RTC with ESP8266 NONOS-SDK

[AgentSmithers]

https://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/DS1302.pdf

So, One of the issues I am trying to tackle is a problem with Battery Usage. I have a thought about maybe pairing up the ESP8266 with this chip and have it hold the RTC but the ESP even in deepsleep only takes 20UA where the DS1302 takes just under 1.2UA, The issue comes when my chip crashes or reboots then the RTC is lost and it has to reconnect to the internet to get the RTC correct, however if I then push the time to the external chip I can then read the chip on reboot vs. connecting back to the internet for an updated RTC but is it worth it?

Did anyone generate code to talk to the DS1302 at all yet?

Okay different topic, relevant but different.
Anyone know how to set the RTC clock to a specific value.
At this point, I'm not sure what values to expect it.

When the chip first powers on what value should it have? Zero?

When I first load do I connect to the internet and pull NTP and ALSO the RTC then go into deep sleep, then wake, check to see if I awake from a deep sleep and if so check the difference between the RTC then and now and add the amount of time to my first obtained NTP value? Thank you!