Ring in the new year with the exceptionally accurate Apple Watch
While the Apple Watch obviously does much more than just tell the time, the technology that powers its timekeeping capability is extremely precise.
In a new interview with Mashable, Apple’s Vice President of Technology Kevin Lynch explains that you can set any two Apple Watches side-by-side and see that the second hands will move completely synchronized.
Lynch also said that the watch is four times as accurate keeping time than an iPhone:
“First of all, we’ve curated our own network time servers around the world,” said Lynch. There are, by his count, 15 such “Stratum One”-level Network Time Servers (NTP) (one level down from an atomic clock), scattered around the world. They’re all housed in buildings with GPS antennas on the roof that talk, you guessed it, to GPS satellites orbiting the earth, which all get their time information from the U.S. Naval Observatory. In other words, those satellites are all getting their times from one, big orbiting system.
The servers then communicate with iPhones around the world, via the Internet, which in turn communicates with Bluetooth-connected Apple Watches. Of course, even that hand-off has to be managed. “We do do corrections for time delay in communication,” said Lynch.
The entire story is definitely worth a read. I’m glad to see Apple put so much effort into making the watch such an accurate timepiece. Hopefully the Apple Watch 2, which is rumored to be announced sometime in March, will be even better. The watch will apparently be thinner and offer better battery life. Apple may also include some type of camera and a number of improved sensors.
For other news today, see: Microsoft could take on Apple TV with smaller Xbox One device, Apple is about to reach an OLED screen deal with Samsung and LG, and Class action lawsuit seeks damages for the performance of iOS 9 on the iPhone 4s.
