The ACCUTRON "Astronaut" timepiece is designed primarily for the convenience of the globe trotter and international business man who needs to know local time and the time in another time zone.
In addition to the conventional 12-hour dial with hour, minute, and sweep-second hands, this model timepiece is provided with a 24-hour hand and a rotatable outer dial (ring) with hour graduations for use in telling time in a second time zone. This ring is divided into a black half to indicate nighttime hours and a white half to indicate daytime hours (not P.M. or A.M.). The graduations are numbered in accordance with the more commonplace 12-hour method of expressing the time.
Setting To Local Time
When setting to local time make sure that 24-hour hand (triangular tip) is on correct side of dial. This hand should be on right side of dial if the time is A.M. and on left side if P.M. At midnight, this hand and regular hour hand both point to 12 marker on the conventional dial.
The ACCUTRON timepiece, unlike conventional watches, has a unique free-floating gear train. For this reason, the following procedure is required to set the hands exactly to the second:
1. Lift setting handle (Pic. 1) when sweep second hand is exactly at 60 second marker (Pic.. 2). All hands will stop instantly.
2. Turn hands in either direction until regular hour and minute hands indicate desired time. In doing this, advance minute hand slightly ahead of desired minute marker and then turn it back to this marker. At this point sweep-second hand may have advanced several seconds. Proceed as if hand had not moved.
3. Turn setting handle slightly forward, making certain not to turn it far enough to move minute hand. (This is to permit setting handle to return to flat position without causing hands to jump.)
4. When sweep-second hand or audible signal of time standard by which you are setting your timepiece reaches the 60th second, snap the setting handle back to normal position.
Setting To A Second Time Zone
1. Establish time differential between zone you are in and other time zone in which you are interested.
2. Turn rotatable ring until hour for other time zone which corresponds to midnight local time is opposite the 12 marker on the conventional dial.
24-hour hand will now indicate on outer ring the correct hour in other time zone.
For example, your timepiece is set to indicate Eastern Standard Time on the conventional dial and you want to keep track of the time in Honolulu, Hawaii. The difference between these two time zones is 5 hours, so that at midnight E.S.T. it is 7:00 P.M. in Honolulu. Turn the outer ring until the 7 marker in the black (nighttime) area is directly above the 12 marker on the dial. The 24-hour hand will now indicate the correct hour in Honolulu. If Eastern Standard Time as shown on the dial is 9:05 A.M., the 24-hour hand will point to 4 in the black (nighttime) area on the outer ring, indicating that the time is 4:05 A.M. in Honolulu. (Pic. 3.)