How many would you like? Two, three, four, 12, 24? Or perhaps the total number of time zones on Earth, namely 38? All these possibilities are provided by the broad spectrum of watches that keep track of time in several places at once. They range from the simplest to the most complicated, sometimes bordering on illegibility, and often combining various complications.
A few time zones
It is often called GMT, a convenient and conventional name. The dual-time display is fairly widespread and achieved by a simple combination of gear trains. It is ideally displayed in 24-hour model, as in the new Grande Seconde Dual Time from Jaquet Droz. And it can easily be multiplied via a rotating graduated bezel, or even two like those featured on the Patravi TravelTec by Carl F. Bucherer, which thereby displays three time zones. Achieving a higher number implies either housing more than one movement within a single case, resulting in a diameter broader than that of a cell phone, or stepping up a notch in terms of complexity.
World time
The Escale time Zone by Louis Vuitton enables a simultaneous display of the time anywhere on the planet. A ring bearing the hours surrounds the hands, while a second concentric ring shows the names of cities serving as references for each of the time zones. One can read off the time around around the world by aligning a given time and place. World time is one of the hottest complications in 2016. Richard Mille has launched its RM 63-02, doubtless the sportiest model of them all.
Like the Pilot Timezoner Chronograph by IWC, it enables the user to synchronise time in a remote location and the associated city by using its bezel, which serves as both a pushbutton and a display. Bovet offers a 3D interpretation of world time on globes framed by the large case of the Recital 18 Shooting Star.
Patek Philippe, which is a historical specialist of this function, has combined it with a chronograph to create one of the most on-trend watches the brand has ever produced, its 5960G reference. Breguet has updated it its Hora Mundi. This pared-down version features one of the smartest and most useful functional variations of its kind. The wearer can at any time decide to swap the central display of local time and that of distant time at a press on the dedicated pusher. This is a logical possibility, since people often choose to keep track of only one other time zone, with which they cultivate professional or personal ties, and to which they sometimes travel.
Perfect option
Almost 80 countries alternate between “summer time” or Daylight Saving Time (DST) and winter time. Their time difference thereby fluctuates and can be hard to follow. This means almost all worldtime watches are in fact wrong six months per year. Only a handful of models incorporate a solution to this issue, including the Glashütte Original Senator Cosmopolite which displays the distant time for a single city in two windows: one for summer time, and the other for summer time. The world is complex, as indeed is time, and no other field of watchmaking more accurately showcases this complexity.
