Setting the time on a chronometer - how?

[tudorsailor]

If I am going to buy a cheap as chips Casio, is there any particular one that I should hunt for?

TS

 

[Sandy]

You misunderstand my comment ......

"1nm close inshore is very important ........... offshore is about as important as ??? "

Sun sights run up to noon to create a noon fix is subject to error that can be in miles .... star sights based fix is more accurate. But still subject to error and even in best will of the world - a mile or so out.

My point was 1nm error in position inshore can be disaster whatever means you use for position fix .... but 1nm offshore is not serious. I was not implying that anyone would do astro inshore ......

That was not the way I read your comment, but hey ho Storm Brendan is stirring up the water.

 

[Sandy]

If I am going to buy a cheap as chips Casio, is there any particular one that I should hunt for?

TS

I have one of their watches that receives the time signal to correct itself every night.

 

[GHA]

If I am going to buy a cheap as chips Casio, is there any particular one that I should hunt for?

TS

I went for one of these, though don't remember it being so dear...
But perfect so far for a good few years, and a handy timer for single handed so you don't forget to have a good look round
Timex Expedition Men's T49950 Watch with Black Dial Digital Display and Black Resin Strap: Timex: Amazon.co.uk: Watches

 

[Refueler]

If I am going to buy a cheap as chips Casio, is there any particular one that I should hunt for?

TS

I had a G-Shock for a while ... till the resin strap caught on a shackles split pin and broke ... lost in Langstone Harbour ... I'm sure the Mullet in LH were very happy to know the time ....

I'm a great believer in simple watches. I have had many with all the buttons and fancy functions. But corrosion soon got at them and half the functions I couldn't select due to crappy buttons.

I have a Seiko Sportsmatic that my father gave me when I was 10yrs old ... slim and special limited edition. I'm now 64yrs old and it still works. But being Automatic - it has an error that changes with temperature climate I am in ... but as a watch and knowing that - its my fav.
For accuracy I have two watches ... an old Avia Divers watch - keeps spot on time and a watch literally same design - Tissot Divers Watch - again keeps spot on time.

I used to have a Seiko 5 auto ... I think about 90% of older Merchant Seaman have had a Seiko 5 at some time .. unfortunately mine got stolen ..... good all rounder plain watch.

Todays quartz watches ... even the cheapest actually keep good time. I have as a back up a QQ watch ... cost me about 15 Euros ... keeps perfect time .. large clear face and hands suits my tired eyes.

I do have a Rolex Datemaster ... I hate it ... face and hands are gold ... so not easy for my eyes to read ... No its not for sale !!

I've collected loads of watches over the years ... but I drift back to that Seiko Sportsmatic and the Avia.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

If I am going to buy a cheap as chips Casio, is there any particular one that I should hunt for?

TS

I've got a Casio G-Force like this: Casio G-shock Moon/Tide Yacht Watch | Gael Force Marine. Not "cheap as chips", but it keeps good time and has a handy tide indicator - not very precise but useful! Furthermore, if it breaks, I'll have gone before it - it's a lot tougher than I am! The price in the link is a bit too high for it - I got mine in Hong Kong and paid substantially less, and a quick Google search showed much lower prices. Some people have had problems with the strap breaking, but mine has been fine.

 

[Stemar]

If I am going to buy a cheap as chips Casio, is there any particular one that I should hunt for?

TS

If you're going blue water sailing, a radio controlled job seems to me to be a waste of money - you'll be out of range of the signal. I wanted a watch with day and date, that I can read in the dark. Modern luminous dials aren't very, and I detest flash stuff with G-SHOCK TERMINATOR or whatever all over it, so after trying several watches, including some at a couple of hundred pounds, I've finally settled on a tenner's worth of end of line Casio from Argos. It claims a 10 year battery life, so it's unlikely to fade out during a voyage

Just about any quartz watch is going to be more consistent if, perhaps, not quite as accurate as a Rolex for 1000 times the price; the trick is to see how much it's out before you get out to sea - mine gains a second or two a month - so you can make allowance for the error.

 

[Refueler]

Here's a few ...

Datemaster - better if kept the money !



Avia - very good



Tissot Divers - good ... bit scratched over the years ..



Limited edition Seiko Sportsmatic ... over 54yrs old - still good .. (no plastic inside !) .. original Japanese



Something I did ... I bought a special tool to open the backs - so I can change battery etc.

 

[Ruffles]

A proper time web site! (Just illustrates difference versions of the truth - still uses your PC). The web page dates from the millennium! I love old web sites.

GPS, UTC, and TAI Clocks

Note that many GPS boat thingies show UTC rather than GPS time by calculating the difference. Whether it gets the difference in the signal or simply takes a punt I've no idea! But you'll probably need to know.

 

[Refueler]

I am one who will not 100% trust GPS time. Its good but - give me a Time Signal proper thank you.

 

[tudorsailor]

Having thought that I could use my Suunto Core, it is now 2-3 secs out after 6 days. So may be buying a Timex after all

TudorSailor

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Having thought that I could use my Suunto Core, it is now 2-3 secs out after 6 days

Don't worry about that. Chronometers don't keep perfect time - the thing that makes a clock a chronometer is that its inaccuracy is predictable.

Take a piece of graph paper - put 60 days along the bottom and 45 secs or so on the vertical axis and then plot the time difference for the next couple of months. If the points can be joined with a straight line, then your Suunto is 'reliable' enough to be used as a chronometer.

 

[Refueler]

Having thought that I could use my Suunto Core, it is now 2-3 secs out after 6 days. So may be buying a Timex after all

TudorSailor

Go back to my Post #10 where all explained ...

 

[Uricanejack]

I had a G-Shock for a while ... till the resin strap caught on a shackles split pin and broke ... lost in Langstone Harbour ... I'm sure the Mullet in LH were very happy to know the time ....

I'm a great believer in simple watches. I have had many with all the buttons and fancy functions. But corrosion soon got at them and half the functions I couldn't select due to crappy buttons.

I have a Seiko Sportsmatic that my father gave me when I was 10yrs old ... slim and special limited edition. I'm now 64yrs old and it still works. But being Automatic - it has an error that changes with temperature climate I am in ... but as a watch and knowing that - its my fav.
For accuracy I have two watches ... an old Avia Divers watch - keeps spot on time and a watch literally same design - Tissot Divers Watch - again keeps spot on time.

I used to have a Seiko 5 auto ... I think about 90% of older Merchant Seaman have had a Seiko 5 at some time .. unfortunately mine got stolen ..... good all rounder plain watch.

Todays quartz watches ... even the cheapest actually keep good time. I have as a back up a QQ watch ... cost me about 15 Euros ... keeps perfect time .. large clear face and hands suits my tired eyes.

I do have a Rolex Datemaster ... I hate it ... face and hands are gold ... so not easy for my eyes to read ... No its not for sale !!

I've collected loads of watches over the years ... but I drift back to that Seiko Sportsmatic and the Avia.

I have been through a few Seiko watches over the years. I am hard on watches and have given up wearing them.
Bought in a variety of locations from Botlecks in Rotterdam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi to Taiwan. Usually Damaged,
Eventually resorted to whatever cheep Quartz watch was available.
I a couple of years ago I gave both my boys a Seiko 5 automatic watch. Preference for automatic after having irritating battery issues.
The engineer is hard on his. Replaced two glass. Still runs though.

I used to by those fake rollex watches they were cheep and kept ok time and never bother me much when broken or lost.
I had one with a Stainless fake Rolex with Seiko movement I bought in Taiwan decades ago which kept good time for 30 years.
My son took to wearing it till it eventually died.
I still have my dads stainless 1970 oyster date just but I never wear it for fear of damage or loss. Its sentimental value far greater than actual.
My wife wears a 30 odd year old ladies rollex. It looks nice but it’s never kept time as well as a date just. Or Seiko 5.
My brother still wears a Omega Sea-master I gave him almost 40 years ago which I bought in the old souk in Abu Dhabi. It still keeps time I believe.

I use my cell phone.
I do have a Seiko 5 but I can’t remember where I put it. I did see it the other day. So it’s around somewhere.

 

[Daydream believer]

All this talk of accurate time, but, at the risk of a thread drift, is it actually possible to get an accurate sextant reading on a small yacht in a typical sea state when crossing, say, the Atlantic . I ask, because I cannot use binoculars very often in my 31 ft boat, in the Thames estuary above F4 ,even though they have low magnification. That is simply because motion makes it impossible to brace oneself & hold the binoculars level for a few seconds. A sextant seems a total waste of time in a small AWB boat.

 

[Refueler]

All this talk of accurate time, but, at the risk of a thread drift, is it actually possible to get an accurate sextant reading on a small yacht in a typical sea state when crossing, say, the Atlantic . I ask, because I cannot use binoculars very often in my 31 ft boat, in the Thames estuary above F4 ,even though they have low magnification. That is simply because motion makes it impossible to brace oneself & hold the binoculars level for a few seconds. A sextant seems a total waste of time in a small AWB boat.

The biggest problem is not the motion ... of course its a serious factor .... but the biggest problem is getting a proper horizon. On a ship - eyelevel is usually anywhere from 40 to 100ft above the waterline and any seas / swell etc. do not obscure the horizon. Imagine a yacht in typical atlantic seas ... half the time the horizon will be obscured ...

In my view ... the yacht will then be running for days on end on EP's (or DR's if no info on drifts etc.) , with occasional calm days to do sights.

Ship Donax .... running Singapore to Persian Gulf ... during the voyage - we experienced heacy rain and cloud cover for days on end ... no satnav on board those ships, this was the early days of Transit being tested on our Methane Ships ... I was 3rd Mate and bored out of skull on bridge ... so I fired up the DF machine and got an RDF signal ... corrected the displayed bearing ... plotted and did a rough distance travelled since last known position days before ... which put us serious distance off course to the south ... 2nd mate cam on watch and smiled .. said yeh yeh yeh ... 1st mate later ... same .. yeh yeh yeh ... I went back on watch in the evening and did same again ... it seemed to tally but showed us being seriously pushed south more. Day later 1st mate managed to get stars ... guess what ... I did not look stupid anymore - we WERE seriously south of track !

 

[Refueler]

I have been through a few Seiko watches over the years. I am hard on watches and have given up wearing them.
Bought in a variety of locations from Botlecks in Rotterdam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi to Taiwan. Usually Damaged,
Eventually resorted to whatever cheep Quartz watch was available.
I a couple of years ago I gave both my boys a Seiko 5 automatic watch. Preference for automatic after having irritating battery issues.
The engineer is hard on his. Replaced two glass. Still runs though.

I used to by those fake rollex watches they were cheep and kept ok time and never bother me much when broken or lost.
I had one with a Stainless fake Rolex with Seiko movement I bought in Taiwan decades ago which kept good time for 30 years.
My son took to wearing it till it eventually died.
I still have my dads stainless 1970 oyster date just but I never wear it for fear of damage or loss. Its sentimental value far greater than actual.
My wife wears a 30 odd year old ladies rollex. It looks nice but it’s never kept time as well as a date just. Or Seiko 5.
My brother still wears a Omega Sea-master I gave him almost 40 years ago which I bought in the old souk in Abu Dhabi. It still keeps time I believe.

I use my cell phone.
I do have a Seiko 5 but I can’t remember where I put it. I did see it the other day. So it’s around somewhere.

My Seiko Sportsmatic was from the original Seiko Japanese factory with no plastic inside - my father bought one each for three sons - I was youngest ... my Seiko 5 was one of the last out of Japanese factory before Chinese took over licenced production. The 5 and its successors then took a slippery downward slope.
I like the Seiko Sportsmatic because its slim unlike the 5 ... and a suit jacket cuff rides over it nicely.

My Rolex - not a fake ... was bought when I was young free and single ... and most likely drunk !! My Avia at 1/20th the price keeps far better time. AND I can read the darned thing !!

 

[Daydream believer]

The biggest problem is not the motion ... of course its a serious factor .... but the biggest problem is getting a proper horizon. On a ship - eyelevel is usually anywhere from 40 to 100ft above the waterline and any seas / swell etc. do not obscure the horizon. Imagine a yacht in typical atlantic seas ... half the time the horizon will be obscured ...

So what I am wondering-- is it is pointless worrying about the time if, on a smaller boat, perhaps sub 45 ft, one cannot even take a decent sight with the sextant in the first place?

 

[GHA]

So what I am wondering-- is it is pointless worrying about the time if, on a smaller boat, perhaps sub 45 ft, one cannot even take a decent sight with the sextant in the first place?

If you take a handful of sights and plot them on some graph paper it's easier to see the ones to ignore and get a pretty good sight even if it's a bit choppy. All the errors add up so having accurate time is one less error, well worth it since it's a cheap and easy thing to do.

 

[Refueler]

So what I am wondering-- is it is pointless worrying about the time if, on a smaller boat, perhaps sub 45 ft, one cannot even take a decent sight with the sextant in the first place?

I know it seemed I was saying don't bother with sights ... but that's not true. Its well worth it - but it has to be apprecaited the limitations imposed because you are on a yacht without Height of Eye to overcome any moderate seas. On near or calm days - its well worth the taking of sights ...