Things smartphones have replaced

[ZLoth]

One advantage that cell phones have over (most) watches.... accuracy! Unless you have one of those watches that sets itself to the atomic clock, watches will drift off eventually no matter if it's mechanical or digital. Cell phones get their time from the cell phone system, and is usually very accurate. Plus, as I noted in a previous thread, there are multiple sources for ensuring accurate time.

Not really. My laptop and my 2 Android phones are off from each other.

What is the difference between your Android phone and the your laptop? According to ClockSync, my phone is running .804 seconds ahead of the atomic clock. I also have my computer poll us.pool.ntp.org on a daily basis, and again, it's fairly accurate. My clock radio which gets the time via a local FM station via RDBS is about 30 seconds fast.

Now, I can deal with a few seconds off. 30 seconds is fine for my clock radio. It's the one minute or more being off is what drives me up the wall.

[kkt]

One advantage that cell phones have over (most) watches.... accuracy! Unless you have one of those watches that sets itself to the atomic clock, watches will drift off eventually no matter if it's mechanical or digital. Cell phones get their time from the cell phone system, and is usually very accurate. Plus, as I noted in a previous thread, there are multiple sources for ensuring accurate time.

Not really. My laptop and my 2 Android phones are off from each other.

What is the difference between your Android phone and the your laptop? According to ClockSync, my phone is running .804 seconds ahead of the atomic clock. I also have my computer poll us.pool.ntp.org on a daily basis, and again, it's fairly accurate. My clock radio which gets the time via a local FM station via RDBS is about 30 seconds fast.

Now, I can deal with a few seconds off. 30 seconds is fine for my clock radio. It's the one minute or more being off is what drives me up the wall.

Cell phones actually make pretty poor watches.  As far as accuracy, GPS time is intended to be 19 seconds off of civil times because civil time has leap seconds and GPS time does not.  Cell phones have trouble with the DST change and if you're near a time zone border you can get caught alternating between towers in different zones fading in and out.  When you're not near a tower, the cell phones' accuracy is horrible.  If it's been off for a while, the phone's accuracy is horrible.  If the phone is off or on standby, it takes half a minute to get it powered up so you can look at the time.  If the phone is on, it runs out of battery in a day or two (some people's only last half a day!), so if you want to go somewhere you can't recharge your phone you lose your timepiece as well.

NTP is great!  With it synching to a server every 17 minutes, not only does it synchronize but it also tracks how much your computer's clock drifts and even if internet is lost it greatly improves the computer's accuracy.  After it's trained it should differ from the atomic clock by only single digits of milliseconds.

[Pete from Boston]

Cell phones are also annoying to rely on in the vicinity of tome zone lines, as they can incorrectly shift an hour without warning. 

[kkt]

Cell phones are also annoying to rely on in the vicinity of tome zone lines, as they can incorrectly shift an hour without warning. 

You're right!  I should have thought of that.   

[Pete from Boston]

I only thought of it because I visit folks from time to time that live near such a line, and it can be very confusing.