Saudi Luxury / Watch basics
GMT watches: caller or traveller, and which one you need
Learn how caller and traveller GMT watches handle a time-zone change, and decide which type suits how often you fly.
Every GMT watch shows a second time zone with a hand that goes round once in 24 hours. The two types differ in which hand you can move on its own. A traveller GMT lets you jump the local hour hand when you land; a caller GMT lets you jump the 24-hour hand to follow a place you are not in. Listings and forums also call a traveller a “true” or “flyer” GMT, and a caller an “office” GMT.
Traveller: for people who fly
On a traveller, the main hour hand moves in one-hour steps without disturbing the minutes or stopping the watch. You leave the 24-hour hand on home time and reset local time after landing. The Rolex GMT-Master II works this way, including the GMT-Master II 126710GRNR with calibre 3285, and its date follows the hour hand.
Caller: for people who stay put
On a caller, the 24-hour hand jumps on its own while the main hour hand stays tied to the minutes. That suits someone based in one place who follows the time where a colleague or relative lives. The cost comes when you travel: changing local time means turning all the hands together, and often resetting the date too. Many affordable mechanical GMTs are callers, so if you are considering one such as the Seiko 5 Sports SSK035K1, check which hand jumps.
Reading and setting the 24-hour hand
The 24-hour hand points to a 24-hour scale on the bezel or dial, so 15 means 3 pm and 3 means 3 am. That is what tells day from night in the other zone, which a 12-hour dial cannot. On a two-colour bezel, one half usually marks the daylight hours.
When you set it, look at the 24-hour scale, not the main dial: a hand set to 3 instead of 15 shows the right hour on the wrong half of the day. Start in the ordinary time-setting position, which moves the hands together, then use the jumping hand: on a traveller to move local time, on a caller to move the second zone. Crown positions vary by movement, so keep the manual to hand.
A local detail worth knowing
Saudi Arabia keeps the same time all year, three hours ahead of UTC, with no daylight saving. If you live here and track London or New York, it is the other city that moves, twice a year. On a caller, each change is one click of the 24-hour hand. If you live abroad and keep a hand on Saudi time, you set it once.
Choosing
- Several flights a month across time zones: a traveller.
- Working from home with one other zone: a caller does the job.
- A third zone: turn the 24-hour bezel, where fitted, and read it against the 24-hour hand.
- Many zones at once: a world-time watch, which shows a ring of cities instead of one extra hand.
- Product listings rarely say which type a watch is, so check the maker’s manual or the movement before buying.
Browse GMT and dual-time watches in stock. Some “dual-time” watches in the results show the second zone on a digital screen or a 12-hour subdial rather than with a 24-hour hand, so they cannot tell day from night the same way. For a closer look at one Rolex, see our guide to the GMT-Master II “Pepsi”. Watch Codex explains how the 24-hour hand and bezel work together.