Autonomous Radiocontrolled Clock

In an autonomous radio clock (11) whose receiver (23) for pulse-length-modulated binary-coded absolute time information (28) is in any case switched on only from time to time for receiving time messages and comparing the latter with the instantaneous time display in order to reduce the load on the operating power source (22), the aim is to reduce the energy consumption further in order, for example, also to be able to operate clocks - even wrist-watches - from a solar-fed store. For this purpose, the receiver does not remain switched on over the sequence of the coding periods of a time message, but is switched off for the remainder of a coding period when no further binary information is to be expected, and is switched on again for the next coding period. As a result, by contrast with being continuously switched on over the entirety of the coding periods of a message it is possible to save over 80% of the energy requirement for operating the receiver (23).