Seiko Radio Sync Solar World Time Chronograph Review

Then

Years ago, a watch craze that swept people by the thousands was in its infancy. They called it the "Radio Clock". The Radio Clock was normally a digital watch or alarm clock with a radio tuned to a special frequency, that received signals from a Cesium Broadcast station that kept UTC or some other device that measured and transmits time signals, and based on where you live and your clock settings, your Radio Clock would convert this signal to the time in your local area. A lot of these were clunky, ugly looking, or took a degree In rocket science to operate. 

The NIST Transmitter Station in Colorado USA

This year, Seiko decided to completely revamp the tech in these watches, and produced a new caliber. One which didn't require all of the space that took up the old bulky pieces, and that was also simple to use. Enter the "Radio Sync Solar World time Chronograph" new from Seiko 2016. 

A Step in the Right Direction for Seiko

Now

The biggest feature of this watch, is of course, the new caliber. It's got a solar battery, so that extra power hungry radio receiver is always running. Now, when I first saw this watch, I thought to myself "great, another watch that will take forever and a half to figure out." I learned that this wasn't the case at all. Lets take it back a second and talk about the tech behind this watch. Now the nearest transmitting station to me is a couple thousand miles away, in Colorado. There are a few more across the world, combined their range reaches just about the entire habitable zone of the globe. They all transmit a time code that's deciphered by computers, watches, servers, etc. The watch we're reviewing constantly monitors for this frequency, and when it locates it, it will automatically set itself to your local time. No fussing about with buttons, holding your head and wondering why you spent 500 bucks on something that's impossible to use, just pure and simple. (We're looking at you, Astron Series) So the thing sets itself. And even when you want to set it manually, it's still simple. If that's not enough, Seiko made it just as accurate as the Transmitting stations themselves, with a loss/gain of one second per 100,000 YEARS. Might as well never take the thing off, it charges itself, sets itself, it's got the legendary Seiko reliability, and won't lose time in your lifetime. 

Seiko may have had a troubled history with tech watches before, but we really think they hit a home run with this one.