History Main / ImplausibleSynchrony

[[AC:{{AnimeAndManga}]]

[[AC:{{AnimeAngManga]]

* In the opening scene of the first BackToTheFuture film, Doc's house is full of hundreds of different alarm clocks that he has painstakingly synchronized to all go off [[spoiler:exactly 20 minutes late. Every single one of them]].

In fiction, however, every clock and/or watch shows the exact same time of day. Always. All miserable cheapo wrist watches and all cell phones and street clocks run in harmonious synchrony with the precision of an atomic clock. Sometimes used for DramaticEffect by highlighting the improbable, often significant timing of an event, or the fact that two remote, seemingly unrelated events happened at the same time. Normally fueled by ConservationOfDetail.

* The increase in internet connected devices is leading to most of them always showing the same (correct) time, as many of them periodically connect to, and adjust their own clocks by, atomic clocks that provide time accurate to less than a second. GPS devices also connect with the GPS satellites which each have an atomic clock on board (which is necessary for their function).

[[AvertedTrope Averted]] when clocks display normal drift; [[JustifiedTrope justified]] when a plausible explanation for synchrony exists (such as the fact that any clock with wireless access [even some wall clocks] can be expected to be synched with an atomic clock). Aversion is usually an important plot point.

** TruthInTelevision, depending on when the episode aired... computer [=OS=]es have been syncing their clocks to internet time servers for a long time now. (Since MacOS 9 and Windows 2000, IIRC. Also domain-connected Windows computers get their time from the domain controller from Windows NT 4 or even earlier.)

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!!Justified Uses:
[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* When the guild alliance members in ''FairyTail'' had to hit six different points of an ArtifactOfDoom at once, the one among them with UpgradeArtifact powers uploaded a timer function into their heads telling them exactly when they should fire (twenty minutes from then, right before the thing could fire its WaveMotionGun again).
* One case in ''DetectiveConan'' had a woman who insisted that all the clocks in her home be perfectly synchronized, and had clock repairmen on retainer to ensure that this always was true.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* The stopwatches in ''BackToTheFuture'' are specifically noted to be synchronized. In a mixed example/aversion [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ3HmDz5dM0 in the opening scene in Doc Brown's laboratory]], at 5 minutes into the movie all of the clocks on the wall go off at exactly the same time, but they're all 25 minutes slow.
** Incidentally, the filmmakers said on the DVDCommentary that getting the shot where the times on the stopwatches change simultaneously was really hard.
* In ''FourWeddingsAndAFuneral'' Hugh Grant's character is late getting up for three of the weddings (and maybe for the funeral). For the fourth wedding - his own - his friends have set up about 100 alarm clocks in his flat, and all go off at the same time.

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]
* RealLife has NTP and similar protocols that can keep clocks in sync as long as they're connected to the same network.
** This may be on its way to being a DiscreditedTrope in RealLife due to the fact that most people use their cell phones rather than wearing a watch. Because most cell phones nowadays automatically synchronize their internal clocks using a network signal, in theory this means that cell phones in general should all display the same time.
* Synchronisation of watches is itself a carry-over from World War One. With no portable radios and contact with advancing troops difficult at best, attacks had to proceed on a clockwork schedule if they wanted to succeed, with protective artillery barrages moving, shifting and sweeping according to fixed time scales. It was vital for British commanders to have their men in position, ready to jump in when the barrage "walked" off the German front line and onto the next target, and woe betide those who for any reason (mud, enemy spoiling barrages, etc.) were held up and couldn't get a message back to slow the barrage 'walk rate' or bring it back to help them. Which unfortunately happened a lot of the time, since enemy barrages broke up communications cables, pigeons wouldn't fly through barrages, and men running messages got shot (often at the worst possible time).
** It's older than that. From around the 1860s onwards, railway scheduling required increasingly precise timing of departures in order to avoid routing conflicts; departing so much as five minutes early or late could throw the timetable into total disarray and potentially result in an accident. As a result, railway companies adopted a system of using astronomical time data that was relayed to a jeweler (because of their experience with precision instruments) who maintained a master "regulator" clock. These clocks had built-in telegraph equipment to relay the time to other regulators in other cities. Several companies had pocket watches made to their own extremely high specifications and issued them to station and on-train employees as part of the uniform, while others drew up a list of watchmakers of sufficient quality and required their staff to purchase their own. Computerised signalling and the availability of inexpensive and reliable wristwatches made this practice almost obsolete, but at least one British train operating company issues its on-train staff with wristwatches synched to an atomic clock by radio.

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]
* ''[=~The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask~=]''. All of the clocks in seem to be synchronized. However, all the clocks are in a town called Clock Town that is centered around a giant clock tower and whose big festival is called the Festival of Time. They obviously take their timekeeping [[SeriousBusiness very seriously]].
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!!Inversions:
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* ''ParkerLewisCantLose'': the guys ''always'' explicitly synchronize their Swatches before starting a ZanyScheme, and most of the time they are never referred to again.
* Niles and Mel are shown to synchronize their watches while they're dating on ''{{Frasier}}''.
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!!Aversions:
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* ''StrangerThanFiction''. It's a pretty major plot point that Harold accidentally sets his wristwatch a few minutes fast.
* The disaster of the final attack in ''{{Gallipoli}}'' was caused by the army and naval commanders not synchronizing their watches. The naval bombardment stopped too soon and the enemy was able to reoccupy the trenches and the Australian troops run straight into machine gun fire. It would have probably been a bloodbath even without this.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* The aversion of this trope is a key point in a case in one episode of ''TanteiGakuenQ''. There's only a limited amount of time to find a bomb in a very large department store. Most of the focus in the episode is given to the time listed on a news broadcast about the evacuation of the store and the search for the bomb. But the time on the clock in the office where the man who planted the bomb is watching the broadcast shows a different time. [[spoiler: This is because the broadcast is a fake being transmitted from a set, not the store. The detectives were trying to trick the bomber into thinking that the bomb had already gone off, so that they could get him to gloat over where he had hidden it, at which point they could stop the bomb before detonation.]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* John Dickson Carr's book ''TheThreeCoffins''. [[spoiler:The inaccuracy of a clock in a shop window is a huge plot point]].
* Every guild in [[{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]] has its own bell to ring out the hour with, and no two of them agree - and, being Morporkian, they all try to have the loudest. (Except Big Tom, the University's bell, which rings out silences due to Inadvisably Applied Magic).

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]
* Nevermind normal clock drift, RealLife has general and special relativity in which, put simply, both gravitational force and moving at a constant speed slows down time. Even clocks up a small mountain aren't synchronised with those at sea-level. Although the discrepancy amounts to about one-thirtieth of a second per year.
** It is relevant for GPS satellites which also have to compensate for a ever so slight light delay between everything they do.
*** It's actually essential to GPS satellites, a precisely-timed signal is sent and the GPS receiver has to calculate its location based on the difference in propagation times. The CrowningMomentOfAwesome with [=GPSs=] is that the fact that the Earth is deeper in a gravity well than the satellites that broadcast it provides an everyday confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity.

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]
* ''TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'': the big clock on Melee Island is constantly showing ten o'clock, so either the clock is busted or it's always ten o'clock on Melee Island (as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Guybrush). The same clock is [[RuinedForever set to 3:00 instead]] in ''EscapeFromMonkeyIsland''.

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]
* In an episode of ''TheBoondocks'', when police questioning witness Grandad manage to trick him into changing his story.

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!!Mixed:

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Used two ways, double subverted, and averted in ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime''. Uses: Jeremy's clocks are all set to the exact second, and he believes this is very important. A fellow clockmaker who kept his clock five minutes fast... well it's not explained exactly, but it's implied Jeremy hit him with a wrench, possibly killing him. Double subversion: An alarm clock goes off thirty seconds before the hour, but it's set correctly and rings early to signal people should cover their ears before the dozens of simultaneous hour chimes. Averted in this book and others with imp-driven clocks and watches, as well as cuckoo clocks (made by clock cuckoos), the former of which are as accurate as the imp peddling the hands makes them, and the latter of which only look and act like working clocks (they're not actually set to anything, and some don't even have the proper numbers on the face).
** Furthermore, the plot of the story centered around creating a clock that could keep ''perfect'' time, which would have had the side effect of freezing time entirely.

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]
* An episode of ''MuppetBabies'' had Gonzo instructing some of his friends to synchronize their watches, only to be reminded that they aren't wearing watches, which prompts him to admit that they don't know how to tell time either and that [[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat he just wanted to use the line]].

* Niles and Mel are shown to synchronize their watches while they're dating on Frasier.

** It's older than that. After several disastrous train wrecks in the mid-19th century blamed on different timekeeping, the railroads adopted a system of using astronomical time data that was relayed to a jeweler (because of their experience with precision instruments) who maintained a master "regulator" clock. These clocks had built-in telegraph equipment to relay the time to other regulators in other cities and railroad personnel were required to purchase watches (meeting the railroad's standards) at their own expense and set to their stations' regulator clocks.

** This may be on it's way to being a DiscreditedTrope in RealLife due to the fact that most people use their cell phones rather than wearing a watch. Because most cell phones nowadays automatically synchronize their internal clocks using a network signal, in theory this means that cell phones in general should all display the same time.

** It's older than that. After several disasterous train wrecks in the mid-19th century blamed on different timekeeping, the railroads adopted a system of using astronomical time data that was relayed to a jeweler (becuase of their experience with precision instruments) who maintained a master "regulator" clock. These clocks had built-in telegraph equipment to relay the time to other regulators in other cities and railroad personell were required to purchase watches (meeting the railroad's standards) at their own expense and set to their stations' regulator clocks.

* The aversion of this trope is a key point in a case in one episode of {{TanteiGakuenQ}}. There's only a limited amount of time to find a bomb in a very large department store. Most of the focus in the episode is given to the time listed on a news broadcast about the evacuation of the store and the search for the bomb. But the time on the clock in the office where the man who planted the bomb is watching the broadcast shows a different time. [[spoiler: This is because the broadcast is a fake being transmitted from a set, not the store. The detectives were trying to trick the bomber into thinking that the bomb had already gone off, so that they could get him to gloat over where he had hidden it, at which point they could stop the bomb before detonation.]]

* Used two ways, double subverted, and averted in ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime''. Uses: Jeremy's clocks are all set to the exact second, and he believes this is very important. A fellow clockmaker who kept his clock five minutes fast... well it's not explained exactly, but its implied Jeremy hit him with a wrench, possibly killing him. Double subversion: An alarm clock goes off thirty seconds before the hour, but it's set correctly and rings early to signal people should cover their ears before the dozens of simultaneous hour chimes. Averted in this book and others with imp-driven clocks and watches, as well as cuckoo clocks (made by clock cuckoos), the former of which are as accurate as the imp peddling the hands makes them, and the latter of which only look and act like working clocks (they're not actually set to anything, and some don't even have the proper numbers on the face).

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<<|AppliedPhlebotinum|>>

** TruthInTelevision, depending on when the episode aired... computer OSes have been syncing their clocks to internet time servers for a long time now. (Since MacOS 9 and Windows 2000, IIRC. Also domain-connected Windows computers get their time from the domain controller from Windows NT 4 or even earlier.)

* On an episode of ''{{NCIS}}'', the Cyber Vid Character gives the time of his victims deaths and then broadcasts the murder over the internet. One example is particularly egregious. He lists the time of death as five minutes to midnight. Two clocks were shown when the victim died, and they both showed the precise time, despite the fact that the poison that killed him was administered hours ago. There's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief and then there's this.

** TruthInTelevison, depending on when the episode aired... computer OSes have been syncing their clocks to internet time servers for a long time now. (Since MacOS 9 and Windows 2000, IIRC.)

*** It's actually essential to GPS satellites, a precisely-timed signal is sent and the GPS receiver has to calculate its location based on the difference in propagation times. The CrowningMomentOfAwesome with GPSs is that the fact that the Earth is deeper in a gravity well than the satellites that broadcast it provides an everyday confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity.

*** It's actually essential to GPS satellites, a precisely-timed signal is sent and the GPS receiver has to calculate it's location based on the difference in propagation times. The CrowningMomentOfAwesome with GPSs is that the fact that the Earth is deeper in a gravity well than the satellites that broadcast it provides an everyday confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity.

* The disaster of the final attack in {{Gallipoli}} was caused by the army and naval commanders not synchronizing their watches. The naval bombardment stopped too soon and the enemy was able to reoccupy the trenches and the Australian troops run straight into machine gun fire. It would have probably been a bloodbath even without this.

* ''[=~The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask~=]''. All of the clocks in seem to be synchronized. However, all the clocks are in a town called Clock Town that is centered around a giant clock tower and whose big festival is called the Festival of Time. They obviously take their timekeeping [[SeriousBusiness very seriously]].

* When the guild alliance members in ''FairyTail'' had to hit six different points of an ArtifactOfDoom at once, the one among them with UpgradeArtifact powers uploaded a timer function into their heads telling them exactly when they should fire (twenty minutes from then, right before the thing could fire its WaveMotionGun again).

* John Dickson Carr's book ''TheThreeCoffins''. [[spoiler:The inaccuracy of a clock in a shop window is a huge plot point]].

* In an episode of ''TheBoondocks'', when police questioning witness Grandad manage to trick him into changing his story.
* ''TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'': the big clock on Melee Island is constantly showing ten o'clock, so either the clock is busted or it's always ten o'clock on Melee Island (as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Guybrush). The same clock is [[RuinedForever set to 3:00 instead]] in ''EscapeFromMonkeyIsland''.

*** It's actually essential to GPS satellites, a precisely-timed signal is sent and the GPS receiver has to calculate it's location based on the difference in propagation times. The CrowningMomentOfAwesome with GPSs is that the fact that the Earth is deeper in a gravity well than the satellites that broadcast it provides an everyday confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity.
* Every guild in [[{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]] has its own bell to ring out the hour with, and no two of them agree - and, being Morporkian, they all try to have the loudest. (Except Big Tom, the University's bell, which rings out silences due to Inadvisably Applied Magic).

<<|AppliedPhlebotinum|>>

* On an episode of {{NCIS}}, the Cyber Vid Character gives the time of his victims deaths and then broadcasts the murder over the internet. One example is particularly egregious. He lists the time of death as five minutes to midnight. Two clocks were shown when the victim died, and they both showed the precise time, despite the fact that the poison that killed him was administered hours ago. There's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief and then there's this.

* ''TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. All of the clocks in seem to be synchronized. However, all the clocks are in a town called Clock Town that is centered around a giant clock tower and whose big festival is called the Festival of Time. They obviously take their timekeeping [[SeriousBusiness very seriously]].

* ''TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'': the big clock on Melee Island is constantly showing ten o'clock, so either the clock is busted or it's always ten o'clock on Melee Island (as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Guybrush). The same clock is [[RuinedForever set to 3:00 instead]] in EscapeFromMonkey Island.