Originally, GMT watches were designed for pilots and frequent travellers. Nowadays, they can be enjoyed by anyone. If you would like to know more about the function of a GMT watch and the benefits of owning one, you’re in the right place.
In this post
What does GMT mean on watches?
Greenwich Mean Time
GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time and is point “0” on the 24-hour international timezone scale. To put it simply, a GMT watch is a timepiece that displays both a 24-hour and a 12-hour timescale. To find out what they look like, then check out our collection of luxury Fileteado GMT watches at Franck Dubarry.
What makes a watch a pilot watch?
Characteristics of a Pilot Watch
Large and highly legible open dial with prominent, high-contrast hands, Arabic numerals, and indexes. Flight computer bezel markings to assist with fuel burn, wind correction angle, and other calculations. Dual time or GMT functions to track local time, destination time, and UTC.
What does a Rolex GMT do?
A GMT watch will feature a 24-hour scale, referencing the 24-hours in a day and completes just one rotation per day. A second timezone watch, often confused for a GMT, will feature a normal 12-hour scale and thus complete 2 rotations. The 24-hour scale also makes it easy to remember day versus night hours.
Why do people like GMT watches?
The GMT Watch
It makes one rotation of the dial every 24 hours, allowing the wearer to not only track another time zone but also determine if it is daytime or night. Most people set up their GMT watch so that the “normal” 12-hour hand displays local time, and the 24-hour hand displays that of another location.
How do you wear a GMT watch?
If you’re in the Northern hemisphere and if your GMT hand is set to local time, you can use your watch as a compass. Lay your watch flat and point the hour hand toward the sun. At this position, the GMT hand will be pointing North.
Why is it called Pilot watch?
A pilot’s watch is a watch type which is specially tailored to the needs of aircraft pilots. As first pilot’s watch the Santos by Cartier is considered (see link to the story).
What does a pilot watch look like?
There are a few specific characteristics that make a watch a dress watch. Large and Legible Dial A Pilot needs to be able to quickly and easily tell time in both good and bad weather and for day or night flights. So, many pilots watches have large, dark dials with contrasting numbers or indices.
Military.com has learned that the Navy plans to equip every pilot who flies an F/A-18 Hornet or E/A-18G Growler a Garmin Fenix 3 watch, a sleek wrist-wearable device that retails for around $450.
Can you dive with a Rolex GMT?
Aesthetics And Design Of The Submariner and GMT-Master II
One notable feature is its dial – with a Chromalight display of luminescent hour and minute hands and prominent hour markers – which improves the visibility of the watch in the dark, making it essential for deep sea diving.
Why do GMT watches have a rotating bezel?
The earliest GMT watches were simple beasts: the 24-hour hand was anchored to the hour hand so that as you adjusted your local time, the GMT hand moved in tandem, thus tracking the local time as well, but on a 24-hour scale. To set a second time zone, it was thus necessary to turn the bezel.
Why does the GMT have 4 hands?
The MARQ Commander was designed with the military in mind. For this reason, the default watch face will have a fourth hand. The fourth hand points to the UTC hour, allowing for timed coordination over multiple time zones. The hand will travel around the face of the watch once every 24 hours.
What is the red hand on a GMT watch?
This red pointer on the GMT watch face has also been a confusing element for the uninitiated. This has been put in place to show the time relevant for the outer 24-hour dial for the secondary location that you have chosen. It tells you the time based on a 24-hour clock.
What is a GMT Master?
Designed to show the time in two different time zones simultaneously, the GMT-Master, launched in 1955, was originally developed as a navigation instrument for professionals criss-crossing the globe. Heir to the original model, the GMT-Master II was unveiled in 1982, with a new movement ensuring ease of use.
How does a GMT watch face work?
GMT. This watch face has two dials: a 12-hour inner dial that displays local time, and a 24-hour outer dial that lets you track a second time zone.
What was the first GMT watch?
The first GMT-Master model was the ref. 6542 (gold version pictured below), which was essentially a regular Rolex Turn-O-Graph ref. 6202 with a different bezel and additional 24-hour hand. It was produced from 1954-1959, and was pressure proof up to 50 meters (165 feet).
What is a flyer GMT?
The “It Looks Like A World-Timer But It’s A Two-Time-Zone Watch” Wristwatch. These are kind of a variation on the so-called “flyer” GMT watches. Essentially, they’re two-time-zone watches, but with the addition of a city ring which resembles the city ring found on true world-time wristwatches.
What are the colors on a GMT watch?
Usually, a GMT watch also has the bezel handily divided into two parts. The bezel of a GMT watch is a bi-colored one. Generally, a black and blue combination or black and red works for the compartmentalization of the bezel. One part has the time zone for the night hours, and the other part indicates the day hours.
Do pilots use pilot watches?
Modern-day pilots do not exclusively wear pilot’s watches. Pilots are, aside from incredibly important pillars of any society that embraces air travel, humans. They are people. They wear whatever the heck they please.
Why do pilots wear two watches?
According to The Travel, two watches allow flight crew to “pinpoint the exact period when something unthinkable happens in order to report to officials later”. Emergency situations must always be reported back after landing, with paperwork and reports to investigate the incident.
Why are pilot watches anti magnetic?
Soft Iron cage
With the advent of anti-magnetic materials, modern pilot’s watches are less and less equipped with such heavy, space-consuming cages. Their movement components, crafted in silicium or amagnetic alloys, are inherently protected against magnetic fields.