Utmost Sought-After GMT Watches for the Pining Traveler
GMT watches make life easier for jetsetters. GMT, which stands for Greenwich Mean Time, was originally a swish airman tool born at the dawn of the spurt age — first made by Glycine and shortly later, Rolex. The complication allows the wear and tear to track an alternate time zone using a hand that ticks around a 24-hour scale. It was snappily co-opted by mid-century passengers, and has since become an essential timer for posh globetrotters.
GMT watches give aviators and trippers the capability to track where they’ve been, destinations on the horizon, and give a tether home. For those feeling the strings of wanderlust, adding a trip watch to your collection might be a good way to prepare for, say, billabong jumping from New York to London.
Of course you don’t have to hop on a daily flight to profit from a GMT. There are other reasons to nab one, according to Damian Otwinowski, vice chairman of Watches of Switzerland USA. “Some people buy it for the value of investment, the oddity, and the look further than the function itself,” Otwinowski says.
The Difference Between World Time and GMT Watches
World timekeepers are a different beast, says Otwinowski, and guests who choose one are more likely to use its functionality.
The world time complication as we know it was the concoction of Swiss watchmaker Louis Cottier, who developed a movement in the 1930s that could track the time in 24 of the world’s time zones as they related to a original time — first for fund watches, also for wrist-worn timekeepers. moment, utmost world time complications are still embedded in Cottier’s simple, elegant result.
“It’s a purpose- driven purchase,” Otwinowski says. “My first watch was world time because I was traveling like crazy, and I demanded the function. Had it been a GMT, I’d constantly have to change it, but the world time ticks on its own. Wherever I am, I do n’t have to acclimate it that much because of the capability of the complication.”
For most consumers, GMTs are easier to read and more accessible as nearly every major brand makes one, and they come at colorful price points. Not every horological player regularly makes a world time, so there are n’t as numerous options. In the end, choosing one or the other comes down to individual sensibilities, and there are a number of considerations to make since a wristwatch isn't just a tool but also an extension of a particular style.
1. Breitling Chronomat GMT 40
Green dials are particularly en vogue at the moment, but we’ll let you in on a little secret: green's always been a dateless color. The shade on this Breitling Chronomat GMT 40 is both playfully elegant and largely protean. It’s a go-anywhere, do-anything piece with not only the capability to track an alternate time zone but also water resistance up to 200m. The 40mm-range should be easy to wear on nearly any size wrist and at 11.7 mm thick, it slides painlessly under a shirt cuff. With the Breitling Chronomat GMT 40, you’ll always look put together — indeed when you ’re living out of a wallet.
2. Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Limited Edition World Time
For those who dig an antique 60s vibe, the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf World Time ticks several boxes. It’s automatic and water resistant to 200m; its cuff has quick-release legs, which makes switching it out for a rubber band a snap; and the bright-red bezel is a jazzy flourish. Without the Louis Cottier complication, this Zodiac is further of a GMT with megacity names in place of the typical numerical time zones than a traditional world timekeeper. But, the factual locales are more useful for those of us who aren’t relatively sure what time zone we’re in without looking it up.
3. Jaeger- LeCoultre Master Control Geographic
Thin and elegant, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Geographic is a perfect companion for the world rubberneck who finds themselves in further buttoned-down situations. While the traditional crown at three o’clock sets the original time, an alternate bone adjusts the reference megacity and displays the time on the lower dial at six o’clock. Away on the dial, the watch’s 70-hour power reserve is tracked on a display at the left wing, while a dial on the right houses the date.
4. Tudor Black Bay GMT
For those who love a two-tone watch, the Tudor Black Bay GMT is rather splashy in the “root beer” tinge. Plus, it represents a helluva value at its price point. Water resistant to 200 measures, the gold GMT hand clicks off the reference time against a 48- notch bidirectional rotating bezel in unheroic gold with a graduated matte brown and black anodized aluminum insert. Of course,bi-color watches are n’t for everyone, but they do stand out in a crowd.
5. MontBlanc 1858 GMT
Sporty, debonair, and good to 100m undersea, the MontBlanc 1858 GMT uses a jumping forecourt that makes its way around the dial rather than a hand ticking off the hours on the 24-hour scale. It’s a clever result and incredibly comprehendible on the wrist. On the reverse of the 42 mm case, the mainlands, abysses, and names of metropolises in 24 time zones are engraved for reference.
6. L.U.C. Time Traveler One
Whether you ’re wharf in Tokyo on the third leg of an Asian jaunt, or just shopping for regale constituents at your original shop, nothing says you’ve arrived relatively like a gold watch. The dial of theL.U. Chopard rubberneck One gets its gold- tableware tinge from a galvanic treatment, which is also satin brushed for a sunburst effect. Before putting it on, possessors can respect the world timekeeper movement’s Côtes de Genève finishing through a sapphire caseback. Remarkably the rather formal watch is water resistant to 50 measures, though you ’ll want to change out the alligator swatch for a cloth or rubber before you hit the pool.
7. Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck
Not quite a Freak, but this bone is still just plain wild. The Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck is obviously a world timekeeper — just underneath a polar view of Earth etched onto the underpart of the domed sapphire demitasse. A brace of rings tracks both the sun as we view it from Earth and the movement and stages of the lunar cycle. The complication indeed manages to depict tidal shifts. For some wrists, the 45 mm case size might feel a little on the large side, but it does hold a brace of elysian bodies after all. To bring the weight down, the contrivers constructed the case in ceramic and DLC titanium, so it does n’t feel like you ’re wearing a flying goblet.
8. Bvlgari Octo Roma World Timer
maybe a little under the radar among Bulgari’s immolations, the Roma is rounder and larger than the utmost of the timekeepers in the brand’s slim and angular Octo line. But what’s not to love then? It’s a world time complication erected into a sports watch with an intertwined cuff. The essence gets both the satin- brushed and polished treatments for discrepancy and the 41mm-wide and rough 11mm-thick case is a near Goldilocks size. Circle gets the forecourt.
9. Grand Seiko SBGJ237
Sharp as a method, this Grand Seiko GMT, like time itself, was born to fly. The blue and white bezel is covered in sapphire demitasse. It’s bright and radiant, and the numbers are carpeted with Seiko’s own Lumibrite, as are the hands, to tell time in the dark. The mechanical movement is accurate to 5-to-3 seconds per day and largely shock resistant. Grand Seiko as a brand is famed for its finishing and much of the case, hour labels, and hands are polished by largely trained technicians and applied to the lustrous cortege dial, which is a nod to the blue skies through which we soar.
10. Rolex GMT Master II
While it wasn’t the first, the Rolex GMT Master II is the archetypal GMT timer. Firstly created as the GMT Master at the decree of Pan-Am aviators in 1955, multitudinous imitators have tried to pay homage to the piece, but demand for the classic Rolex remains off the maps. Over time, the venerable Swiss maker has upgraded the GMT. Its automatic movement now features a 70-hour power reserve, an independent hour hand, and a sublime 24-hour Cerachrom bezel. It’s easy to use, whether you’re clocking your own trip or just setting up a drone meeting with associates in the London office.
11. Omega Aqua Terra 150 Worldtimer
Want to wear the world on your wrist? The stunning relief of the globe in the center of Omega’s Aqua Terra Worldimer is created using a ray to decimate a titanium slice. A 24-hour ring leverages the border, allowing the wear and tear to track the time in reference metropolises around the globe. A 43 mm case houses automatic movement and a 60-hour power reserve, while a silicon hairspring defends the watch from glamorous fields up to,000 gauss, which is way further than you’re ever likely to come through. The watch is also water resistant to 150m — so it’s perfect for peregrination that takes you to sand or just a hostel pool.
12. IWC Pilot’s Watch Worldtimer Chronograph
The complication in IWC’s Worldtimer is as ingenious as it's intuitive. Push down and turn the bezel to change the time zone you’re in and, therefore, the original time. The 24-hour reference hand moves automatically — as will the date if you cross the transnational date line. Inside the hefty 46 mm package, you get a 68- hour power reserve and flyback sundial. The watch is also constructed to survive rapid-fire depressurization, though we unfeignedly hope you’ll noway need that point.
13. Hublot Big Bang Unico GMT
Hublot creates some of the most delightful, contemporary watch designs around. The Big Bang Unico GMT is no exception. A 45 mm satin-finished titanium case ensconces an automatic movement with a 72-hour power reserve, all of which is water resistant to 100m. The shell dial lets the wear and tear aspect upon the quality from over, and a blue-and-white wheel indicates day to night for the GMT reference time in case spurt pause gets the better of you.
14. Patek Philippe Complications Watch (5930G)
Still, we’d guess you’re someone who enjoys flying private, If you manage to land one of these. The Patek Philippe Complications 5930G features both world time and flyback sundial functions. The elegant 39 mm white gold case protects an automatic movement and a dial hand adorned with an indirect guilloché pattern. The blue face is a shade so deep and textured, you could find yourself lost in it but wherever you are, you ’ll know the time.
15. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon
This modern watch subtly echoes the original Gérald Genta Royal Oak, a 1970s masterpiece. The incompletely skeletonized dial prominently displays the GMT complication on a fragment at 3 o’clock. There’s a crown position index at 6 o’clock, and the flying gulf which helps offset the goods of graveness on the hand- crack movement is visible at 9 o’clock. The 44 mm case is made of sandblasted titanium and water resistant to 100m. While it may look like this watch can see the future, it sorely only tells time.
