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Casio Wave Ceptor is a line of radio watches by Casio. Wave Ceptor watches are able to set themselves to the correct time by receiving time signals from various government time services around the world. These signals are normally driven directly by ultra-accurate atomic clocks, and so by synchronizing with the signals, the Wave Ceptor watches achieve extremely high accuracy – nearly the same accuracy as the atomic clocks that drive the time signals, which is on the order of one second in three million years. The time setting signals usually come from radio emitting towers.
Radio-controlled watches, require no setting or resetting of time, date, daylight saving time, or year; and like most other watches of this kind, they attempt automatic synchronization at least once every 24 hours, usually in the middle of the night. Their long-term and short-term accuracy is thus better than 500 ms.
As with all radio-controlled watches they revert to free-running quartz accuracy in areas out of range or shielded from time setting signals, which gives them an accuracy equivalent to that of a standard quartz watch.
The receivers to which the watches can tune themselves vary by watch submodel. Casio mentions that in Europe, the watches will tune to the 77.5kHz low frequency time signal radio station DCF77 located at Mainflingen in Germany or 60kHz MSF at Anthorn (formerly transmitting from Rugby, Warwickshire) in the United Kingdom. In Europe the reception range is approximately 1500 kilometres. In the United States, they will tune to the 60kHz signal from WWVB at Fort Collins. In Japan, they will tune to the 40kHz signal from JJY at Mount Otakadoya, near Fukushima (Ohtakadoyayama) and the 60kHz signal from the Haganeyama Transmitter at Mount Hagane (Haganeyama). In China, they will tune to the 68kHz signal from BPC at Shangqiu. Some watches can register only some of these signals.
The Wave Ceptor watches are not the only radio-controlled wristwatches on the market. The German manufacturer Junghans and other Japanese manufacturers such as Seiko and Citizen Watch Co. also have this feature.