[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
The only reason I haven’t bought an atomic watch is I didn’t know they made 'em. And damn! I’ve owned a an atomic clock for maybe 8-10 years.
Okay, so it’s off to amazon I go.
Thank you Mark Ryle.
[/QUOTE]
BTW, if you’re looking for a higher-quality atomic watch, check out the Oceanus Watches. As I understand it, Oceanus is Casio’s ‘high end’ line, so you get the same Wavecepter innards with better quality cases and bands.
[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
BTW, if you’re looking for a higher-quality atomic watch, check out the Oceanus Watches. As I understand it, Oceanus is Casio’s ‘high end’ line, so you get the same Wavecepter innards with better quality cases and bands.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you, Sam. I looked and drooled, but my budget doesn’t allow for a watch like Oceanus. Matter of fact, I’m thinking Mickey Mouse. 
[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
The only reason I haven’t bought an atomic watch is I didn’t know they made 'em. And damn! I’ve owned a an atomic clock for maybe 8-10 years.
Okay, so it’s off to amazon I go.
Thank you Mark Ryle.
[/QUOTE]
Check out the Casio Forester. I’ve got one that’s only a couple weeks used that I’ll be looking to sell after August 8. I wont have a use for it in Germany or that other place I’m going. I’ll give you a deal.
[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
The only reason I haven’t bought an atomic watch is I didn’t know they made 'em.
[/QUOTE]
Very nice to encounter a like-minded person. If someone would or could have given me the real inside scoop on atomic watches, I wouldn’t have waited all those years. I knew of them long before deciding to try one, but, as happens so often, you simply can’t know if a product will satisfy your expectations, or even if your expectations are realistic. And I don’t like to continue just acquiring gadgets.
Two examples: Voice Recognition and Voice-to-Print software and hardware do not meet my needs. But there was no other way to find that out, finally, than lay out the money and give them a try. They gather dust and their version is superceded even as I write without them these many months.
On the other hand, I researched hand-held GPS the same amount, and it far exceeds my expectations. But again, I couldn’t know, really, without buying. It’s not a disagreeable dilemma, though.
[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
I really wanted to buy one of those atomic watches. So I shopped them carefully. Here’s why I didn’t buy one:
[/quote]
Yeah, tell me about it.
[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=]
Yeah, tell me about it.
[/QUOTE]
Wimp. 
Just think of the muscles that thing will build.
Many years ago, I saw a “flying clock” (cesium beam) that would fit in a small suitcase, complete with batteries and power supply. Engineers travelled all over the world with those clocks to calibrate the timing systems at remote sites.
They are big! To get an idea check the on-the-wrist photo at:
http://images.google.com/images?q=atomic+watches&gbv=2&ndsp=20&svnum=10&hl=en&start=0&sa=N
But, you know, I wouldn’t mind that at all. In fact, I’d kill for an Oceanus. And I’ll bet that sucker isn’t just big. It must weigh a ton.
The fact is though, I have a desperate need for that watch’s Tidegraph feature. This is all to do with my 450 foot Yacht, and knowing the best times to sail. I got this Jack Aubrey to captain the boat, and attend to details like this but when he goes home, he gets fucked up between trips, so I end up worrying about tides and red sky at night sailor’s delight and all that heavy nautical stuff.
Avast, y’all.
[QUOTE=Chronos]
The watch I’m currently wearing cost me five bucks. I’ve had it for about six years … .
Maybe a half-dozen times a year, I have occasion to change the hours (twice for Daylight Saving Time, and twice each for a couple of trips to other time zones), and maybe once a year, I re-set the minutes.
… it’s never been more than five minutes off (and even that, in the same direction that most of the clocks on campus are off, anyway). In short, I can get from it everything I need from a watch, and it costs a fraction of what a radio-synchronized watch costs.
[/QUOTE]
Post 19 is one of my favorites. By my count, Chronos, you reset your watch 42 times (in 6 years) and it’s five minutes off. I’m not being critical – on the contrary, there’s a charming ingenuousness in your Post, really. We all remember our starving-college-student days. Writing under “Chronos” heightens the effect, as if the Greek personification of Time might be advocating less than optimum timekeeping for mortals.
[QUOTE=tschild]
(I’m the type who tends to cut things too fine; I’d miss my morning bus often if my watch were even say 20 seconds off) I have sometimes also wondered.
[/QUOTE]
:eek: Your bus is that predictable? Is there no traffic in Germany?
To tie up this thread: I received my new watch today in the mail, and it’s refined from my previous. The picture at Amazon doesn’t do it justice – that picture looks exactly like my 2-1/2 year-old one. The new’s face is light gray with red accents, and the band is a much softer, matching gray, leather-looking and -feeling material with stitching. The model number on the stainless steel back of both old and new is WVA-104H. The model number on Amazon’s page has a typo – a ‘#’ for the initial ‘W’ – but further down on the page it is correct, in the Product Description, etc.
I can, of course, recommend it to anyone, but, if you consider buying, why not wait until it is reduced to $32 again (it’s $62 now). It periodically drops, as you will find if you read the 12 user reviews on the page. I wrote a review for it also, about a month ago, but Amazon did not print it. I should say, they did print it – with their revisions – so I deleted it from the page after it posted. One thing they didn’t like, I think, was I pointed out their typo in the model number beside the watch’s picture. I rewrote, and that second review never appeared. My review was essentially my OP in this thread. Amazon didn’t like it, apparently. Even the first one, the one they did put up there, I had to email them to ask why it hadn’t been put up after 7-10 business days, in order to get it posted.
I don’t know what they didn’t like about it. I am a satisfied customer. I bought another identical one. Those other user reviews are not all that complimentary, but mine was.
Much of the extremely thick (but very small) user manual is Casio disclaimers of how the watch might not get its time signals in certain situations. No wonder people are afraid of these watches. I had to own one to learn they are actually trouble free and user friendly. Out of the box, it was set for TYO (Tokyo) time, and hadn’t gotten its time signal since 7/24 at 5:03am. I changed the zone to NYC and pushed the “Manual Receive” so it got its time signal right away, so now I’m good to go for the next few years.
Again, thanks everyone, for your posts. I feel I’m starting out fresh, knowing the nature of atomic watches much better, and with an understanding of peoples’ feelings relating to them, owing to the many thoughtful responses in this thread. I really was baffled when I posted the OP.
[QUOTE=Testy]
Another problem is distance. I’m living in Saudi right now and a watch like that probably wouldn’t work. The same problem for Asia and maybe Europe.
Search for atomic watches on amazon.com and be alert for a caption beneath a particular watch that says something like “Interesting gadget”
This watch, says the mfr., has four chips for radio reception from various parts of the world. I just saw it maybe 10 minutes ago, so it’s there, Testy.
Here’s another reason to get one (which I hope hasn’t been suggested in an earlier post).
With an atomic watch on your wrist, you can go through the house and put every damned clock and watch on the exact same time. (Except the one in your bedroom that you set 10 minutes fast so you can snooze a little longer when the alarm goes off. Shame on you for being so deliberately delusional. 
)
I don’t consider myself compulsive, but I find there’s something satisfying about having the right time.
[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
I don’t consider myself compulsive, but I find there’s something satisfying about having the right time.
[/QUOTE]
Indeed.
I’m glad Barn Owl revived this thread, especially his/her mention of quirky little things going on at Amazon, because I have a question related to all that:
The watch I bought was listed at $62 at Amazon when I began viewing it, no free shipping, and sold by an Amazon-approved retailer (but not Amason). Soon it dropped to $32, with free shipping, and sold by Amazon. I snapped it up, of course, and the next day it was back at $62, you pay for shipping, and not sold by Amazon.
Someone told me Amazon monitors your clicks and reduces the price just for you, within certain parameters known only to them. Is this true?
This is the “Innovative Gadget” watch with 4 chips:
BarnOwl is a he, Mark. 