DeBethune DB25 World Traveller
The DeBethune DB25 World Traveller is no like no World Timer you’ve seen before. For starters, world time zones featuring the cities appear on a disc in the center of the dial. Around this dial is a graduated channel in which a moving ball indicates the home time. This ball, attached to a hidden arm, is two toned – one half is bright blue and indicates night and the other is pink gold to denote day. They reverse positions when they pass 6a.m. and 6p.m. Two blued-steel hands on the hour circle display the local time and a clever little pointer on the outermost circle of the dial indicates the date. Watch the video here.
Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller Boréal
The pebble-shaped Galet Traveller Boréal stands out from the other dual time watches because of its simplicity and sophistication. A dual-time indicator window at 9 o’ clock and the date window at 3 bringing a sense of balance to this sector-style dial. Two oblong push button placed in the case middle at 8 and 10 o’ clock are used to change local time indication. As a traveler moves across time zones, he only has to push the top button to move the hours forward the bottom one to move it backwards in one-hour increments. For example, on a flight from Dubai to New York, a traveler would only need to push the lower button eight times (New York is 8 hours behind Dubai) to ensure that the watch is set to the exact local time upon landing.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Universal Time
The Geophysic Universal Time was introduced in 2015 and features a striking map of the world on the dial. Encased in a 41.6 mm steel (or rose gold) case, the map on the dial features subtle shades of blue lacquer to depict the seas while the engraved continents have a beautiful sunburst finish. The city disc is fixed so users get used to seeing London at 6 o’ clock and Hong Kong at 2 o’ clock. Time is adjusted via the crown, there are no push-buttons as is the norm in most world-timers. Once the world time has been set, a traveler only needs to adjust the local time moving the hour hand forwards or backwards, independently of the minutes and seconds, as to avoid any loss of precision. This timepiece uses a dead-beat seconds complication.
Montblanc Orbis Terrarum
Montblanc’s new world timer has a dial with a planisphere like construction. The most striking feature of this watch is its multilayer sapphire crystal dial that shows the continents as viewed from the North Pole. Under the continent cut-outs, a disc showing day and night as well as the 24 hours time zones rotates with the movement mechanism. So the continents change colour as day moves into night. It might be a busy dial, but setting the home time on this watch is easy. Using the pusher at 8 o’clock, move the city ring till your time zone is at 6 o’clock. Pull out the crown and set the hour and minutes hands accurately for that time zone. The remaining 23 time zones around the dial follow suit. By pressing the pusher at 8 o’clock, the local time (via the red arrow) can be shifted in one-hour increments; the cities, as well as the earth display at the center, will move with it. This has been a best seller for Montblanc and the brand even updated the model in 2016.
Vacheron Constantin Overseas World Time
The dial of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas World Time displays 37 time zones, including those that are off-set by a half-hour or quarter-hour. The display comprises three parts, the center features a Lambert projection map that depicting the continents (sunburst finish) and the oceans (in a velvet finish), along with a translucent lacquered disc bearing the city names. A third sapphire disc laid over the map provides day/night indications by means of subtly graded smoky tints, synchronised with the 24-hour disc. A translucent lacquered velvet-finished outer ring serves to indicate the hours and minutes. All the indications are easily adjusted via the crown.
Glashütte Original Senator Cosmpolite
The Glashütte Original Senator Cosmpolite not only allows you to track time in two different cities, it lets you do so over 37 world time zones including the half-hour time zones like India and Venezuela. Despite a busy dial, it is still an elegant looking watch that’s easy to read. A black railroad chapter ring frames black Roman numerals on the main dial (or the destination time) dial. The home time dial has Arabic numerals and is at 12 and the small seconds dial at 6 o’clock. A starry night sky on the lower half and a yellow sun on the upper is visible at 9 o’ clock on the main dial indicating day or night at the destination. If a traveler is heading east, he turns the crown at 4 o’clock clockwise until the IATA code representing the destination time zone appears in the relevant DST or STD window. If travelling west, he turns the crown counter-clockwise. In both cases, the central hour and minute hands jump ahead (or back) in 15-minute intervals until the destination time zone’s IATA code appears in the relevant DST or STD window. The main dial now displays the current time at the destination, also viewable is day/night indication (at 9 o’clock) and the date.
