Smart phone time correction?

[Takonwong]

Does anyone know if the clocks on the smartphones are auto adjusted every so often? The minute hand on my watches which are on my winder (two of which are Rolex) are today visibly one minute ahead compared to the time on my phone, yesterday they were well within (I adjusted them in the new year)

I know it's sad but I check them regularly for accuracy!

[faz]

I don't know much about cell phone times, but for accuracy and sync across platforms, in U.S. at least, one can go to www.time.gov as the time displayed on that website whether on computer/smartphone/ipad/etc. would be identical.

[GM_FFX]

Yes absolutely but not at set intervals, at least for Apple products.

[JacksonStone]

Originally Posted by Takonwong

I know it's sad but I check them regularly for accuracy!

Not sad at all. I don't trust my phone or computer clock, as I have found them to be off quite a few times. Does the UK have a government-run time website? In the US, it's www.time.gov. It's set directly by the atomic clock in Boulder, and automatically corrects for network delay. I've checked it on multiple devices, and against quartz and radio-controlled clocks, and have found it to be consistent. I trust it over my phone.

[Takonwong]

Not sure if UK does but don't smart phones go by the atomic clock too? I just found it weird how the watches all suddenly went fast. My wife's apple and my android were showing the same times so if they are adjusted periodically then I know my watches are not behaving weirdly.

[Devildog]

Originally Posted by JacksonStone

Not sad at all. I don't trust my phone or computer clock, as I have found them to be off quite a few times. Does the UK have a government-run time website? In the US, it's www.time.gov. It's set directly by the atomic clock in Boulder, and automatically corrects for network delay. I've checked it on multiple devices, and against quartz and radio-controlled clocks, and have found it to be consistent. I trust it over my phone.

Time.is is ideal and is global

[Devildog]

Originally Posted by Takonwong

Not sure if UK does but don't smart phones go by the atomic clock too? I just found it weird how the watches all suddenly went fast. My wife's apple and my android were showing the same times so if they are adjusted periodically then I know my watches are not behaving weirdly.

Smartphones get their time from whatever cell they are connected to

As such they are notoriously often innacurate.

Use www.time.is on your phones browser

[77T]

Time servers are in the carrier’s network and can refresh regularly. But if you’re unsure, just reset your network settings on the phone. That will refresh to what should be true network time.

A solution I use is time.is and save its icon on my home screen for those times I want to synchronize watches & clocks.


Sent from my iPhoneX using Tapatalk

[run23]

On some atomic time apps it will tell you how much your phone clock is off. The WatchTracker atomic time feature does this too. I’ve had my phone clock off by as much as 30 seconds. Years ago I thought my watch may have become magnetized or something when I set using a an atomic clock time on my computer and checked against my phone a few hours later. That’s when I got the emerald app to set my watch.

[JacksonStone]

Originally Posted by Devildog

Time.is is ideal and is global

Oh yeah...I've used that when time.gov is down. It's good too.

[Takonwong]

Thanks for all the info! Shortcuts and app added to phone. I'll check the watches against time.is

[GradyPhilpott]

There are several time references that you can use.

https://www.time.gov/ was mentioned above.

Here is another:

https://time.is/

I put a link on my homepage and anytime I need to set my watches when I'm out and about, it's right there.

[Fredrik]

It depends...

Here in Sweden cellphones will get the exact time from the network regularly. Mine have never been off, not even a second. Broadcasting time is not something all operators will do. In the US I do not think a single one does.

Apparently that seems to be the case in the UK too.