Welcome to It’s Complicated, in which we dissect a particular watch complication — i.e. any function beyond simple timekeeping — as illustrated via a single watch model or reference. In today’s edition we’re discussing the world time (or “world timer”), a device that displays the time in multiple time zones simultaneously. And what better timepiece to use an example of a world time than one from the proliferator of said complication, Patek Philippe.
Consider, if you will, the American railroad of the mid-19th century.
Delegates at the International Meridian Conference - (Image by Greenwich Mean Time)
During the age of the steam locomotive, well over 1,000 railroad lines criss-crossed the USA, carrying freight and passengers thousands of miles from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific and back again. Keeping all of these various lines running on time across such an expanse — and preventing accidents — was no small feat: In order to accomplish such a task, the country was divided into dozens of “time zones,” a then-new invention that neatly sliced the day into equal units of perceived time. In 1884 at the International Meridian Conference held in Washington, D.C, international delegates decided upon Greenwich, England, as the “prime meridian” of zero degrees longitude, establishing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as an worldwide timekeeping standard. In 1928, the term “Universal Time” was adopted to denote GMT as calculated from midnight.
Louis Cottier - (Image by Oracle Time)
In the 1880s, against the backdrop of this story, a man named Emmanuel Cottier whiled away in his workshop in Switzerland on a system for tracking multiple time zones. While his invention didn’t catch on, his son Louis Vincent Cottier — born in Carouge in 1894 — picked up the gauntlet dropped by his father. Integrating this “world time” complication into a series of pocket watches, he was approached by none other than Patek Philippe to produce a wristwatch-sized version. In the 1930s, the references 515 HU, 542 HU, 96 HU, and 1415 entered Patek’s catalog, existing alongside the pocket watch references for several decades.
Louis’s design was relatively simple, yet brilliant: A conventional time-telling dial is set with a 24-hour ring that rotates counter-clockwise, while another outer ring displays city names in the world’s 24 time zones. While the watch’s hands indicate local time in the city aligned with the 12 o’clock marker, the 24-hour ring rotates throughout the day to indicate the time in the remainder of the zones simultaneously. Thus, a single timepiece is able to track the time around the entire globe, making it perfect for frequent travelers or for businesspeople whose work spans multiple time zones.
At this time — roughly a century ago — the world was a significantly more difficult place to explore. Steamship and the railroads were still the methods by which the masses were able to cross continents and oceans, while long-haul journeys in propeller-driven aircraft such as the Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat were reserved for only the most wealthy clientele. However, with the explosion of jet travel in the wake of the Second World War, the world rapidly shrank, allowing both dedicated businessmen and women as well as casual travelers to traverse seas and borders in relative ease and comfort. No longer the province of only the wealthy, faced-paced international travel was opening up to the masses.
Patek Philippe Ref. 2523/1 - (Image by Phillips)
It was at roughly this time that Patek’s Ref. 2523 debuted: This unique take on Cottier’s world time system provided a second crown that allowed for rapid time zone adjustment via the rotating city ring, offering a clean, symmetrical design that stood out from that of previous iterations. By the time Cottier passed away in 1966, Patek — and other manufacturers such as Vacheron Constantin — had adopted Cottier’s invention into myriad pocket watches, wristwatches, and clocks, cementing the world time system as an established complication. And while world time pocket watches and clocks have largely been relegated to history books, the world time wristwatch is still very much alive: A quick glance through Patek Philippe’s online catalog yields several examples within its Complications family, while numerous other maisons have borrowed heavily from Cottier’s brilliant system.
The Patek Philippe World Time Ladies Ref. 7130G-001
Patek Philippe World Time Ladies - IN THE SHOP
This stunning, bejeweled dress watch is a modern ladies’ version of Louis Cottier’s famed world time system. While larger versions — and those integrated with other complications such as chronographs — exist within the modern Patek catalog, it’s actually smaller 36mm versions such as this that hew closer to the maison’s 1930s-1960s classics. (These were, in fact, even smaller in diameter than this watch.) Housed in a white gold case with a sapphire crystal and caseback; a signed crown; a city disc advance pusher at 10 o’clock; and a diamond-set bezel fitted with round-cut stones, it offers a decorative contemporary twist to the travel watch concept.
The Ref. 7130G-001’s dial is relatively straightforward by the standards of classic cloissonné examples, but certainly no less attractive: Centered around a beautiful inner creme-colored section with a guilloché finish, it features a rotating, bi-color ring with silver denoting daytime and a contrasting dark brown tone signifying night; an outer rotating ring with 24 individual city names printed in white against a blue background; a set of applied white gold ‘dart’ indices; and a classic Patek Philippe world time handset. Powered by the Patek Philippe Calibre 240 HU micro-rotor movement — which is visible via a transparent sapphire caseback — it comes paired to a signed brown alligator leather strap with a signed 18K white gold deployant buckle and is accompanied by its Certificate of Origin.
While vintage examples of 1940s Patek Philippe world time watches sometimes hammer in the millions of dollars, pieces such as these offer a relatively accessible entry point into the world of this classic travel complication. With its excellent proportions, high-end gem-setting, and streamlined display — not to mention its modern, automatic movement — this beautiful piece is ideal for both women and men. Once you’ve circled the globe in an evocative watch like this, an entirely new world of adventure is revealed.
