has any had any experience with any of the tide watches, wondering how accurate they are
Tides are not really something that is subject to a great deal of "accuracy".
Tide times are governed primarily by the cycle of the moon and your particular position of longitude.
Example:- Where I live, peak spring tides (ie the nights of full and new moon) occur at 9 pm (give or take 20 minutes). Consult your local tide tables and look at the times of those tides and you will find they are pretty much the same time of day or night every time.
Remember the tide tables are predictions only. The tide is two waves of water that constantly travel around the world.
Tide heights are subject to local and prevailing conditions, eg land masses, river flows, wind surge and rainfall.
When you say "tide watch", I assume you are referring to a wrist watch or other device that has a tide program in it. For it to work you would no doubt have to calibrate it by inputting your longitudinal location.
If you are using it to determine the best time to go surfing etc, I think one could say that they are "accurate" enough.
If you are using it to determine when you are able to cross a bar with a keel yacht, I suggest use of tide tables is a far better option. Cheers
I've got a wrist watch with a tide graph in it. As cisco says, it basically knows your longitude (+- hours from GMT) and the time. From that it works out the position of the moon (mine also gives moon phase). But the state of the tide in your locality depends on a lot of variables besides just the moon and so it may not be accurate at all. Basically, it'll give you a rough idea of where you are in the tidal flow and what should be happening soon-ish.
I have a had a "Rip Curl" Tide Watch for about 8 years now. It's on it's 3rd band, and 2nd battery.
It is NOT digital. The watch (clock) is the one with hands, with separate hands for the tide height, and tide range, and a moon phase dial.
The tides are based around a 12hr and 25 minute cycle, instead of a 12/24hr cycle. This style of watch needs to be set by yourself, for your current location.
I think I paid about $350 in 2002, and I've probably paid about $90 in total, to get new bands and battery.
I live in Torquay, and repairs are done here. But when I lived in Sydney, I would just mail it down to Torquay, and and they would have the watch mailed back in about 1 week. Same with wetsuit repairs. Turn around within the week.
Had one a while back, Rip Curl. Living nth NSW and had to adjust tide guage every week, not accurate....
They are accurate. It is purely and simply a 12hr and 25 minute cycle (approx).
However, on any given day you have 2 high tides, and 2 low tides (excluding about 1 day a month, do the maths). But, one high tide is (almost) always higher than the other, and vice versa, one low will be lower than the other. On some cycles, on some days, at some locations, there may not be too much difference in height between High & Low within 1 cycle....
For example, at some locations it might go from a 0.7m Low, to a 1.2m High, but on a different day (same location) it might go from a 0.1m Low, to a 2.1m High. It is these fluctuations that may give you the impression that the watch is wrong.... Take a tide chart along, and check it with your watch, and read the fine print about adjusting for your locations.....
There is nothing wrong with the watches. But some of the watches don't have the detail that the Tide Charts have, but some of the digital Tide Watches do have that detail....
of tides is they are basically gigantic swell or upwelling of water that move around the oceans and seas of the world following the moon. So I guess when the moon is over Sydney its not over Perth. I think tide height does not correspond with latitude but with longitude.
I agree, what's going on with the 24 hour cycles over in the West !!! ?????
One of the locations does have the 12 hour cycle, but it is a merged surge tide style.
spot quizz - if the moon controls the tides, why are there two high tides a day
i have a freestyle watch with very accurate tide times all programmed in for different locations around the world. but in australia it's only good for perth gold coast and sydney.
i still like my watch and it's good enough for an indication of tide times in (for example) darwin if you know how to set it. it's waterproof to 100m and never missed a beat.
The moon pulls the water on the earth and on the earth as well. In fact, our planet doesn't spin around it's centre, it spins around the center of mass of the earth and moon combined. It just so happens that that centre point is a spot within the earth but not at the centre of the earth. So the planet wobbles around that spot as it spins. That sets up the two waves.
Or you can think of it like this - when the moon is directly overhead, it's pulling the earth and all the water. The water can move more quickly so you get a high tide when the moon is overhead. On the other hand, when the moon is directly underfoot (the opposite side of the planet), the whole planet is moving away from the water surface so you get another high tide. And the low tides are caused by the water being drawn towards the high tide points.
Far be it from me to pull any members, cisco, whether single or collective! 
The effect I'm talking about is known as "nutation" as has been well understood for a long time - eg en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutation
There are also a couple of other wobbles in the rotation of the earth (eg precession) but they're of much longer period and so less noticeable.
Had a quick look at "Nutation" on the Wiki link.
It puts me in mind of spinning coins on a table, bottles with some fluid contents wobbling on their circular base, gyroscopes etc.
If the Earth has nutation as you describe and an extra gravitational influence was introduced, such as a close encounter with a large comet, it is imagineable that it might cause a 180 degree flip of the Earth's rotational axis. Yes??
That would add weight at least, if not confirm, Immanuel Velikovsky's theory he put forward some 60 years ago, that far from "Darwin's Theory of Evolution" (still a theory) proposing that life on Earth is a result of gradual changes of environment over millions of years, that it is the result of relatively recent catastrophic events such as the near collision of Venus (then a comet) with Earth at the time of Moses, and that it was Venus not Moses who parted the Red Sea and caused the pestilence and 40 years of darkness. Also that mutation of species is caused by exposure to strong electromagnetic forces.
I think the French proved that at Mururoa Atoll.
Darwin's Theory is popular because it is promoted by the elites who control the education systems and who believe in the concept of greater and lesser species of humans.
The elites are the most degenerate people on Earth. One only has to look at the behavior of the royals, politicians and hollywoodstars to realise that.
Read more about Velikovsky here:- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky
