I got Janice a new solar-powered quartz watch for her birthday.

I am a bit meticulous, if not downright obsessive-compulsive, when it comes to timekeeping. I keep my computers’ clocks synchronized precisely using NTP, two of the watches I use and my bedside alarm clock automatically synchronize themselves to the atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado via radio signals… I frequently adjust my Zenith mechanical watch to match these other “trusted” clocks although the fact that I usually wear such an inaccurate timepiece at all proves that my timekeeping obsession is short of pathological.

Janice’s new watch, being quartz-driven, is supposed to be accurate a few seconds a month or something like that. In keeping with my aforementioned obsession I would periodically check her watch, and much to my consternation find it running a few minutes fast. I couldn’t understand how a quartz watch could be running so inaccurately…

Until today. Janice saw me adjusting her watch and promptly told me not to. “I match it to the clock in my lab. It’s supposed to be synchronized to some satellites or something.”

She said she couldn’t figure why she would find her watch off by a few minutes every day, and have to readjust it. And of course, I noted wondering the exact same thing.

Still, it seems that Rigel’s timekeepers have a lot to answer for, because Janice’s lab clock, if her watch is any indication, is ahead by about five minutes.