know people need to know when markets are
(13:01):
open and close. And that's also where precision comes. Like
when it comes to maybe half a second or a second,
not a big deal, but when it comes to minutes,
two to three minutes, that can make it a world
of difference. You don't want to miss the opening bell
or closing bell, so precision is important. Now. I know
many bus and trains are getting accurate with their arrival
(13:26):
and departure time. I'm not sure if they're synced up
to atomic clocks. I imagine they are. But if you're
someone that commutes all the time, here's another advantage of
having precision time. Like I said, more I talk about
it more, I need one. I hope this has helped,
(13:48):
and I hope that if any of you are stuck
on decigning on what watch to get in terms of function,
I mean, let's face it, this might be your another
watch to add to the collection. I hope this helps
decide on what watch you add to the collection. It's
actually confused me a little bit more. But I'm leaning
(14:12):
towards Bluetooth. I already have radio control. Oh shoot, you
know what, Since I have a radial control, why not
add Bluetooth and satellite? Okay, two more from my list.
I hope this has been helpful for you, guys. I
hope you enjoyed this episode. We'll talk another time. Take care,
(14:36):
Thank you for listening. If you do want to reach out,
you can find me at watch Fanatic David on Instagram
or Carol at spat sense and you'll see the description
in our show notes below.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Thanks. Enjoy your day.
Well, you're listening to watch fanatics podcasts. Here we talk
about watches, either myself or with my two watch collecting friends. Subscribe,
like and give us a five star rating if you
feel appropriate. Enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello everyone, welcome back. Today's episode was inspired by my
play watch, the Atari twenty six hundred collaboration, and I
was going to talk about this watch, but I think
everyone's sick of me and collaborations, and me and video
game collaborations specifically. But there was three things that attracted
(00:47):
me to this watch, one of course being the collaboration
with Atari official collaboration. Number two, one of the video
games on there is Missile Command, which I loved as
a kid growing up. I love Missile Command. And number
three it's Bluetooth and it's a unique type of bluetooth watch.
(01:10):
It's not like a smart watch. It just connects to
your device to get accurate time. And it being Bluetooth,
I really thought about do I have a Bluetooth watch.
I have digital I have collaborations with official license video games,
but I don't have a Bluetooth watch. And I was
(01:31):
actually contemplating a previous Bluetooth watch, the Cassio. They have
a Bluetooth watch as well, and I was very tempted
and curious about owning a Bluetooth watch. Still haven't decided
this Atari collaboration. I just might, but that's yet to
(01:56):
be decided because it looks too much like a smart watch.
So I'm on the fence there. Before I go into
talking about different watches, more specifically radio controlled watch, satellite watches,
and bluetooth watches, I think we have to talk about
(02:19):
atomic time. And that's the magic of these three types
of watches. It's going to sync up to atomic time,
and I think this is where we should begin our conversation. Basically,
atomic time is based on atomic clocks, and they measure
the vibration of atoms, usually atoms of caesium or rubidium,
(02:46):
and basically they're very precise, very accurate when it comes
to time. A caesium atom vibrates exactly nine billion, one
hundred and ninety two million, six hundred and thirty one thousand,
seven hundred and seventy times per second, and it measures
that as one second. And these atomic clocks are so
(03:08):
precise they won't lose a second for a million year.
So this is why we like to use them. As
a precise base for time. I'm in North America, so
just to let you know, the US National Institute of
Standards and Technology NIST, and there are similar agencies around
(03:30):
the world, but the NIST maintains atomic clocks that broadcast
time signals globally. Pretty cool, right, So let's get into
radio controlled watches. I have one. It's a Cassio, and
(03:52):
I like it. It's a it's a great watch. Actually,
I used to wear it to the gym or when
I go boarding or sometimes hiking, but definitely when I'm
in the garage working. It's a great watch. Illuminates, takes
a beating, it really does, and it's radial control, so
the time is accurate when it syncs up. And I'll
(04:15):
get into that. Basically, these watches receive low frequency signals
from an atomic clock station, and in North America there's
a station WWVB in Colorado. In Europe, like say Germany,
there's DCF seventy seven. But usually once a day your
(04:40):
watch will sync up automatically to atomic time that's coming
off these stations. And I say usually once a day.
You can program it to do it once a day,
or you can actually hit a button and it will
sync up when you hit that button. At least for
my castio'll when it is synced properly, and I do
(05:04):
it regularly, I have a very accurate, precise time piece. Now,
the great thing about this and any other time pieces
I will talk about is when you go different time zones,
you can sync up to the signal at the right
time and it will give you the precise time signature
(05:25):
for that time zone. Now, the problem I've had with
this watch, and you might have with other radio controlled watches.
You're limited to the signal. So if you're in a
region that doesn't get signal, you're out of luck. You're
gonna have to do everything manually. Sometimes if you're indoors,
it doesn't pick up the signal, so certain areas you
(05:46):
might have to be outdoors, especially regions that are a
little bit more remote, And you do have to sync
up with an atomic clock regularly. If you don't, you know,
any time will start losing its accuracy. So if you
want to boast precision, you have to sync up regularly.
(06:08):
Beyond that, I love it. I mean there was a
time I took it to Las Vegas. I was in
a jiu jitsu tournament and my friend who is dead
against watches for some reason, he challenged me to an
accuracy contest with the cell phone, and after I did
sync up, we were in sync. But because I didn't
(06:32):
sync up initially when we first did the test, I
was off. I was off by quite a bit. It
was a little embarrassing. But once we SYNCD up, he saw, like,
watches can just be as precise as your cell phone.
And guess what cell phones get their time from atomic clocks.
So a little fact there. So let's move on to
(06:58):
GPS watches or satellite watches, and I don't have a
satellite watch. I thought about the Saiko Astron. They had
a nice purple one. I can't remember what anniversary it was.
I really wanted one. But you know, popular brands for
satellite watches are Cisin, Sicho, Cassio. I'm trying to think offhand.
(07:24):
Do I know another one? I wonder if? Well? Those
three for sure, I know because I did look at
satellite watches from three of those companies. But let's get
into it. I mean, the amazing thing about these watches.
You have a device on your wrists that connects to
(07:45):
GPS satellite and these satellites are connected to atomic clocks.
The amazing thing about GPS signal it knows both your
location and the exact time when it does sync up. Again,
it's perfect for traveling, it's perfect for going to different
time zones. It's perfect for watch nerds that enjoy having
(08:07):
a piece that's communicating to satellite, something that's outer space,
which connected to atomic clocks, which is giving us precise time. Now,
the only problem with this, and what probably held me back,
was you're paying a higher price tag for a watch.
I think based on the watch and brand, maybe the
(08:29):
price tag doesn't command, but it's that GPS talking. It's
that talking to the satellite that really validates that cost.
And I'm not that super techy about it. I'm more
excited by radio controlled because it's more of an older technology.
But that's one of the cons I think with a
(08:53):
satellite watch is probably the price tag. And again, you
have to be in most likely outdoors for a clear
GPS signal, So you gotta be outdoors for that precision
just to sync up. But that's not a big con. Yeah,
(09:13):
it was a price tag that definitely held me back
from the Saiko astron But who knows. The more I
think about this more after record this, it would be
kind of cool just to say this watch, this thing
on my wrist is communicating to a satellite in space.
It's pretty wild. It is cool. Let's get onto what
(09:37):
spurred this my play Watch Atari twenty six hundred collaboration
being Bluetooth. Now. I battled with this idea because you're
getting precision, it's quick, and all you have to do
is be next to your phone. You don't have to
worry about location, you know, So I might get this
(09:58):
my my my a tari watch. But the thing that
held me back from the cast Yolk bluetooth is I
already have a cast Yolk and I love it. I
moddit it, love it. But now I see this my
play watch, that might be my first Bluetooth watch. As
(10:19):
I mentioned, a huge pro for this watch is that's
it sinks with your smartphone. Like I said, the smartphone
gets it's time from an atomic clock, usually via the
Internet server. It's a quick connection, it's reliable, it's fast,
and you don't have to worry about being indoor or
(10:42):
outdoor or in a region with signal. The only concern
is how far are you from your phone. Hearing me
say this out loud, I'm thinking, oh geez, I might
have to get this bluetooth my play at Tari twenty
six hundred Collap or maybe that Cassio. I mean, they're
(11:03):
in a range that you can probably justify a second
watch for a second function. I don't know up to you,
but for me, I'm leaning towards my Attire twenty six
hundred Collab. Now. Now, two disadvantages of a bluetooth watch
(11:25):
is number one, you do need a smartphone. Number two,
you do need to be by your phone. So for
whatever reason you're not near your phone, you can't sync up.
Whereas a satellite and radio control tower you just need
(11:49):
to be in their signal range. Right, something to think about,
And I'm just talking about this in terms of precision time.
There are advantages and other disadvantages to bluetooth watches, but
that's a different topic altogether. Now for precision time. If
(12:16):
you're wondering, what's the big deal with precision time? You
wake up and you go by your time, and you
and from day to day or for very personal use,
maybe not as important, but I think syncing up to
a precision time piece can help in certain industries, for
(12:39):
example communication, if you're doing business around the world different
time zones, it's good to be precise. Navigation, absolutely, you
want to be precise. Also, I'm not a financial trader,
but I know people need to know when markets are
(13:01):
open and close. And that's also where precision comes. Like
when it comes to maybe half a second or a second,
not a big deal, but when it comes to minutes,
two to three minutes, that can make it a world
of difference. You don't want to miss the opening bell
or closing bell, so precision is important. Now. I know
many bus and trains are getting accurate with their arrival
(13:26):
and departure time. I'm not sure if they're synced up
to atomic clocks. I imagine they are. But if you're
someone that commutes all the time, here's another advantage of
having precision time. Like I said, more I talk about
it more, I need one. I hope this has helped,
(13:48):
and I hope that if any of you are stuck
on decigning on what watch to get in terms of function,
I mean, let's face it, this might be your another
watch to add to the collection. I hope this helps
decide on what watch you add to the collection. It's
actually confused me a little bit more. But I'm leaning
(14:12):
towards Bluetooth. I already have radio control. Oh shoot, you
know what, Since I have a radial control, why not
add Bluetooth and satellite? Okay, two more from my list.
I hope this has been helpful for you, guys. I
hope you enjoyed this episode. We'll talk another time. Take care,
(14:36):
Thank you for listening. If you do want to reach out,
you can find me at watch Fanatic David on Instagram
or Carol at spat sense and you'll see the description
in our show notes below.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Thanks. Enjoy your day.
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