Last week saw the international launch of the new Seiko Astron at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, a setting steeped in horological history. Just as the Harrison chronometers that are housed at the Observatory set a new standard of precision and made international travel so much safer, so the new Seiko Astron redefines modern timekeeping by adjusting to every time zone on earth.

A new revolution in time
The new Seiko Astron is the world’s first GPS solar watch. It requires no external power source and is entirely self-sustaining. Using just the power of light, it connects to the GPS network, and tells time with atomic clock precision, adjusting at the touch of a button to all 39 time zones on earth. It took almost 10 years to create the new Seiko Astron and to package its advanced functionality in a watch that is beautiful to look at and comfortable to wear. Like its illustrious predecessor, the 1969 first quartz watch, the new Astron GPS Solar will change the way that the world tells time. To develop Astron, Seiko developed several new technologies and over 100 patent applications have been filed.

The Seiko Astron

The advances that have turned Seiko Astron from dream to reality.

1. The ultra-low consumption GPS module
In order for Astron to capture signals from at least four of the GPS satellites that orbit the Earth, it needs up to 10,000 times more power than that of a standard quartz wristwatch and about 200 times that of a radio-controlled watch. After six years of research and development, Seiko has produced a highly efficient GPS module especially designed for wristwatches that does not waste energy tracking satellites for which reception conditions are poor. In this way, the new Seiko Astron GPS module consumes about one-fifth of the electricity of a conventional GPS module. 2. The high sensitivity ring-shaped antenna
Both the chip antenna, which is widely used in GPS, and the thicker patch antenna have the twin problems of poor receptivity inside a metal casing and large size. To solve this problem, Seiko invented a highly sensitive ring-shaped antenna that can be stored on the outer part of the round wristwatch case. Its receptivity is enhanced by placing it under the dial ring and using ceramic – which is better than metal for the reception of radio waves – on the bezel.

3. The small & ultra-low consumption power source
Seiko Astron uses a lithium ion rechargeable battery combined with a new integrated circuit that uses one-tenth of the power of those in mobile phones and regulates the power charge and discharge to ensure the long life of the battery.

4. An intelligent sensor
Seiko Astron has a sensor that manages the automatic time adjustment by judging the amount of remaining energy and previous signal reception conditions. In this way, it conserves power and ensures maximum efficiency in connecting to the GPS network. Once a day, when the sensor detects solar light or other strong light, Astron automatically connects to a GPS satellite and, if necessary, adjusts the time to maintain its astonishing precision of one second every 100,000 years. When the watch is hidden by clothing or in times of low light conditions, the sensor remembers the time of the last successful time adjustment and seeks a satellite signal at that time. If there is enough power, the watch receives a signal every day. If the power is low, however, the intervals between automatic time adjustments are extended to conserve power. In addition, automatic time adjustment is not carried out when the indicator is showing “E” (for inadequate energy) or when the “in-flight mode” is activated. Astron’s ‘thinking’ sensor adapts to the world around it and to its wearer’s lifestyle.

Source: Seiko