Complications Explained: The GMT

The GMT complication is a watch with a 24 hour format and second hour hand that indicates a second time zone. This function allows the user to know the time in a second time zone.

The GMT complication can be traced back to Egyptian times when they created the 24 hours of a day. Fast forward to 1675 when English sailors created the Greenwich Mean Time which allowed them to know what time it was back home. When Sandford Fleming created the time zones in the late 1800’s, GMT was one of them.

But, the actual watch complication came about when intercontinental air travel became more popular. Following the first intercontinental flight from England to South Africa, Pan Am, an extremely large aviation company, approached one of the dominant tool watch companies, Rolex, to create a watch with a second time zone. Taking on the challenge, Rolex created the GMT-Master in 1954.

The bezel of the watch features 24 hours and one can move the bezel to set the second hour hand to the desired time zone.

John Mayer has referred to this complication as one of the most useful complications and with the amount of global travel that takes place, it probably is.

Enjoy!