Presented by
We love watches as much as most of you reading this. But we’ll be the first to admit that not every watch’s function is as important as its form or the impressive mechanics inside of it. On the other hand, you have something like the GMT which has grown with our society’s capability to travel.
While dual-time functions existed during the pocket watch era in the 19th century, they were only really used by military personnel and frequent train travelers. Tracking two or three time zones became crucial with the advent of Jet Age in the ‘50s, propelling watchmakers to come out with timepieces that featured a dedicated 24-hour hand (and accompanying bezel) in addition to the standard timekeeping setup. Glycine’s Airman was the first to do so in 1953, while Rolex — in partnership with Pan Am — put a spin on the GMT with their now-iconic GMT-Master, featuring a two-tone bezel for quickly identifying day and night.
Despite all the technology we have in our pockets these days, the need for a quick-glance tool on our wrist that can tell us two or three different time zones at once is still quite handy. In this guide, we’ll dig deeper into the world of GMT watches and tell you how to use them.
Article Overview
What Is A GMT
And Why You Need One
Creating a global reference point for time zones, the Greenwich Mean Time was established at the 1884 International Meridian Conference, figuring Greenwich, England as the base, or “zero” point. The GMT watch takes its name from this distinction, allowing the wearer to keep track of two, three, or even more time zones right from your wrist. These are incredibly useful for frequent travelers, office workers in certain markets, and even those living close to a time zone boundary. If you’re in a long-distance relationship with somebody in Japan, it can be nice to know what time it is there. It’s also been observed that keeping track of your home time when going on vacation can help combat jet lag as well.
How Does A GMT Work?
The Ins And Outs
Understanding what a GMT does is simple enough, but knowing how it works is a different story. Like your standard three-hand watch, a GMT tells you the time, but brings you an awareness of where you are in comparison to others around the world.
Your central handset (hour, minute, and second hands) will work on a 12-hour scale, giving you the time it is in your current time zone. But your fourth hand will tell you the time in a different time zone of your choice — be that your home time when traveling or the time of a different country you frequently do business with. This fourth GMT hand will rotate once every 24 hours, associating with some sort of 24-hour scale. This can be a separate track around the outer or inner ring of your dial, or it can be on the bezel.
Some watches have both a 24-hour dial scale and a rotating 24-hour bezel so you can track a third time zone. You just offset the bezel by the amount of hours different from your GMT hand for easy indication of that time. This three-time GMT was invented by Rolex in the ‘80s with the GMT-Master II.
Types Of GMT Watches
Traveler Vs. Office Style
Available with either mechanical or quartz movements, GMT watches seem pretty self-explanatory, but there are actually a couple of different types of GMTs. And which one you need will be determined by when and why you’re using it.
True/Traveler GMT: Like the name suggests, a traveler (or true) GMT watch is for those venturing outside of their time zone. You keep the 24-hand permanently set on your home time, while the watch’s main hour hand is able to be set independently (with the crown) as you change time zones. If you’re venturing across several different time zones, you can change your current time without disrupting the hand that’s reading the time back home.
Office/Caller GMT: Unlike a traveler GMT, an office GMT is to keep track of other time zones while keeping your home time the same. For these, your 24-hour hand will be the one getting adjusted. This happens independently of your home time, which will be uninterrupted. Like the name implies, these are better for those who work with companies or individuals in other parts of the world. You don’t want to find yourself waking up a customer at 2 AM.
It should also be noted that a GMT is different from a dual-time watch, which simply has a subdial that depicts a second time zone. Likewise, GMTs can also be found in other categories as well, such as dive watches and chronographs.
Meet The Victorinox Air Pro GMT Automatic
A Solid Sub-$2,000 Pick: With a product category that’s been going strong for over 70 years, there are lots of GMT options available right now. But when it comes to combining durability, thoughtful design, and dominating wrist presence, the Victorinox Air Pro GMT Automatic has our attention — and for just under $2,000.
Upgrading its Airboss with a more premium Sellita SW330-2 automatic movement with 56 hours of power reserve, the Air Pro is a caller-style GMT housed in a 43mm 316L stainless steel case available in sand-blasted, brushed, or polished finishes. The timepiece features two crowns: one for setting the GMT hand and one for turning the interior 24-hour bezel for tracking a third time zone. This bezel is designed to resist accidental rotation to preserve the desired time zone being tracked. Perfect for working in an office, there’s also a worldtimer track on the outer ring of the dial that has the names of 24 cities around the globe.
Boasting 200m of water resistance and anti-shock protection, the Air Pro is built for endurance and is a solid companion for any activity, with a rotating 60-minute timing bezel equipped. There’s also generous green-glowing Super-LumiNova® on the hour markers and oversized hands for exceptional legibility both underwater and at night. The matte black or blue dial is covered with an anti-reflective sapphire crystal to even further enhance readability. At the bottom of the dial, there’s an open-style date window that shows the current date in the middle and both today and tomorrow’s dates on either side.
Lastly, the Air Pro comes with a thinner, more ergonomic steel bracelet that’s specific to this collection. Blending modern comfort and sensibilities with an aesthetic of vintage pilot watches, the band is designed to embrace the shape of your wrist. And if you want a different strap instead, you can swap it out tool-free.
Starting at $1,700, the Air Pro GMT Automatic is available now from Victorinox’s website.
