5930Ĭottier’s mechanism for reading multiple time zones was not successful, but it would inspire his son, Louis – a double Patek Philippe prize winner before he’d even completed his apprenticeship – to develop his ‘heures universelles’ in 1931. The Swiss watchmaker was approached by the chief engineer of the Canadian Railway, who was fed up with the confusion caused by having to change his watch when travelling between towns and cities (in those days, many operated on their own local clock) and asked him to come up with a solution. While Louis Cottier is credited with making the first working World Time watch, it was, in fact, his father, Emmanuel, who came up with the original concept in 1885. The time difference between local time and all other cities is measured in hours only, since the minutes stay the same. At the same time, you can tell the time in all the other cities. To find out what the time is in Moscow, swap to the 24-hour dial and read the time that aligns with Moscow, which would be 1am. For example, if you are in London and it is 11pm, align ‘London’ with 11 on your watch face. To tell the time in another city, line up the watch’s hour hand with the reference city that corresponds with your local time using the rotating bezel. A rotating 24-hour inner chapter ring turns once a day, showing the time in the other cities on the dial. The hour hand automatically jumps an hour ahead or behind to the time in the reference city (in other words, your local time). A pusher, or button, on the case enables the wearer to move the chapter ring one city at a time. The watch’s hour and minute hand are coordinated with an outer chapter ring displaying the names of 24 reference cities for each time zone. How does the World Time complication work? It was invented by independent watchmaker Louis Cottier in 1931. As the name suggests, a World Time watch allows the wearer to read the time in the world’s 24 major time zones.
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