I got this techno-cool atomic clock just this last Christmas. I always wanted an atomic clock because I thought the "never needs setting" feature was swank especially for those two times in the year that Daylight Savings Time catches you off guard (now that Congress changed things a little) or if you have to replace the batteries now and then and didn't realize the time was off.

A friend said that she woke her sister up at 4AM instead of 7AM for a flight because her watch was still set to east coast time out in California. How nice would it have been if she had an atomic clock out there that sets itself?

So how does it work? It's basically just a radio receiver tuned to pick up the low frequency signal (60kHz) originating from the real atomic clock running in Ft. Collins, Colorado. The time lag between the real atomic clock and your device is short even if you're 2,000 miles away since the speed of light is so fast. I'm not sure, but I think the time zone is the only thing you have to set manually. But what I do know is that the little blurb in this clock's manual is all bogus:

"A team of atomic physicists continually measures every second of every day to an accuracy of ten billionths of a second a day."

First of all, it doesn't take a crack team of scientists hunched over an experimental apparatus to get a correct time reading off of an atomic clock. Usually once an atomic clock is started running, it keeps counting vibrations without the need of attention from anything. That's why it's so stable. You actually don't want anything or anybody near it, because it could slightly disturb things. The atomic clock is so sensitive it can actually detect the microscopic change in gravity caused by a person walking around the room. For practical purposes, like a living room clock, such high accuracy is overblown.

Secondly, it sounds as if you're getting a whole lot for your money. "Wow a whole team of scientists are at my beck and call whenever I want to get a new time reading! Neat-O!" Fat chance. It's just a dusty old radio antenna that's sending out your signal.

Thirdly, why do we need the time to be accurate to 9,192,631,770 vibrations of Cesium 133 in vacuum anyway? Especially when the clock only shows minutes and not even seconds! How would we even know if it was off? How could we prove it to the customer service rep on the other line? "No, I just have this feeling that my atomic clock is set wrong. Call it a hunch. Please send over one of those crack team of physicists ASAP!"

Finally, our cell phones are much much smaller and tell the correct time (no matter where you are in the world) without all the hype. Check it out. It's a great feature that you're not even paying for.

That being said, this particular atomic clock does have a couple of sweet extras:

->It tells the temperature inside and outside (you have to put a battery operated remote device outside, included) Good to know what you're in for when you wake up in the morning.
->It displays the moon phase in this circa 1980's LCD style with a glossary of terms in the manual. Good to know if you have a hot date and want to sound smart. (For some reason guys love using astronomy on chicks.)
->2AA batteries in the clock and 2AA batteries in the outdoor temperature remote means you don't have any odd batteries leftover from a 4-pack. Nice! They thought of everything!


Complaints:
This clock doesn't get that good reception in my apartment. I didn't really figure that out until I kept trying to get it to set itself to no avail. I finally found a good windowsill to put it on but now I have no desire to trick it with the wrong time to see how fast it corrects itself. I think the manual doesn't make it sound exciting either by explaining that it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 6 hours to update. LAME!

The outdoor thermometer takes a while to come to temperature. Putting it outside, it takes a couple of hours to cool down to the outdoor temperature. What's up with that? I want to know precision temperature down to the decimal with my atomically accurate clock! The manual even explains that the temperature is only accurate to -2 degrees! Why the heck do they display a digit after the decimal then!? Significant figures people, use them! Crack team of physicists, huh?

Every time you change the batteries you have to do this lame-O procedure:
1. Take the batteries out of both the outdoor thermometer and the clock (even if you only want to change one set of batteries)
2. Put batteries in the outdoor thermometer.
3. Wait 10 minutes. That's right TEN bleeding minutes!
4. Put batteries in the clock.
5. Wait 10 minutes to 6 hours for the clock to set itself.

Now I ask you, how in the world can I get scientifically accurate time out of a device that takes so long to set up or change the batteries!?

Tips:
Set this clock up at night since the F-layer of the ionosphere recombines then and thus reflects radio signals better.
Don't use the two sided mounting adhesive to mount the outdoor thermometer. Use the screws. Trust me. You don't want the thermometer to fall.


Recommended: No