Implausible Synchrony

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In Real Life, 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.

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 Conservation of Detail.

Examples of Implausible Synchrony include:

Film

• High Noon. 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.

Live-Action TV

• CSI New York. 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.
• 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 Willing Suspension of Disbelief 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.