Hi there,

I cant manage wrapping my brain around GMT watches and how they handle 2nd time zones ...

A practical example:

Lets say I live in USA-EST (NY - gmt-5) - and I travel for business to Europe where I work 1 day in London (gmt), 2 in Paris (gmt+1) and another 3 days in London (gmt).

So, since I have all kinds of meetings, I of course want to have my local Europe time on the main hands (where I can see it at first glance) and leave NY time on the thin GMT hand (I don't need to know the NY-time all the time - just before 1 or 2 phone calls a day).

So IIRC, both the Rolex, Omega and ETA 2893 allow for the GMT hand to be quick-adjusted (hour-jump).

and here comes my problem ... I dont want to adjust the time in NY (that does not change when I travel from London to Paris) ... I want to quick-set the main hour hand (between London and Paris time). I can of course do this manually, but that also hacks the movement and I might lose or gain a minute by not doing it correctly. So If I'd (customer) chose to quick-set an hour hand it should be the MAIN hand and not the GMT hand. Yet the watch industry allows me only to quick-set my home time. OR AM I WRONG HERE????

I could of course put my local (London and Paris) time on the GMT hand, but then I'd look all week at a watch that shows me on the main-dial the wrong time ...


or am I a case of:



?????

thoughts from the travel crowd here at OF????

cheers, Al

 

No, the ETA works like that, but the Rolex and Omega do what you want and have an independent main hour hand.

 

I have the Rolex Explorer II and use it all the time (I live in Canada, just returned from trip to two time zones in Europe). I always leave the GMT hand on my home timezone (EST) and then use the quick set feature to change the hour hand to the local timezone without touching the home time via GMT hand)



In this picture, I was sat in a meeting in Munich Germany CET) and it was 9:35am while in my home timezone it is 6 hours behind so the GMT hand is showing 3:35am. The day prior I was in Bucharest Romania where the time was 1 hour ahead of Munich. I was able to adjust the quickset hour hand by one click quickly and easily on the flight to MUC without affecting the GMT hand.

The only time I don't change is between 10pm and 2 am as it may negatively impact the date change (no issue as it still leaves me 20 hours a day to make the adjustment.

 

Thx both... I am happy to be wrong... and Thx for setting me straight!

(off goes my eta 2893 based gmt watch to the auction block)

 

Or you could try something different. I use a Glycine Airman (either the original Airman 36mm, SST 40mm or 1953 Vintage L.E. 42mm) 24 hour dial and bezel, home time on the main hands and click the bezel round for different time zones. No adjusting of hands.

 

With the gmt master all you have to do is move the bezel, that way you don't even need to do as much as unscrew the crown, that was the way the old gmt master 1 worked, with the explorer 2 that doesn't have a rotating bezel that's a different story. All the best.

Sent from my HTC Desire EYE using Tapatalk

 

Or wear two watches. The Rolex GMT Master II would do what you want. I use mine whenever we travel internationally.

 

For me, I prefer to set the time with the crown (very simple, quick and easy) and that way 24:00 is always at the top and 12:00 at the bottom. For me this is important as I like glancing down occasionally during meetings and always having standard reference points on the dial and bezel. Not a big deal, just my own personal preference.

I also like the somewhat understated silver bezel of the Explorer II rather than the big ceramic bezel if later model GMT Master II's. Again not a big deal, just personal preference.