In the digital age where your smartphone can conjure up any time zone, watchmakers are pulling their weight to create watches that still serve a purpose and do so in style.
Few watch complications live up to their name more than the multiple time-zone complication. Not only are they complex to make, for a novice they may even be complex to use, and in many cases complex to look at.
But with the world growing smaller, and the average man travelling farther and more often, world time watches are fast becoming the most useful and trendy timepiece amongst the world’s biggest watchmakers.
With each new iteration, the maisons are pushing the limits of how a watch keeps time, while making it simpler for the wearer to tell time too; and in the digital age where your smartphone can conjure up any time zone (cue Siri) the watchmakers are pulling their weight to create watches that still serve a purpose and do so in style. Here are 5 of them:
Chopard L.U.C
The Time Traveller One is inspired by the earth’s rotation. The inner most circle indicates the date, while the circle around it shows the hours and minutes of the local time zone. The next circle, displays a 24-hour ring that coordinates with outermost ring of 24 cities. Once synchronised with the local time zone, the hurried traveller can read the time at any of said cities with the same hands.
Bulgari
Cleaner than most world time watches, the Hora Domvs, displays 2 time zones while keeping track of all 24. Behind the understated dial is a complex movement that easily moves one of its hour hands through time zones with a simple push of the button at 4 o’clock. The watch also has a day/night indicator for home time and an AM/PM indicator for local time.
Glashütte Original
The Senator Cosmopolite from the German watchmaker Gashütte is a clean and utilitarian piece. The automatic watch tells time across 37 time zones – accounting for half-hour and 45 minute differences – without crowding out the dial. It also accounts for daylight savings time, and displays a day/night indicator. The watch is available exclusively at Cortina Watch.
Vacheron Constantin
Like the previous watch, the Overseas World Time also tells the time in 37 zones, testament to the new direction watchmakers are heading in. All the bells and whistles in this complication are controlled by the single crown; requiring just a few simple turns for the watch to reconfigure and display the time in your current city. The map on the dial is a stylish if not obvious touch.
IWC Schaffhausen
Built less for a frequent-flyer and more for a pilot, the Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Chronograph is a two in one complication that is perhaps the simplest world time watch to use. Switching between time zones of the 24 cities displayed is done with a simple turn of the rotating bezel - the hour hand moves to display the time at whichever city you stop, while still tracking the local time.
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