Collection: GMT and World Time Watches

GMT, dual time and world time watches

If you travel, fly or work with people in other countries, a watch that shows a second time zone saves a lot of counting on your fingers. There are three ways to do it on this page: a GMT hand read against a 24-hour scale, a second time on a digital display, or a world-time function that can show the hour almost anywhere.

GMT: a 24-hour hand

A GMT watch adds a hand that goes round once a day, read against a 24-hour bezel, so you can follow home time while the main hands show local time. The Bulova Oceanographer GMT 96B405 is a 41 mm automatic, calibre 9075 with about 42 hours of reserve, with a blue and red bidirectional 24-hour bezel and a box sapphire crystal. Its hour hand sets on its own, so after a flight you move only the local time and the 24-hour hand stays on home time. The Citizen Promaster Land GMT BJ7150-09L keeps it simple: a 39.5 mm Eco-Drive with a fixed 24-hour bezel, a domed sapphire crystal and a navy dial on a nylon strap. Both are water resistant to 200 m.

Dual time and UTC on a pilot’s watch

The Promaster Skyhawk A-T does it digitally. Beside the hands, its displays show a second time zone and UTC, the reference time used in aviation, and it holds the time for 43 cities, all corrected by atomic time signals. The Blue Angels and Snowbirds editions of the Skyhawk A-T work the same way. Citizen’s Star Wars ana-digi watches, in 33.5 mm rectangular cases, also carry dual time on their digital display.

World time

A world-time watch can show the hour in any of its zones. The Tsuki-yomi A-T covers 24 time zones with its hands and adds a moon phase. The Promaster Geo Trekker BY3006-53H uses a world-time disc for the northern hemisphere and corrects itself by radio across 26 time zones. The Promaster Land U822 adds world time and a summer-time setting to a chronograph, an alarm and a perpetual calendar, on a rubber or Cordura strap.

Which one

• One other place you keep track of every day: a GMT, like the Oceanographer or the Promaster Land GMT.
• Regular flying and plenty of functions: the Skyhawk A-T.
• Many places, and a watch that keeps itself right: world time with atomic timekeeping, on the Tsuki-yomi A-T or Geo Trekker. Our atomic timekeeping watches page explains how the signal works.

Questions

What’s the difference between GMT and UTC? On a watch, GMT usually means a 24-hour hand for a second time zone. UTC is the world’s reference time; the Skyhawk A-T shows it on its own display.

Do I reset a GMT watch when I travel? On the Bulova, you move only the hour hand to the new local time, and the 24-hour hand keeps showing home.

Which is the smallest? Among the analog models, the Citizen Promaster Land GMT at 39.5 mm; the Star Wars ana-digi watches are 33.5 mm wide. The Skyhawk A-T and Geo Trekker are 45 to 46 mm.