TIME TRAVEL AT A GLANCE
Smartphones can make us smart-arses. But for sheer ease, speed and, yes, looks, nothing beats a GMT watch for time
What’s the most useful function that you’ll find on a mechanical watch, besides telling the time? If you immediately thought of the chronograph, we can hardly blame you. Such is the popularity of chronographs that the very best – the Carrera, say, or perhaps the Speedmaster, or Navitimer – transcend their parent brands and have identities of their own. But in the present age, there are only so many eggs, rare steaks and school sports day races that a man can time.
Instead, a more persuasive case might be made for the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) as the most pragmatic watch complication. Born of pure necessity – Pan Am pilots wanted to have immediate, at-a-glance visibility of two time zones at once – it is so simple in both its concept and its visual execution that it stands apart from much of watchmaking in its purity of purpose. Once set, your jet-lagged brain won’t accidentally phone your CEO at 5am, whether you’ve landed in Mexico, Melbourne or Moscow.
Waxing lyrical about the efficiencies that a GMT can bring to global travel might seem like a misjudged joke in 2020, but we can only hope that the possibility of venturing across the seas once more isn’t too far away. (Are you ever going to complain about taking your shoes off at security again?) And, well, it pays to be prepared.
In the meantime – pun firmly intended – the GMT offers plenty for the stay-at-home watch buyer, too. You may appreciate the sartorial flourish of the split-colour bezel, or, as you will see from our edit of the most interesting examples on the market, the alternative ways in which adding a second time zone has invigorated the watch’s design.
From time to time, you might still find its intended function helpful, even if it’s only to remind you that, yes, this is an antisocial time to be emailing your American colleagues. Plus, if the need should arise, you can use a GMT watch with the customary additional central hour hand to locate north or south in the wild. Be sure to remember that the next time someone tells you that a mechanical watch is impractical.
Chris Hall is Mr Porter’s senior watch editor