Everybody Hertz
Everybody Hertz plays a long-wave time signal through your speaker so a radio-controlled watch or clock can set itself anywhere. Pick the station your watch listens to, put the watch in receive mode, hold it near the speaker and press Transmit. It speaks WWVB, DCF77, MSF, JJY40, JJY60 and BPC.
What problem does it solve?
Radio-controlled watches drift when they can’t hear their station. Too far from the transmitter, behind thick walls or in a noisy city, the nightly sync fails and the watch slips a few seconds, then a few minutes. The usual fix is leaving it on a windowsill overnight and hoping. The iPhone app that once did this is gone from the App Store.
How it works
Pick the station your watch listens to. The page suggests one from your time zone. Put the watch in receive mode, hold it a few centimetres from the speaker and press Transmit. The page plays a tone whose odd harmonic lands on the station’s long-wave carrier, and dips it each second in that station’s own pattern, so the watch reads it as the real broadcast. A console shows the carrier, your local time, a scope of the signal and a log of every bit sent. A receive takes 5 to 15 minutes.
Whom it’s for
Anyone with a radio-controlled watch or clock who lives out of range of their station, travels across time zones, or wants the watch right without a night on the windowsill.
Tech
A single static page with no backend. The time codes for all six stations are built in the browser from the device clock, and an AudioWorklet plays the keyed tone on the audio clock, aligned to the second. Set in a custom monospace, with a green phosphor console look.
Frequently asked questions
Which watches does it work with?
Radio-controlled watches and clocks that receive WWVB, DCF77, MSF, JJY or BPC. It was tested on a G-Shock GW-M5610U with WWVB.
How long does a sync take?
Usually 5 to 15 minutes. Keep the watch still, a few centimetres from the speaker, with the volume up and the room quiet.
Why does my device clock matter?
The page builds the time code from your device's clock, so the watch ends up exactly as right as that clock. The page checks it against the server and warns you when it is off.
How can a speaker reach a watch?
Time stations broadcast on long wave, far above what a speaker can play. The page plays a tone whose odd harmonic lands on the station's carrier, and the watch antenna picks it up from a few centimetres away.
Is it affiliated with any time station?
No. It is an independent tool that imitates the stations' public time codes at close range.