THE JOURNAL
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Five World Time Watches For The Distinguished Traveller
Words by Mr Chris Hall
18 July 2022
What’s the time in Bangkok right now? Not sure? How about Cairo? How many hours’ difference is there between Samoa and Mexico City? Admit it, you don’t know. And Google is cheating. Try that when you’re out of signal, halfway round the world and keeping tabs on life at home, or a loved one’s travels. You’ll wish you had a stylish mechanical contrivance on your wrist ready to offer up the answer at a glance. World time watches do exactly that, with a panache that Siri just can’t match. We’ve rounded up five of the best for the distinguished traveller.
01.
Frederique Constant Worldtimer Manufacture
Value for money is front-of-mind at Frederique Constant: very much the “first-class experience on a premium-economy budget” of world time watches. The relief map strikes exactly the right jet-age tone, while the applied luminous hour markers add functionality.
02.
Chopard LUC Time Traveler One
You’re travelling the world, but want to track time zones without breaking cover as a ninja assassin/lord of the underworld/extreme fashionista? Then Chopard’s all-black take on its perfectly-named Time Traveler One is the world timer for you.
03.
IWC Schaffhausen Pilot’s Timezoner Le Petit Prince Limited Edition
The Timezoner has a party trick that no other world time watch can emulate (mostly because it’s patented): you can adjust your time zone by turning the ceramic bezel, which is mechanically connected to the movement. It’s a supremely nifty idea that makes child’s play of a sometimes fairly complex function.
04.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Geographic
What do we have here? That rare thing, a watch that’s completely its own thing. The Master Geographic, as the name implies, is a true world timer, but with an unconventional “smile” aperture from five to eight o’clock. But given equal top billing are the asymmetric date and power reserve displays, for a watch with cult appeal.
05.
Breitling Navitimer 8 B35 Unitime
Somewhat unusually for Breitling, this world timer isn’t also a chronograph (as you’d get from the older Transocean – another classy name). That gives more space to appreciate what is always a pretty dense dial design; the Unitime packs in a day/night ring, large luminous hour markers and a full city ring, complete with daylight savings time indicators.
