Atomic watch

Over the weekend, I bought myself a new watch (for about ten dollars cheaper than the price listed at Casio's site). It's the kind of watch I've wanted to buy the last time I was shopping for a new one--a so-called "atomic watch." Which is actually a bit of a misnomer, since the watches themselves are not actually atomic. Instead, they automatically synchronize with an atomic clock through radio frequency.

The reason I didn't get one last time (which was around four or five years ago) was because the selection was very sparse... I couldn't find any styles I liked at the price I wanted. So instead I got a "sports watch" from Brookstone--it was also a digital compass, altimeter, and thermometer. Good for hiking and camping. Except I rarely do either. The watch from Brookstone also had one large fault: the wristband was made out of plastic and/or rubber. It eventually split apart after regularly putting the watch on and taking it off, as I would normally do so at least twice a day. I got myself a replacement band made of metal, but it really didn't fit the watch in terms of aesthetics.

So when I noticed that they now had many more styles to choose from, I decided to get one. I would have liked to get one that was also solar-powered, but could not find one that was a metal band at a lower price. Oh well. I don't really mind having to change the battery every once in a while, it just would have been nice if I didn't have to.

I specifically got a metal band, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the band breaking apart on me (as much), but it also means that adjusting its length to my wrist can be a bitch. I had the Dicken's of a time trying to remove the links from the band so that the watch wouldn't sit very loose on my wrist when I wear it.

Now, my current problem is that the watch has thus far been unsucessful in picking up the radio frequency for it to make its automatic adjustments, and I've also not been able to get it to receive the signal manually. Meanwhile, setting the time manually is much faster than waiting for it to manually receive the signal. Hopefully it would be able to pick up some sort of signal in the coming weeks--it'd be nice not having to set my watch when switching between Daylight Saving and Standard Time.