New Year's partygoers wearing Apple Watch will have 'most accurate watch in the room'

Apple's attention to detail encompasses the accuracy of the Apple Watch as a timepiece, thanks to a complex proprietary system of servers, satellites and more, making it one of the most accurate watches in the world.

The accuracy of the Apple Watch time was highlighted by Apple vice president Kevin Lynch in an interview with Mashable published Wednesday. In the interview, Lynch provided a number of details on how Apple ensures accuracy of its wearable lineup, including:

Apple has 15 Network Time Servers around the world
Each building connects to GPS satellites that gather time info from the U.S. Naval Observatory
A user's iPhone connects to the servers, which then sends time data to the watch
Unique hardware in the Apple Watch makes it four times more accurate at telling time than the iPhone
The Apple Watch also compensates for delays in sending data
In testing, Apple uses high-speed cameras that look for latency in a watch face's second hand

"With New Year's coming, those who have the Apple Watch will be the most accurate watch in the room," Lynch told Mashable.

Some existing traditional timepieces on the market also sync with world atomic clocks, accomplishing this through methods like GPS or other wireless technologies. By using the iPhone as a conduit, the Apple Watch can potentially sync the current time more frequently, allowing for consistency and accuracy at levels not seen in most traditional watches.

36 Comments

dickprinter 1058 comments · 16 Years

About 8 years ago

Aren't my friends and family going to be envious of me when I'm the one screaming "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" at the exact, appropriate moment compared to everyone else in the room.

dachar 330 comments · 11 Years

I have been wondering about Apple Watch time. I have a "radio controlled" clock that uses an atomic time signal sent via radio waves to keep it correct, I use the "pips" on BBC Radio 4 that mark the hour and now I have my Apple Watch. None of them have the hour at exactly the same time. I have not been able to properly work out the differences accurately yet but I think its about 5-10 seconds between first and last. Does anyone know why radio waves for the BBC Radio and the atomic controlled clock appear to have a different time to the internet+WiFi used by the Apple Watch?

patsu 430 comments · 20 Years

dachar said:

I have been wondering about Apple Watch time. I have a "radio controlled" clock that uses an atomic time signal sent via radio waves to keep it correct, I use the "pips" on BBC Radio 4 that mark the hour and now I have my Apple Watch. None of them have the hour at exactly the same time. I have not been able to properly work out the differences accurately yet but I think its about 5-10 seconds between first and last. Does anyone know why radio waves for the BBC Radio and the atomic controlled clock appear to have a different time to the internet+WiFi used by the Apple Watch?

You will need to look at how both are implemented.

It is insufficient to say 'my clock syncs to an atomic clock, therefore it must be equally accurate'.

How often does the sync take place ? What happens in between syncs ? What is the latency during syncing ?

Even though smartphones may sync to the same NTP servers, they may not sync as often to preserve battery life. The Watch's primary purpose is time keeping, naturally Apple will spend more run-time resources to finesse it.

For your radio wave approach, you'll have to factor in the network + device latency, and the sync interval. Syncing to an atomic clock just means you get a more accurate source (that does not drift) during the query. It does not mean you'll be as accurate as that atomic clock unless that device is engineered to minimize all the latencies, and has an accurate clock itself.