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World Timer Watches

The world timer is the perfect watch for the global citizen. Pioneered in the 1930s by Louis Cottier while collaborating with Patek Philippe, it’s a useful complication for those who travel widely, providing the time in all the world’s major countries, often at the push of a button.

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World Timer Watches

The History of World Timer Watches

By the 1930s, commercial passenger flights were common and visiting overseas countries suddenly entailed travelling times of hours, rather than days or weeks.

For the global traveller, now able to visit multiple cities in one day, a watch that provided the correct local time quickly and easily—whether you were in London or Lisbon—made perfect sense.

The modern world time wristwatch was all but defined by Patek Philippe, who enlisted the watchmaker Louis Cottier to come up with this useful and innovative function. Cottier, whose father was also a watchmaker who dabbled in world timers, devised a complication that was able to display the time in each of the 24 time zones established by the 1884 International Meridian Conference.

Patek Philippe released its first world timers in the late 1930s and these mostly came in round cases. Slightly later references like the 2523 even came with colourful cloisonne enamel dials, which depicted regions of the world as a decorative bonus. Asian customers could have a version featuring a map of Asia, while Europeans could buy a version where their continent took centre stage, and so on.

These versions with cloisonne dials—where thin bands of gold are soldered onto a metal base to create different compartments holding different coloured enamel—were produced in small batches and now fetch staggering sums at auction.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, no other watch brand devoted as much time and effort into developing the world timer complication as Patek Philippe, although a few rare models by rivals Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin occasionally come up at auction.

The late 1940s saw fellow Swiss brand Tissot release their first Navigator world timer watch, but most watch brands eschewed this complication, even Rolex, whose famous GMT-Master was a dual-timer, covering two time zones—therefore not a world-timer.

With the multi-functional digital watches of the quartz revolution rendering the mechanical world timer all but redundant, it meant this complication simply wasn’t on the radar of most brands throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and that included Patek Philippe.

Not until the 1990s, with the resurgence of luxury mechanical watches, did brands rediscover this wonderful complication. Among the first of a new generation of world timers were Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Geographique and Vacheron Constantin’s Phidias World Timer, the latter based on the principles of Louis Cottier’s system (Cottier actually worked with Vacheron Constantin, as well as Patek Philippe).

These days, of course, mechanical world timers are offered by dozens of brands, from the affordable to the very high end, and they come in a variety of designs (see some contemporary examples below).

They are also a firm favourite of collectors, with vintage models serving as fascinating geopolitical time capsules. You’ll find that some cities referenced on world time watches of the past have fallen out of favour, while new cities have emerged.

In 2016, for example, watch lovers from the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh might have been nonplussed to find its name missing on the dial of a Patek Philippe reference 5230, with Dubai, in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, taking its place.

Some dials of the oldest world timers even feature long defunct city names, such as Peking and Bombay. These, of course, would now be replaced with their modern-day names of Beijing and Mumbai, respectively.

How they work

How a world timer works and displays the time depends on the individual watch, but Louis Cottier’s examples for Patek Philippe feature a concentric dial with the centre displaying the hour and minute hands.

This is surrounded by a 24-hour chapter ring that runs anti-clockwise and aligns with one of the 31 cities on the bezel (or the periphery of the dial, depending on the model) representing the different time zones. If, for example, it is 10pm in New York, the 22 aligns with New York on the bezel, if it’s 6am in Cairo it will align with 6 on the bezel.

To choose which city you want to know the time for, a pusher on the left side of the case is pressed to rotate a disc until the city of your choice appears at 12 o’clock.

Popular world timer models

Patek Philippe World Time reference, 5230G-014

Beautifully understated in white gold and with stunning guilloche work at the centre of the dial, this World Time model is a modern descendant of Louis Cottier’s early models for Patek Philippe. A pusher at 10 o’clock activates the inner bezel to nudge along the cities on the periphery of the dial until you align your current location with the 12 o’clock position. The exhibition caseback displays the Calibre 240HU with gold microrotor.

Vacheron Constantin Traditionelle World Time, reference 86060

Vacheron Constantin’s Traditionelle World Time is highly unusual in that its time zones cover the regular 24 zones found on standard world timers, plus the “13 special cases”—those time zones such as Venezuela or Iran where the time difference includes a slightly irksome extra half hour. The time-setting and adjustment of the city wheel are also controlled by a single crown at 3 o’clock. It’s also a thing of beauty, with a prominent blue map at the centre of the dial.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Geographique, reference : 169.1.92

As mentioned above, this was one of the first mechanical world time watches to be launched post-Quartz Crisis. It featured a long aperture above 12 o’clock—similar to that found on a Rolex Day-Date— that allowed the wearer to select their city of choice. This was done by turning the crown at the 10 o’clock position. The time for this city was displayed in a subdial at 6 o’clock, which sat next to a small AM/PM indicator. Local time was shown on the main dial. It also featured a fan-form power reserve display and a date subdial.

Greubel Forsey GMT

Limited to 188 pieces, this asymmetric platinum-cased watch from Greubel Forsey is known for its large rotating 3D globe on the left side of the dial. An additional 12-hour subdial alongside the standard time gives the impression it’s merely a GMT watch, but a world time disc with 24 time zones can be seen through the exhibition case back, complete with an inner ring to show the additional hour difference in those countries that operate Daylight Saving Time. Adding to its appeal—and price—is an open-work tourbillon in the aperture at 5 o’clock.

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