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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear

Telechronometer  
  A watch that synchronizes itself to a remote source.  

The task of setting a chronometer has always been as much of a problem as making one run properly. Heinlein happened on a very modern solution to this task in 1940.

Harrington glanced at his wrist watch - a bulky affair - and whistled. "Good heavens," he exclaimed, "I forgot the time!"

"We are in zone plus-seven; this shows zone plus-five - it's radio-synchronized with the master clock at Washington..."

"I call it a telechronometer; it's the only one of its sort to date."

Technovelgy from Blowups Happen, by Robert Heinlein.
Published by Street and Smith Publications in 1940
Additional resources -

Today, of course, you can actually purchase a watch like this:

Introducing the worlds first dual time zone, analog/digital atomic watch by Atomix. Both analog and digital time displays are automatically synchronized with the US atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. The Atomix watch updates both analog and digital time ...
Want to know the right time? Visit the NIST radio station WWVB, broadcasting the correct time within about 1800 miles of colorado.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Blowups Happen
  More Ideas and Technology by Robert Heinlein
  Tech news articles related to Blowups Happen
  Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein

Telechronometer-related news articles:
  - Seiko Astron Always Knows Your Time Zone

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