*Darth Does DST
About a week before the recent Daylight Savings Time (DST) change in the United States, I purchased the above G-Shock, “The G” model GW-700BDJ, from the local Costco. I was interested to see if it would survive the early DST changeover.
The Wave Ceptor (or “atomic”) versions of the G-Shock line listen to a radio source to automatically synchronize their time with the received signal . The particular model I have can work with either the US signal from Fort Collins, Colorado, or the Japan signals from Fukushima, Japan, and Fukuoka/Saga. The watch will change the frequency it listens to based on the timezone you set for the home city. In my case, I set the watch to Los Angeles (LAX) for West coast (Pacific -8). The watch then knows that I am in GMT -8 and to automatically change to DST based on the signal from Colorado.
I live in a dense metropolitan valley bounded on one side by high-tension overhead electrical wires and some hills on the other sides. I didn’t really expect the watch to have enough signal to synchronize, but I was very surprised when the first night I wore it to bed it successfully synced!
As I’ve been very busy with work, I haven’t been rotating watches like I usually do—rarely do I wear the same watch more than a day or two. Since I picked up the G-Shock, it’s become my daily wear work watch. I’ve become dependent on it for the following features:
- 5 alarms – wake up, morning reminder, meeting reminder, evening reminder, one extra
- Second time zone – set to GMT so I can easily see what time my various system events happened
- Wave Ceptor – sets itself and is always on time, I can verify my NTP server and be happy!
- Stopwatch – recently used to time remote network event latency
- Backlight – can wear the watch to bed and not annoy my wife with glowing lume
- Tough Solar – no battery changes and the watch will survive an event that would kill me
I work in Information Technology (IT). We spent a lot of energy at work preparing for the early DST this year, patching machines and updating configs, etc. I was very interested to see if the watch would automatically update itself and know the shift happened.
I can definitively say, “Darth Does DST”—it changed over just fine, and I used it all that day to verify my important devices!
*(The “Darth” reference is used by watch nerds for darkened stealth watches)
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Hi Larry,
Excellent article!
In Japan, G-Shock popularity waxes and wanes. I noticed even during times when Gs are not as popular, Japanese IT guys still wear them. They are, after all, “little computers.” On the Darth reference, no doubt it comes from Star Wars? I think your watch sort of resembles Darths’ helmets.
Oh, and do you know about Wookiepedia? Click on image below to visit there.
Cool watch! Glad you’re enjoying it. Is it your first G-Shock?
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I had a GW300 previously but it must have been one of the ones with the bad battery as it quit working shortly after I purchased it and I returned it.
I have to say I REALLY like this G-Shock, the fit, finish and overall quality level is very good!
I also like how the brushed blue bezel color plays against the dark display and the copper lines of the slightly violet solar panel. Makes for a mesmerizing display in the right light.
Glad you enjoyed the article too!
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:13 am
I had to smile when I read your story Larry. Every morning after a daylight savings time switch, the first thing I do is look at all my radio controlled G’s to see if they switched. I know it’s not a big deal that they do, but it always amazes me that they are correct. They truly come as close to the “set it and forget about it” ideal watch as you can get.
March 25th, 2007 at 4:41 am
Hi Larry,
It would be nice if all devices synchronize automaticly to an atomic signal. Fortunately most devises do. Radio, TV, GPS devices, etc get their signal from all kind of sources.
A nice Waveceptor model you have. I wish they made it in this color scheme, but that’s personal…
Casio is planning to release only Tough Solar Waveceptor watches in the future (although I don’t know when that future begins). They always wanted to be known as a company that has a good heart for the enviroment. I think that’s a good intention. I have Tough Solars around that are still working after 10 years. They only need a bit of light to work, and a full charged new model Tough Solar can hold up charge for about one year.
The recent 5 band G-Shock Waveceptor models are looking great and in June there will be a new 5-band GW-9100 Gulfman released (though without a Tidegraph, Casio might explain that…). Waiting is now if or when Casio will release a Tough Solar 5 Band GW-5600 model. That would be a great next generation classic model.
May the Force be with you….
Sjors