Can't see year which is obviously wrong because the day of week is wrong. How do I see year and change it?

Not sure what the RTH8500 is. Most times, you have to change the year to get the day of the week to change. I hope that helps a bit.

probably have the wrong year selected

We add a Leap Day on February 29, almost every four years. The leap day is an extra, or intercalary, day and we add it to the shortest month of the year, February.
In the Gregorian calendar three criteria must be taken into account to identify leap years:

• The year can be evenly divided by 4;
• If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless;
• The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

This means that in the Gregorian calendar, the years 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years.

On most digital watches, if you properly set the date and year, the day of the week is preset.

Your watch is 12 hours out of step.

The date changes every second time the hour hand passes 12 O'clock.

Your watches' second pass is at midday instead of midnight, so to make it operate correctly, you need to wind it on 12 hours. The date will then change at midnight.

when setting in the mode for time ect get to the date and press lower right button or top. it changes from day month or month day

THE SETTING FOR THE DAYS ARE AUTOMATIC DEPENDING ON THE YEAR YOU FEED. IT MAY SOUND ODD BUT PLEASE CHECK THE YEAR YOU ARE FEEDING I.E IS IT 2010 OR 2011. IF IT IS 2011 THE DAYS WILL BE ONE DAY ADVANCED. IF STILL THE PROBLEM PERSISTS ASK THE RETAILER /COMPANY TO REPLACE THE WATCH, IF IT IS UNDER WARRANTY PERIOD.

No... more than likely the year is wrong on it.

Buttons are: A or Adjust (10 o’clock position), B or Time Memo (2 o’clock), C or Mode (8 o’clock), D or Receive (4 o’clock) and L or Light (6 o’clock)
To manually change time, date, year, month and day, hold A until beep and city code appears; press A again until 12H/24H flashes; press C to cycle through options as hour, minutes, year, month, and day flash; use B or D to change flashing option.