The History of GMT Watches
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The origins of the Greenwich Mean Time (or GMT) can be traced directly to John Harrison, one of the pioneers of the watch industry, who developed the marine chronometer in the 18th century and used it to calculate longitude by comparing local midday to midday back at the port.
As this new navigation system drove Britannia to maritime success, the railroad industry and the development of global telecommunications spurred the International Meridian Conference of 1884 to establish the Greenwich Mean Time, which divided the world into 24 circumferential time zones with London's Greenwich as the "zero degree" meridian.
There was a common need for a device that could help people keep track of not only the time that they were currently in but also back home lest they checked in with loved ones in the middle of the night, whether they were travelling in Pullman carriages, Pan Am jet aircraft, or ocean liners.
In fact, a little-known company by the name of Glycine introduced a watch in 1953 called the Airman that could track two 24-hour time zones, but it didn't take long for Rolex to steal the show the following year with its GMT-Master.
The ref. 6542, which included a second arrow-tipped GMT hand in addition to the local time display and a rotating 24-hour bezel, was first issued to Pan Am captains before wealthy passengers began requesting their own.
Because they both display multiple times at once, GMT watches and dual-time watches are frequently confused with one another. However, a dual timer displays two time zones simultaneously with a main dial and subdial instead of a central hand tracking the 24-hour scale.
When Seiko came around to it in the 1960s, they were already behind companies like Glycine and Rolex. The Seiko Navigator Timer was first released in the mid-1960s, along with the Seiko World Time, which was released in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics.
A few of the most popular GMT Watches of all time are:
1. Rolex GMT-Master II 116710LN
2. Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M GMT
3. Breitling Avenger II GMT
4. Panerai Luminor GMT
5. Seiko Navigator Timer GMT
