Earlier quoted context omitted.
I stand corrected, it seems to indeed have been the US Navy that pioneered time signals. France followed up a few years later. I don’t know who had the first system accessible to civilians, but at this point we’d just be arguing details.
From the link: > Radio time signals for setting chronometers were sent from stations such as NAA in Arlington, Virginia, which began broadcasting in 1913. The time was supplied from a direct communication line with the clocks of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. In combination with another low-frequency installation mounted on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the towers had the range to cover the North Atlanti…
This turns out to be quite an interesting rabbit hole.
It's definitely earlier than I would have guessed regardless.