When you know where to look, you don’t have to compromise your style. You can stay comfortable during your travels and still wear flattering clothes for leisure or business.
When the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington D.C. in 1884, the world of complex watchmaking was forever revolutionized. The international summit established the world’s 24 time zones and set new standards for all future watchmaking instruction. Decades later, the dawn of the jet age brought about the glorious days of the traveler’s watch.
The possibility of crossing six or seven time zones in mere hours brought its drawbacks: jetlag. That was when Pan Am approached Rolex to develop a watch for its long-haul pilots. The iconic dual time zone watch with rotating red and blue bezel became the first so-called “GMT watch”. From then on, the race was on among watchmakers to create better, more sophisticated timepieces for travelers.
The most complicated travel watches available today are the world timers. These watches feature an outer ring of cities – one per time zone – that is rotated using a separate crown. As the city ring is rotated, another ring with corresponding hour indications instantly displays the time in all of the cities on the outer ring. This enables you to not only know, for instance, the time in Tokyo and New York, but also Auckland and Geneva.
Since the advent of the traveler’s watch, we’ve seen a wide variety of variations – for aviators, divers, and businesspersons – but all of these uphold their raisons d’être: keeping track of world time at-a-glance. Here are a couple of the best world-time watches available.
Cross-Hemispheres Time-telling
Notice how “hemispheres” is in plural form. This Montblanc Timewalker UTC Hemispheres consists of two watches sold separately, one for the Northern Hemisphere (pictured) and Southern Hemisphere depending on your preference or where you travel the most. The 24 major cities are cleverly displayed around the dial lined up with a view of the Earth as if we’re looking down from one of the Poles. As world time rotates, day and night are indicated by corresponding lighter or darker shading of the dials. This particular world-time watch presents class and sophistication that no time-telling app or electronic device can replicate.
Bauhaus Aesthetics
Based in the historical German watchmaking city of Glashütte, Nomos designs and manufactures all of its own movements following the practical philosophies of minimalism and functionality. As such, the pictured Zurich Weltzeit by Nomos is probably one of the easiest world timers to use. Home time, or “Heimat” in Deutsch, is pointed to by a red arrow at 3 o’clock, while a ring of major cities around the dial’s perimeter is set by clicking the pusher on the side of the case. When the desired city is aligned with the arrow at 12 o’clock, its local time is indicated by the hands on the main dial.
