Seiko Solar Watch Finds You in the World
No matter where you are, you will know the correct time
Imagine a watch with a tiny GPS receiver that triangulates your location on Earth via sattalite and automatically provides you with the correct time.
Seiko thinks the whole ritual of getting off a plane, unscrewing the crown, setting your watch several hours in either direction and screwing the crown back in tight is not only more wear and tear on your precious timepiece, it’s incredibly boring! They have designed a watch that takes care of everything for you by figuring out where you are in the world.
I know you’re thinking, “That thing must be a real powerhog!” Seiko watches have solved that problem too by making it not only a solar watch, but the GPS unit barely soaks up any power at all since it is only a receiver and not a transmitter.
The results are quite elegant:
Seiko, decided the chore of adjusting traditional GMT watches – a read-off of cities in tiny print, a pull of the crown here, a twist there – was in need of a massive rethink.
Taking their cues from mobile phone and GPS technology, the Japanese interlopers introduced a GMT model that needs no adjustment at all. Named the Astron GPS after the first quartz watch that took Basel by storm in 1969, this watch displays the time wherever you are in the world at the press of a button. Covered by 100 patents, it hoovers in atomic time signals from satellites and offers full coverage of all 39 zones. Seiko’s Shu Yoshino pointed out it “can even pick up the difference between Delhi and Kathmandu, which is just 15 minutes”. The Astron will be available in a range of six models this October, for low four-figures, not high-fives.
Even if you’re the kind of person who get’s lost everywhere you go, you can draw at least a little comfort knowing that your watch knows exactly where you are and is serving time to you with global precision. This might not do you much good as it can’t actually tell you where you are, just your time zone.
This may come in handy if you get kidnapped a lot. Imagine waking up from the chloroform in a strange city, looking down at your watch and seeing that wherever you are, it’s lunchtime! Can you pour me a glass of wine please?
