NavList:

Alex-
<<As I understand, even the best watches or chronometers
will be affected if you change their orientation in space.>>

Yes. There is typically a difference of +- 5 seconds per day simply from wearing
the watch inside your wrist as opposed to outside your wrist, so it is even
possible to regulate the watch simply by wearing it in a different position. All
of this assumes some roughly 'regular' actions on the part of the user. Someone
who sits at a desk for three days, then goes out and plays four hours of
basketball or jogs on the fourth day, would find a mechanical wristwatch to be
"irregular" on that fourth day. But of course, if that was a pattern it would
still be 'regular' over the course of the month.<G>

There is one benefit to a wrist watch, in that it tends to be thermally
stabilized by the wearer's body. Offhand it will be kept at something like 93F
by the skin contact through the rear of the case, so thermal drift is minimized.

I am continually amazed by my cheapest watch, a Casio digital picked up on sale
for ten or twelve dollars. The first battery failed after something like six
years. I replaced it and hacked the watch to the Naval Observatory about 3
months ago, and that watch is now about a whole two seconds off that time
source. I expect it to be more reliable in the next five years than it was in
the last five years, as the timing crystal has now "aged in" and should shift
less in its physical parameters.


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