Solar Powered Clock/Watch

[betwys1]

Of those who enjoy clock and sextant navigation, is there anyone who does not use a perpetual solar watch/clock? No batteries - EVER!

[Jim Cate]

Seems like a solar powered anything that must run 24 hours a day MUST have a battery in it somewhere.

Jim

[betwys1]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Seems like a solar powered anything that must run 24 hours a day MUST have a battery in it somewhere.

Jim

Let us suppose you find your Solar Watch stops after about ten years. I imagine you might want to chuck it and buy another - the battery or supercapacitor or whatever lasts about that length of time, according to Seiko anyway. If one chose a mechanical instead, that would be time to get it to a watchmaker for service, I expect!

[Kijit]

I've had my solar watch for at least 20 years. I did have to open it up once to change the battery (or capacitor, can't remember what it was) and it is still going strong!

[jeanathon]

I bought a dial, but have trouble with daylight savings time.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by betwys1

Of those who enjoy clock and sextant navigation, is there anyone who does not use a perpetual solar watch/clock? No batteries - EVER!

The most important thing in a timepiece is not it's motive force, but it's accuracy and reliability.
Best of all if it keeps perfect time, but failing that, it needs to lose or gain time at a constant rate.
Windup, battery, self-winding, solar--that's all secondary to reliable.

[Orion Jim]

I’ve had one, a Casio PRW 2500, for several years. It picks up a daily time impulse from Ft. Collins, Colorado, or Anthorn, U.K., to keep it accurate. The solar function is great. I can keep it in a drawer for months and the battery is still fine. I have a second Casio as a back-up. It has several functions, including a graph barometer which is actually accurate, which I’ve found helpful after a few days offshore.

[Jammer]

I use a HAQ watch that has a battery life of 30 months with an end-of-life warning that trips about a month before the battery is shot. It does not depend upon time signals from any outside source and has a practical raw accuracy (without the benefit of rating) of about +/- 30 seconds a year. I reset it whenever I move between time zones or at DST changeover. It has operated flawlessly for over three years. I take it with me when SCUBA diving. It is more than accurate enough for celestial and more accurate than any mechanical marine chronometer ever made and about as accurate as the best early 20th century pendulum clocks on land that operated at ambient air pressure rather than in a vacuum chamber. The periodic battery replacements on my watch are simple and infrequent. It was not expensive.


The various solar and kinetic powered watches still require periodic service usually about as frequently as a battery change on a good HAQ watch. I don't see the benefit.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by Jammer

The various solar and kinetic powered watches still require periodic service usually about as frequently as a battery change on a good HAQ watch. I don't see the benefit.

Maybe kinetic but I have run Citizen solar watches for many years the last one is 17 years old and still going strong.