Travel clocks, timers and timepieces

Here are a few follow-ups to the collection of letters in the July ’08 issue, pages 44-49.

They are now making “atomic watches” that pick up the time in up to 43 cities around the world. Surely, this number will increase as time goes on.

ASHA SMITHSON

Winfield, KS

Several of the letters regarding travel clocks and watches referred to those that automatically reset to local time based upon updates from radio signals. However, as mentioned in Asha Smithson’s letter, there are several things that can go wrong with the updating process. I would never want to risk missing a flight by depending on something that problematic.

Others mentioned clocks that are preprogrammed with daylight saving time (DST) rules. Those rules are subject to change. The DST rules right here in the U.S. changed in recent years and I now have several “preprogrammed” clocks and a VCR on which the time has to be manually changed multiple times each year due to DST changes.

Before our trips, I always consult www.timeanddate.com. For a specified city, this website provides the current time and time zone and more than you would ever want to know about how it is affected by daylight saving time.

I use the data from this website to manually set my watch (an inexpensive Timex) and my Rick Steves travel clock. This approach has served me well on multiple trips overseas and has never been found to be incorrect.

One last recommendation — for goodness sake, don’t take an expensive watch on a trip overseas. It’s all too easy to lose or have stolen. An inexpensive watch will work fine and is no real loss if something happens to it.

STEPHEN O. ADDISON, Jr.

Charlotte, NC

Sometimes I just have to laugh. Spending $50 on an alarm clock? $500?!

I bought a plastic digital alarm clock at Wal-Mart for $3.50 about eight years ago. It has a light and runs on two hearing-aid-type batteries. I’ve used it on every domestic and international trip I’ve taken and only had to change the batteries once. I use the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

GARY MOCKLI

Chesterfield, MO

I have always used a windup clock for travel. Currently, I have a Baby Ben, which has large numbers and is visible in the dark, making it easy to set both the time and the alarm; it’s made by Westclox/Salton, Inc., and is sold everywhere.

With a windup, there’s no forgetting batteries, having to punch small buttons or punching the wrong button.

I will, however, begin carrying a small timer as mentioned by Mr. Burke.

Mrs. R.H. STAFFORD

Pleasant Hill, CA

Of the various alarm clock solutions mentioned, I decided the best one is the timer. We took a timer on our last trip and it worked like a charm. I bought a cheap one, a West Bend. It runs on one AAA battery and can be set up to 99 hours, 99 minutes. You just punch the buttons.

NILI OLAY

New York, NY

We are finding that our cell phones provide more than adequate time and alarm functions.

I have an iPhone and my wife has a Blackberry. Both are able to sync with our calendars and get our e-mails, and both have excellent alarms that will wake us up. The alarms work even when the phones are off, as they wake up the phone at the proper time and the time is updated by the local cell phone service.

At this point, we could leave the travel alarm at home and rely solely on wristwatches and cell phones. The cell phones have choices of sounds, so we can pick ones of our pleasing and of adequate volume.

Incidentally, the mapping function on the iPhone worked pretty well in London this past October and in Israel this May — well enough to take us walking around the neighborhoods of our hotels, etc.

EVANS M. HARRELL

Marietta, GA