Breitling watches

"Jay Beckman" wrote in message news:z_1Be.29486

If I push the upper right and lower left buttons at the same time, the
digital display changes from local time to UTC. I can then set the watch
to 24HR time and voila!, I can tell FSS what time I was wheels up in UTC
without having to do the converson from MST to UTC in my head!

Quite handy actually...


I guess my synapses aren't firing too swiftly today. Would you explain how
the procedure above is easier or more convenient than simply adding 7?

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...
I guess my synapses aren't firing too swiftly today. Would you explain
how the procedure above is easier or more convenient than simply adding 7?

I haven't found converting from local to UTC difficult. However, it's
certainly more complicated than adding an integer to the hours.

You have to account not only for Daylight Saving Time (which would
presumably be accounted for in such a watch), but also for roll-over of the
time (e.g. if you're in a UTC-7 time zone, any time after 1700 will require
the subtraction of 24 from the resulting number to get the actual time).

Furthermore, if you are a pilot, you can easily find yourself in a different
time zone, with a different integer to add. Having a watch do the
calculation for you may avoid accidently adding the wrong integer, or adding
the correct integer wrongly. UTC will be UTC no matter what time zone the
primary display of the watch is set to.

How useful having to push a few buttons to do that computation rather than
doing in oneself, I suppose that depends on the individual. Your mileage
may vary. But obviously for Jay, it's something he finds useful, so
it's good he has a watch that does that for him.

Pete

What Peter said
and;

Hitting a button (two simultaneously in this case) to obtain the correct
UTC conversion is both faster and more accurate for this pilot

My synapses just aren't that good at taking local time, which I would
perceive to be say, 8:15pm EST, and convert it to UTC military time
which (I hope) would be 0115 UTC. What's simple, swift or straight
forward about that conversion unless you do it 10 times a day or
otherwise walkaround spouting the time in military format?

So for this casual pilot, I've come to rely on the simple shorthand we
all use at some time or another "...at 15 after the hour".

For reference, the way my brain works, the conversion from 8:15 EST to
UTC goes like this in my head - "8:15pm = 20:00, 20 + 5 = 25, no, =24+1
or 1, 0100+15=0115UTC, was that EST or EDT?" A button is faster and
more consistently accurate.

Did I do the math right?

Peter Duniho wrote:
"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...

I guess my synapses aren't firing too swiftly today. Would you explain
how the procedure above is easier or more convenient than simply adding 7?


I haven't found converting from local to UTC difficult. However, it's
certainly more complicated than adding an integer to the hours.