History Main / ImplausibleSynchrony

* A plot point in ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime''; Clockmaker's Guild member Jeremy Clockson is able to keep every single clock in his shop synchronized almost perfectly, even ones that rely on animals or plants to operate. He's so obsessed with keeping perfect time that he beat another guild member (possibly to death) for [[BerserkButton deliberately keeping his pocket watch a few minutes fast]]. As it eventually turns out, his ability is due to [[spoiler: his being one of the two son [[TimeyWimeyBall (yes, that is written correctly)]] of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Time]] herself.]]

* At one pint in the ''VideoGame/{{Medabots}}'' anime, the villain doctors footage of a fight between Metabee and his Kilobot to make it look like Metabee was cheating. The footage of the fight was broadcast live, but due to the doctoring it was delayed a minute. His plot was uncovered when Arika points out to everyone watching that the timestamp on the footage was one minute behind the "actual" time.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]], before his StartOfDarkness, efficiency expert Temple Fugate has four watches [[note]] Fugate has a chain pocketwatch, a wristwatch, and in his office he has a grandfather clock and another clock at his desk [[/note]]. Being as obsessed with time as he is, it's not that implausible that they have the same time.

[[/folded]]

* ''CSINewYork''. The 333 killer will time certain events to happen exactly at 3:33, and he can rest assured that's precisely the time Mac's clock will be showing.

* ''Film/HighNoon''. There's a clock prominently displayed in every house in town, and they're all showing the exact time, just so there's no doubt as to how soon the big showdown will take place.
** Justified in this instance, since there's a big clock in the center of town, all the townsfolk can be plausibly believed to be keeping their clocks in sync with it. (TruthInTelevision for most of the world until commercial wireless sets became common.)

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', all of the clocks in the game are synced to the in-game clock, and as such, all of them display the exact same time. This is, however, justified in-universe by the fact that the game is set in and around a place called ''Clock Town''. If there's anything you'd expect them to have down to a science, it would be timekeeping.

* In TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask, all of the clocks in the game are synced to the in-game clock, and as such, all of them display the exact same time. This is, however, justified in-universe by the fact that the game is set in and around a place called ''Clock Town''. If there's anything you'd expect them to have down to a science, it would be timekeeping.

* 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.
** While {{NCIS}} is usually VERY guilty of this kind of stuff, that one actually worked. Both clocks were at the Naval Yard (military base). So it is highly likely the clocks there were actually kept in sync with a standard, especially when the time was very relevant to an ongoing investigation. And, because the killer mostly left the clue for Gibbs, he would have operated according to that time. The perfect timing of the poison is a completely different trope, of course.

* One episode of ''DetectiveAcademyQ'' had a deliberate aversion. A television broadcast of people evacuating an enormous department store due to a bomb threat showed the time being fifteen minutes later than the clock on the wall in the room where people were watching the broadcast. [[spoiler: The broadcast was actually coming from a set - since the detectives didn't have enough time to thoroughly search the department store before the bomb went off, they chose instead to trick the already captured bomber into saying where he hid it after he believed it had gone off.]]

In RealLife, if you take two clocks at random the chances that they show the exact same time are fairly low unless someone's taking care of keeping them in sync.

* ''HighNoon''. There's a clock prominently displayed in every house in town, and they're all showing the exact time, just so there's no doubt as to how soon the big showdown will take place.

* Subverted in ''AnimalHouse''. As the Alphas prepare their showdown, each looks at his watch, which are synchronized -- except for Bluto's, which shows some completely random time.

* One arc of ''DetectiveConan'' took place in a house with hundreds of clocks, all of which showed the exact same time - because the owner of the house kept a team of clock repairmen on call 24/7 to ensure that this was the case. One of her previous employees died because she made the man climb the outside of the clock tower to fix the clock there in the rain, causing him to fall. [[spoiler:This is why she gets murdered.]]

In RealLife, if you take two clocks at random the chances that they show the exact same time are fairly low unless someone's taking care of keeping them in sync.

[[AC:{{Anime And Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]], before his StartOfDarkness, efficiency expert Temple Fugate has four watches [[note]] Fugate has a chain pocketwatch, a wristwatch, and in his office he has a grandfather clock and another clock at his desk [[/note]]. Being as obsessed with time as he is, it's not that implausible that they have the same time.

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]

----

** Justified in this instance, since there's a big clock in the center of town, all the townsfolk can be plausibly believed to be keeping their clocks in sync with it(TruthInTelevision for how people in the Old West kept time.)

* One episode of ''DetectiveAcademyQ'' had a deliberate aversion. A television broadcast of people evacuating an enormous department store due to a bomb threat showed the time being fifteen minutes later than the clock on the wall in the room where people were watching the broadcast. [[spoiler:The broadcast was actually coming from a set - since the detectives didn't have enough time to thoroughly search the department store before the bomb went off, they chose instead to trick the already captured bomber into saying where he hid it after he believed it had gone off.]]

* In the opening scene of the first ''Film/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]].

* Subverted in ''AnimalHouse''. As the Alphas prepare their showdown, each looks at his watch, which are sychronized -- except for Bluto's, which shows some completely random time.
* Justified in ''Film/DieHard2'', where we see the bad guys carefully synchronise their watches before splitting up to put their EvilPlan into action.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]], before his StartOfDarkness, efficiency expert Temple Fugate has four watches[[note]] Fugate has a chain pocketwatch, a wristwatch, and in his office he has a grandfather clock and another clock at his desk[[/note]]. Being as obsessed with time as he is, it's not that implausible that they have the same time.

----

[[AC:{{WesternAnimation}}]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'', before his StartOfDarkness, efficiency expert Temple Fugate has four watches[[note]] Fugate has a chain pocketwatch, a wristwatch, and in his office he has a grandfather clock and another clock at his desk[[/note]]. Being as obsessed with time as he is, it's not that implausible that they have the same time.

* Justified in DieHard2, where we see the bad guys carefully synchronise their watches before splitting up to put their EvilPlan into action.

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 dramatic effect 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.

* At the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'' this trope is deconstructed:
** Before his StartOfDarkness, efficiency expert Temple Fugate has four watches: he has a chain pocketwatch, a wristwatch, and in his office he has a grandfather clock and another clock at his desk. FridgeLogic dictates that only watching a single clock would be more efficient than four different clocks due to ImplausibleSynchrony, but it's justified because Fugate is a CosmicPlaything who, as long as he is disciplined, the universe will grant him to ImplausibleSynchrony.
** After his StartOfDarkness, Batman tracks Fugate, now the ClockKing, to an AbandonedWarehouse, the ''Time All Watch Company''. There, Batman finds a RoomFullOfCrazy Clocks, all of them displaying a different hour. FridgeLogic dictates: Why a ScheduleFanatic like the ClockKing would have a RoomFullOfCrazy Clocks without ImplausibleSynchrony? The answer is that [[spoiler: DangerouslyGenreSavvy Fugate is exploiting his {{Idiosyncrazy]] to get the Batman LuredIntoATrap]]

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'' this trope is deconstructed:

* Subverted in a guest house in Fort William, Scotland, where the writer once stayed for a night. In the darkness, cogs started slowly grinding and a Big Ben wannabee rang out its melody followed by twelve slow hour chimes. Then more cogs started grinding, more chimes, more cogs, more chimes, with barely a single overlap, barely a hiatus. A full ten minutes’ worth.

** Before his StartOfDarkness, efficiency expert Temple Fugate has four watches: he has a chain pocketwatch, a wristwatch, and in his office he has a grandfather clock and another clock at his desk. FridgeLogic dictates that only watching a single clock would be more efficient than four different clocks due to ImplausibleSynchrony, but Fugate is a CosmicPlaything who, as long as he is disciplined, the universe will grant him to ImplausibleSynchrony.

** After his StartOfDarkness, Batman tracks Fugate, now the ClockKing, to an AbandonedWarehouse, the ''Time All Watch Company''. There, Batman finds a RoomFullOfCrazy Clocks, all of them displaying a different hour, data about the Gotham Watch Tower, the subway, and a poster of Mayor Hill’s MalevolentMugshot with MustacheVandalism with the legend [[TakeThat “Time for a change”]]. All of those are relevant to the plot, but FridgeLogic dictates: Why a ScheduleFanatic like the ClockKing would have a RoomFullOfCrazy Clocks without ImplausibleSynchrony? The answer is that [[spoiler: DangerouslyGenreSavvyFugate is exploiting his {{Idiosyncrazy]] to get the Batman LuredIntoATrap]]

[[AC:{{AnimeAndManga}}]]