Stemar
Well-known member
The moral of the story is that a watch is made for wearing 
Playing with mechanical deck watches
- Thread starter Kukri
- Start date
emandvee44
Well-known member
Most accurate time piece I have owned is one of these. Purchased on Ebay from a ship salvage guy in India 8 years ago. Arrived well packed in bubble wrap. I bought it for sight-timing and keep a log of the error. I found it only varies (gains) about 0.5 to 1sec. per month, checked always against gps time.
The Tamaya became the chronometer of choice on merchant ships in my latter days at sea.
M
The Tamaya became the chronometer of choice on merchant ships in my latter days at sea.
M
Bilgediver
Well-known member
A normal part of life at sea was sparky turning on the wheelhouse speaker once a day to relay the time signal so that the watch officer could check the chronometer and note the error in the Chronometer Book. Never saw a chronometer that kept perfect time. This was just a minor correction in the sight calculations. The error rate was usually steady. All you need is a short wave receiver and an understanding of the mysterious vagaries of the beeps that indicate the lead up and then the moment you are waiting for.
Kukri
Well-known member
The RN rejected a deck watch if its rate changed by more than six seconds in a week.
Painninja
New member
Chronographs have to be precise, not accurate.
penberth3
Well-known member
Anchor means Hallmarked at Birmingham - could have been made anywhere.
Kukri
Well-known member
A chronograph is a whole different thing to a chronometer. There’s a Lemania split second chronograph at the bottom right of the picture at the start of this thread.
Kukri
Well-known member
True. The watch is signed for Philip Bright, who was a watch maker in Doncaster, but the case could have been made anywhere. Probably Birmingham, though.
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Frank Holden
Well-known member
Time signals....
WWV ( Colorado) and WWVH (Hawaii) are still putting out time signals on 2.5/5/10/15/ 20 MHz.... you can receive the 15MHz pips just about anywhere in the world on a basic SW receiver.... male voice = Colorado...female = Hawaii.
Rugby is more interesting, gone now but I thought for many years it was used by the BBC as well as the Navy. Seems it was not so... BBC LW was Droitwich wherever that may be .
I believe a major reason for the establishment of Rugby in the 1920's was transmitting to RN ships world wide.... especially submarines in the China Sea/ Japan area...
WWV ( Colorado) and WWVH (Hawaii) are still putting out time signals on 2.5/5/10/15/ 20 MHz.... you can receive the 15MHz pips just about anywhere in the world on a basic SW receiver.... male voice = Colorado...female = Hawaii.
Rugby is more interesting, gone now but I thought for many years it was used by the BBC as well as the Navy. Seems it was not so... BBC LW was Droitwich wherever that may be .
I believe a major reason for the establishment of Rugby in the 1920's was transmitting to RN ships world wide.... especially submarines in the China Sea/ Japan area...
penberth3
Well-known member
LW still comes from Droitwich, the twin masts are a very obvious landmark on the M5.
zoidberg
Well-known member
A little 'frequency drift' for insomniacs. Just a little...
Kukri
Well-known member
Thank you; that was lovely.
For completeness, and in memory of the late Fritz Spiegl:
zoidberg
Well-known member
.....and those iriot wonks in Auntie Beeb can't stop us sing along wi' the 'forbidden' words!
Bilgediver
Well-known member
Having been to sea for many years this familiar tune was considered to be the wake up the captain music as on many ships he liked to be on the bridge when it was relayed through from the radio room. Happy memories.
Bilgediver
Well-known member
Frank Holden
Well-known member
Ah... the shipping forecast
Bilgediver
Well-known member
Unfortunately it is blocked in Scotland and not available
