Seiko Watches Banishes Time Change Dilemmas with GPS Based Wristwatch

March 22, 2012 - This Sunday (March 25th) sees the return of British Summer Time. For watch lovers this means a round of resetting. However for the many wearers of Seiko Watches, a new radio control system will mean that no user intervention will be required to make the change.

British Summer Time was first introduced in 1916 as a measure to aid farm production during the First World War. In recent years the annual change has become controversial as the reverse procedure in the autumn is said to lead to an increase in road accidents in England and Wales.

To many member of the public, setting the time on watches and clocks following the change in timezone is problematic. However a major Japanese watch manufacturer has announced a new model, the Seiko Astron, that uses signals received from the Global Positioning System(GPS) to deduce the exact atomic time and to calibrate the watch for the timezone based on the current location of its wearer.

The GPS system uses the same signals as satellite navigation deployed in mobile phones and purpose built in-car system. The signals were first broadcast in 1989 and are operated by the Government of the United States of America, but are freely accessible by anyone with a suitable receiver.

Clocks that can be set by radio are not uncommon. Seiko Watches have also miniaturised the components to fit inside a standard watch casing. These timepieces utilise a long wave radio signal broadcast from a number of sites around the world. Whilst these Seiko Watches models give good coverage in many of the more inhabited areas of the world such as the USA, Western Europe and the Far East, the signal is not available on a global basis, a problem overcome by the new Astron model's reliance on GPS.

A recent proposal to alleviate the problems of increase car crashes on winter evenings has been a Conservative Party proposal to change to Central European Time, placing the UK on the same time zone as its continental neighbours.

This proposal would have the benefit of extending the amount of light available in the evenings and would aid businesses trading with nations such as Germany and France.

However, the measure has proved unpopular with voters in Scotland who would be plunged in to darkness throughout much of the morning during the winter.

The proposals were put forward in a Private Members Bill by backbench MP Rebecca Harris in 2010 reached the report stage in the House of Commons in January 2012.

For more information on Seiko Watches visit http://www.thewatchhut.co.uk/