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In 1931 the Swiss horologist Louis Cottier filed a patent for a wristwatch mechanism that would enable the wearer to see the time in cities across the world’s 24 time zones simultaneously. So was born what is known as the “world time” complication. Cottier went on to supply to brands from Patek Philippe to Rolex and Vacheron Constantin – and the skill has become a hotly contested area for watchmakers to showcase their mechanical wizardry.
This year’s crop is as diverse in looks as it is in mechanical takes on the complication. Hermès’s Arceau le Temps Voyageur has a moveable moon-like subdial that hovers above Jérôme Colliard’s imaginary map of an equestrian world; Jaeger-LeCoutre’s Reverso Tribute Geographic secretes the world timer dial on the back of the case; Montblanc’s 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen Monte Rosa features two rotating subdials showing North and South Poles, has a compass on the bezel so you’ll never get lost and zero oxygen inside so it won’t fog up halfway up the mountain.
Omega has put a world timer inside a Seamaster Planet Ocean dive watch for the first time. Vacheron Constantin made it one of 41 complications in its latest mega Les Cabinotiers piece, the most complicated wristwatch ever made. And Bovet has finally addressed the big elephant in the room when it comes to world timers – they can’t deal with the vagaries of daylight saving time so are actually almost always inaccurate somewhere in the world – with a fiendish system of rotating rollers.
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