How to use the CW GMT features

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Amor Vincit Omnia
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How to use the CW GMT features

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

I am writing this in reply to an email I received from a new member when I was in France earlier this week. Basically the person wanted to know how to use and read the GMT function on the C60. I didn’t have much time when I was away but will try to explain now.

Normal mode: I am back in the UK so have reset the hands. The normal hands are pointing to current UK time, and I have set the GMT hand to point to the same time. It is a 24-hour function so at around 1045 you can see that the GMT is pointing almost to 1100 on the bezel. It looks like around 5:30 on the normal dial. In this mode the GMT hand is merely acting as a day/night indicator in the current time zone.

Note that the normal minute division of 6° represents 24 minutes on the GMT hand/bezel and this is a 120 click bezel with anti-clockwise rotation.
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Travel mode: let’s imagine I am in Cyprus, 2h ahead of UK time. I have set the hands to local time (1045) and have now set the GMT to show 0845 (UK time). I know people who use it the other way round but this would confuse me. I need the hands to show me local time. This is more fiddly than the Rolex system where the quick set advances the hour hand rather the GMT, but it doesn’t take long.

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Third time zone mode: let’s assume I am in Cyprus at New Year and want to call Kip in NH to say Happy New Year. I can see it’s 1045 in Cyprus and 0845 in UK. But he is 5h behind the UK. So, without changing any hands I move the bezel so that the triangle and pip (midnight) are at 0500 (2.30 on the standard dial), giving me the 5h negative offset from GMT. The GMT hand will now show the time in the Eastern US.

I can now see that at 1045 in Cyprus it is...0845 in UK but...0345 in NH. Not the best time to call!
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Does that make sense? It took me a while to work out how to do the third time zone until a certain pilot I know explained it. I still have to think about about it but it’s not too difficult.

And yes, I can still do it quicker in my head or on my iPhone, but it’s a cute solution!
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by Kip »

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:24 am
Third time zone mode: let’s assume I am in Cyprus at New Year and want to call Kip in NH to say Happy New Year. I can see it’s 1045 in Cyprus and 0845 in UK. But he is 5h behind the UK. So, without changing any hands I move the bezel so that the triangle and pip (midnight) are at 0500 (2.30 on the standard dial), giving me the 5h negative offset from GMT. The GMT hand will now show the time in the Eastern US.

I can now see that at 1045 in Cyprus it is...0845 in UK but...0345 in NH. Not the best time to call!
Good explanation Steve. Please wait about 45 minutes and I will probably be awake. :wink:
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by 0uatiOW »

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:24 am Travel mode: let’s imagine I am in Cyprus, 2h ahead of UK time. I have set the hands to local time (1045) and have now set the GMT to show 0845 (UK time). I know people who use it the other way round but this would confuse me. I need the hands to show me local time. This is more fiddly than the Rolex system where the quick set advances the hour hand rather the GMT, but it doesn’t take long.
Nice clear explanation Steve, thanks. I’m one of those who use it “the other way around”, that is I leave the main hands on home time and the GMT hand on local time. There main reason is as you say - the 2893-2 movement has the quickset on the GMT hand, so as I move from city to city, it’s quicker and easier to change 1 hour hand than all 3 hands. The second reason is that I work with a lot of folks on US Central Time, so when I return home, I can set my the GMT time to -6 and use to confirm that it’s still only 3:45am in Chicago or Mexico or Colombia, and now would be a goood time to wake them up!
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by jkbarnes »

I’ve got an inexpensive GMT with a quickset GMT hand. For the sake of ease of setting, I tend to keep the GMT hand and the main hands both set to my local time. I then adjust the bezel to show the time in a different zone. On the occasions when I actually travel (once a year, if I’m lucky!), I adjust the normal hands to local time, then reset the GMT to home time.

What’s a pain is the movement in my watch. With that movement, it makes most sense to leave the normal hands to home time and adjust the GMT hand to local time since it’s the quickest hand. However, that’s not so easy for reading local time. Adjusting the normal hands would mean setting those, then also resetting the GMT hand. I think the Rolex movement, with the quickest hour hand is the ideal movement for a frequent traveler.

YMMV...
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by jkbarnes »

Correct me if I’m wrong, but with the original Rolex GMT Master, the GMT hand was not independent of the hour and minute hands, so that they always showed the same time. A pilot then used the bezel so that the GMT hand was showing GMT time since this was the standard used in aviation, correct?
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by nbg »

jkbarnes wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 4:10 pm Correct me if I’m wrong, but with the original Rolex GMT Master, the GMT hand was not independent of the hour and minute hands, so that they always showed the same time. A pilot then used the bezel so that the GMT hand was showing GMT time since this was the standard used in aviation, correct?
You are correct Andrew. The early Rolex GMT models had the GMT and hour hand connected.

Any models that say GMT Master are like that. Those that say GMT Master II have the independent hour hand.

I have a 16700 that I picked in preference to the 16710 (both models were in production alongside each other for about 10 years) because I didn’t want the independent hour hand.

Also the original reference Explorer II models had connected GMT/hour hands.

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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by Lavaine »

Great tutorial AVO. I visualize setting the 3rd time zone slightly differently than you do. Rather than setting the pip to the 0500 position (which requires you to first remember that 0500 is at 0230 on the dial), I figure out that NH is 5 hours behind UK time, so I subtract 5 from 24 (19) and set that hour to the 12 o'clock position on the dial. Same result, different way of determining it.
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by neilj568 »

Lavaine wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:00 am Great tutorial AVO. I visualize setting the 3rd time zone slightly differently than you do. Rather than setting the pip to the 0500 position (which requires you to first remember that 0500 is at 0230 on the dial), I figure out that NH is 5 hours behind UK time, so I subtract 5 from 24 (19) and set that hour to the 12 o'clock position on the dial. Same result, different way of determining it.
This seems more intuitive to me.... :D
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by Watchamacallit »

Good write up. I also prefer using it the opposite way (or when considering all GMT watches, letting the hand which has the quick set function dictate my usage when traveling). Even though I think most people would prefer to reset the time altogether when they change locations.

But very few watches (maybe none outside those satellite/radio controlled ones) handle the odd timezone very well. When I go to India with my quickset hour hand watch I still need to set it 30 minutes ahead and mentally subtract 1/2 hour. Which is okay but still leaves me feeling like my watch is lacking in functionality.
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

neilj568 wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 8:11 am
This seems more intuitive to me.... :D
You have to accept that I am totally non-mathematical, but as it achieves the same result I can't see a problem with either way of thinking.
Watchamacallit wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:30 am
But very few watches (maybe none outside those satellite/radio controlled ones) handle the odd timezone very well. When I go to India with my quickset hour hand watch I still need to set it 30 minutes ahead and mentally subtract 1/2 hour. Which is okay but still leaves me feeling like my watch is lacking in functionality.
If the time zones were perfect and logical then the watch would be as well. Unfortunately it's a mechanical device that is far more sensible than humans who can't seem to accept that most of Britain is in the same longitude belt as quite a lot of France and further east than most of Spain...for example.
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by CAPA »

Steve -- much appreciated your explanation. I learned a lot from it. Cheers all
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by Lavaine »

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:07 pm
neilj568 wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 8:11 am
This seems more intuitive to me.... :D
You have to accept that I am totally non-mathematical, but as it achieves the same result I can't see a problem with either way of thinking.
Agreed. As long as it works, do whatever makes sense to you. This isn't a 'show your work' test.

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:07 pm
Watchamacallit wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:30 am
But very few watches (maybe none outside those satellite/radio controlled ones) handle the odd timezone very well. When I go to India with my quickset hour hand watch I still need to set it 30 minutes ahead and mentally subtract 1/2 hour. Which is okay but still leaves me feeling like my watch is lacking in functionality.
If the time zones were perfect and logical then the watch would be as well. Unfortunately it's a mechanical device that is far more sensible than humans who can't seem to accept that most of Britain is in the same longitude belt as quite a lot of France and further east than most of Spain...for example.
If you have a third time zone ability, like the C60 or GMT Master, then you can offset your bezel by 30 minutes to achieve the 30 minute timezone functionality. If your watch only tracks 2 time zones due to a fixed bezel, then some mental math is pretty much the only solution.
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Re: How to use the CW GMT features

Post by Watchamacallit »

Lavaine wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:17 pm
Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:07 pm
neilj568 wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 8:11 am
This seems more intuitive to me.... :D
You have to accept that I am totally non-mathematical, but as it achieves the same result I can't see a problem with either way of thinking.
Agreed. As long as it works, do whatever makes sense to you. This isn't a 'show your work' test.

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:07 pm
Watchamacallit wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:30 am
But very few watches (maybe none outside those satellite/radio controlled ones) handle the odd timezone very well. When I go to India with my quickset hour hand watch I still need to set it 30 minutes ahead and mentally subtract 1/2 hour. Which is okay but still leaves me feeling like my watch is lacking in functionality.
If the time zones were perfect and logical then the watch would be as well. Unfortunately it's a mechanical device that is far more sensible than humans who can't seem to accept that most of Britain is in the same longitude belt as quite a lot of France and further east than most of Spain...for example.
If you have a third time zone ability, like the C60 or GMT Master, then you can offset your bezel by 30 minutes to achieve the 30 minute timezone functionality. If your watch only tracks 2 time zones due to a fixed bezel, then some mental math is pretty much the only solution.
That is a good point. One of the strongest arguments for having a proper 24 hour bezel on a GMT watch. Instead of having a combo dive/24 bezel that many took people issue with on a CW trident watch but I mostly liked; since I use the minute timer function more frequently than looking at the hour. That said it would take some mental focus to not read the hour based off dial markers and instead use the bezel...but since the GMT hand is extra and different that might be enough to make it work in practice (for me anyway).

Before I had any better watch, I used my Seiko dive watch as poor man's Travel/GMT watch, reading the hour off the bezel (after converting minutes into hours). Which was difficult at first. I even resorted to removing the watch from my wrist in order to rotate the whole watch so that the bezel pip was now back at the 12 o'clock position before reading the hour, but after a few tries this became second nature and I could leave it on my wrist. It is very handy way to use your dive/GMT if traveling on an international flight with connections in different countries. I occasionally fly half way around the world, stopping in cities with different time zones in order to make connections. A quickset hour hand or the poor man's bezel approach to tracking the local time in the middle of transit is valuable so that one does not miss their connection lounging in some other part of the airport. Smartphones make it so easy now, but just a few years ago your watch was vitally important.