Traveling today can kill hours of your life that you’ll never get back. And what better way to spike your blood pressure constantly than by knowing exactly how much of your precious life is slipping through your fingers—right down to the second!
That’s why they invented travel watches. Ever since some genius invented the time-zone, humans who traveled have had to deal with different “zones of time,” and that’s meant walking around with the wrong time on your watch, or going to the trouble of figuring out the correct time in your new destination. It was, and still is, an unnecessary annoyance in today’s civilized and sophisticated world.
Here are some of my past travel watches.
One of the things I hate about travel is not knowing the time where I am as well as the time back home. (How else can I call people in the middle of the night and wake them up?)
To combat that nagging problem, I bought a watch that ostensibly let me see different time-zones called the Men’s SNJ007 Sportura Analog/Digital Alarm Chronograph by Seiko of Japan. It was well-made, attractive and comfortable — there was just one problem with it. I couldn’t figure the damn thing out. At. All.
A buyer on Amazon who liked the watch described the time-setting process — with a straight face, mind you — like this:
Switch time zones with ease (push button A to select world time mode, push button C to select new time zone using second hand to point to airport codes listed on watch bezel, hold button B down for three seconds to make selected time zone your new home time zone).
—Some lunatic on YouTube
Um, what the @#$!& are you talking about, dude? I’m both college educated and mechanically inclined, yet I used to spend a good 40 minutes on every flight trying to hack the Enigma code required to correctly show my current time zone as well as the one back home. More often than not, I just left the watch with the wrong time, in both zones.
Travel watches shouldn’t be hard to use.
The incredible hassle of switching time-zones led me to seek out a dual time-zone travel watch that was easy to set — it’s an ongoing quest, but here’s what I’ve found (so far):
QUARTZ/BATTERY
- Seiko Sportura SNJ007 — The watch I can’t figure out.
- Seiko Aston GPS — Changes time-zone automatically.
- Wenger Military Silver SS 74718 — May still buy this one because it’s only $170.
- Seiko Solar Chronograph Dual Time Zone SSC093 — Also a serious contender because it’s reasonably priced.
- Junkers G38 Dual Time #6940-4 — Nice, but…
- Casio G-Shock MTG — Many people love the look of these watches, but I don’t.
- Citizen Signature Eco-Drive Octavia Chronograph — Looks a lot like the much cooler Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph.
AUTOMATIC/MANUAL
- B&M Clifton — Classy looking watch, but that “single dial, extra hand thing” seems annoying.
- Jaeger LeCoultre “Master Compressor” — Excellent solution, my favorite watch ideally, but SUPER pricey.
- Ingersoll IN8410WH Sam Automatic — Almost bought this one, but found out the movement is Chinese and kinda questionable.
- Maurice Lacriox MP6707-SS001-111 “MasterPiece Traditional” — A lovely watch that was way out of my price range.
And here is a list of some super-pricy dual time-zone watches for any rich people in my audience.
So after all my searching, what travel watches do I wear now?
In all, I’ve spent probably 100+ hours searching the Interwebs for travel watches, and I am still looking. If you have any suggestions, add them in the comments section.
UPDATE: I am no longer looking as I finally found the Kronaby Apex (S1426/1), it’s my new current travel watch, and it’s now the only watch I wear. Yes, it’s that good. It syncs to my iPhone via Bluetooth, so I never even have to adjust it. The phone app always has the correct time in whatever zone I’m in, and there’s a world clock feature that I can access by using the watch’s plunger—easy-peasy!
UPDATE TO MY UPDATE: I found an even better travel watch, the Kronaby Apex (S3111/1) It has two sub-dials, one that displays the day of the week (vital), and one that displays the date. I found that I really needed to know what DAY it was when I woke up after a transatlantic flight.
If you want to buy my old Apex, email me.