If you’ve been following our blogs, hopefully you will have seen The Watch Collectors’ Club easy to understand guides to additional watch functions. The first was on Chronographs, you can read it here. The second was on day-date watches, which you can read here. These functions are called complications. Make sure to subscribe to our mailing list to continue our exploration of different watch functions.

This blog explores watches which display the time in multiple places at once. This function is often called Dual-Time, GMT or World Timer. They are useful if you need to know the time in two different time-zones. People who travel for a living, or who interact with clients or colleagues in different countries find these watches helpful. These functions also offer many interesting design opportunities for watch companies, and many people greatly enjoy the variety available.

Time Zone Watch Features

Time zone watch functions were much rarer in the world of clocks and pocket watches. Before World War II people rarely travelled across time zones quickly.

The coming of the “Jet Age” changed global travel, and dramatically boosted the number of people who might need a watch showing more than one time zone. The largest category of these people were the new jet age pilots. Today, so many people travel across time zones that these watches remain extremely popular.

Dual-Time Watches

Dual means two, and this means there are two separate displays of the hours on a watch display. Often the secondary display is smaller or somehow less obvious, but easily read by the wearer. If you follow us on Instagram, you will see that we often show photos of a Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Dual Time. It is easy to read the second time zone on the sub-dial at the 6 o’clock position, and it has saved friends in different time zones from calls in the middle of the night.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Dual Time

World Timer Watches

These have many forms, but most simply are a section of the dial showing Cities around the world in the correct place so that they will be the right number of time zones ahead of 12 noon. More sophisticated versions can move the cities on a wheel, or show them through a window. These watches are very popular with people who travel overseas. Digital watches often have a similar function, even though it can be tricky to set. Smart watches often change to the correct time automatically, and many digital and electrical watches can do this too, using signals from the GPS satellite system.

WorldTimer watches are becoming more popular and you can buy them from many different brands, at different price points. Right at the top end, Patek Philippe’s WorldTimer is very beautiful (but expensive), in the middle you could explore the Nomos World Time, or Omega Seamaster AquaTerra. If you want a WorldTimer without breaking the bank, you could explore one of the many G-Shock models that include the feature.

Omega Seamaster World-time

GMT Watches

The GMT function was invented by Rolex in the 1950s. They were asked by pilots to create a watch that could be set to always display the time at home, meaning a pilot’s home country and time-zone. The solution found was to include a third hand, which rotates once every 24 hours. The Bezel, or outer ring of the watch has a series of numbers up to 24 on it. The wearer can then read the time in the home time-zone at any time, assuming that the bezel is set to the correct place. Since pilots have to use the 24-hour clock in their work, they found this feature very useful. It is another feature that remains very common in the world of watches, even if many modern wearers are not that used to reading a 24-hour time display. Vintage examples of the Rolex GMT are now very expensive, and the modern equivalent is very difficult to find. It is one of their most popular models. If you want to learn more about the history and variations of this model, then read this article over at Hodinkee.

Many other brands produce reasonably priced models with GMT functions. Hamish, the CEO of The Watch Collectors’ Club, often wears this GMT from Christopher Ward. Notice the bright blue GMT hand, the trident-shaped seconds hand, and the bronze case. All interesting design features that make for a unique watch.

Christopher Ward C60 Trident Bronze Pro 600

Conclusion

Watches which show multiple time-zones have an interesting history, can have interesting designs, and provide a useful function. We at The Watch Collectors’ Club do not think there is a best time-zone function, or watch, as there is a huge range available and everyone has different taste and budgets. We encourage you to explore the many varieties out there, and if you need more help buying or exploring what is available, please check out some of our other blog posts, and follow us on Instagram.