Great video Marc, but with all due respect I believe I spotted a misstatement. The Sellita SW330 movements are a caller/office GMT, not a traveler's GMT as you stated.
I am a long haul airline pilot, and I used to be squarely in the "Traveler's" camp. but after owning several NH34s, I find them to be very useful. I use the pneumonic "Date Down" to remember which way to turn the crown when setting date vs GMT. I prefer these watches to have non screw down crowns, like the Seiko version, because I reset them so frequently, and I don't dive with these watches. They are plenty water resistant for normal life. Having the inner chapter ring with 24 hour markers makes these watches much more functional. You did a great job with these! Alas, I have too many watches...
I use GMTs for keeping track of... GMT (UTC), because I am a shortwave listener, and shortwave radio broadcast schedules/times are often given as UTC (so that everyone can convert it to their local time zone.)
The original GMTs were what we now refer to as "caller" GMTs. Yet legend has it that Rolex designed their "Pepsi" GMT for PanAm pilots to use (really busy travelers). It is my understanding that they set the GMT hand to the actual GMT time, then as they landed in different time zones, they would move the Bezel to that time zone's GMT adjustment, e.g. "GMT-5" or "GMT+2" simply by moving the Bezel one way or the other thus getting local time from the GMT hand's position on the bezel. The dual direction bezel on the GMT watches made this quick and easy. This also had, and IMO still has, the advantage of lessening the opening and closing of the crown and wear on the internals of the watch and making the time change quick and easy. Thus the "caller" GMT is also a "traveler" GMT.
This is how I use both my NH34 and miyota GMTs. On my SSK I have main hands set to my local time, the GMT hand on the chapter ring set to London time (I’m an English soccer fan), and the bezel set so the GMT hand reads West coast USA time. On the miyota it’s simply main hands on my local time, and GMT hand set to GMT or Zulu time. Thanks for the video Marc!
@@K_j_MI know it is and usually say football, but commenting on a post that’s predominantly viewed by Americans, made by an American, I made a concession 😅
The nice thing about a traveler's GMT when used for its intended purpose is that you can adjust the local hour hand without having to reset the watch, and you can adjust the time and date in both directions without worrying about stripping a gear between 9pm and 3am. The downside used to be the price, until the Miyota 9075 came along.
I constantly fight my urge to check my phone to check time and use my watch instead, because want to have an excuse to keep buying watches. Great video and wonderful line of GMTs
I know that feeling. Truth be told watches are more of a fashion accessory than a tool in the modern world because we carry pocket computers with us, the majority of the time. But they are still really cool mechanical marvels and/or pieces of tech.
Got a 4R36 movement, broke the white plastic gear under warranty, and seiko luckily put a new movement in it. It did take ages, but I'm still glad they did it.
Glycine has the "Purist" watches with just a 24 hour hand. I WANT one, but I do not have 2 Kilo-bucks! 😒 There are times, when the 12 hour AM/PM nonsense drives me nuts. Real 24 hour time is so much more practical. I grew up with it, and my digital wall-clock is set to 24 hr time 😀 Is there no way to have a short "normal" hour hand on the 24 hr shaft of an NH34, and ditch the 12 hr hand? Since your Islander line is a custom order anyway, could you do this?
Thanks Marc! Always love the watch and learn segments. I love my JFK Dark and Stormy. I also have a few G Shocks that have dual time as well. Have a great day!
The main problem with Caller GMTs is the user experience. The Caller GMT can neither change the GMT hand backward, nor the date backward, which is a unique gimmick that you should have for a watch used for changing timezones; plus the biggest problem is that you can't change the date from 9pm to 3am, which is again a problem that you shouldn't have on a GMT watch.
Hey, I just noticed the Atmos clock on the shelf. I have one of those. Gifted to my grandfather from a company he worked at for 25 years of service. When he died the whole family went through his stuff and nobody wanted it. Suckers. I snatched that up so fast. Does yours keep good time?
Dumb question..can you set the time to a different time say....not in the danger zone...and then change settings...is this self evident or am I an idiot missing something?
I can see the use case for a 24 hour bezel in addition to the 24 hour chapter ring. Still, if the watch presents a water resistance of 20 ATMs, as a dive watch, my preference is that the bezel be a 60 minute timing ring. For a reference, the Longines Hydroconquest GMT uses that combination. Thanks for this video.
So, to address the elephant in the room, the question that is on everyone’s lips, but we’re afraid to ask you … When will you come out with a true 24-hour watch? For the very small number of people in the audience who have not been on pins and needles waiting for this watch to come out, it is a watch where the hour hand goes around the dial only once per day, and you have to relearn how to read the watch. I think Vostok is the only maker that offers one … but Russia.
Since I'm not much of a traveler, I'd be just fine with a caller GMT. I'd either use the GMT hand as a 24-hour hand for my local time zone, or I'd set it to GMT and then remember the GMT deltas for the few time zones that I care about. E.g. Chicago is at GMT-6, so I'd just subtract 6 hours from the time indicated by the GMT hand (wrapping around if needed). Yes, I know it's a practically superhuman feat of calculation, but maybe you're also an amazing genius who can do this? 😜 In all seriousness, thanks for another interesting instructional video, Marc. 👍
If you use the gmt hand for what it's name supposes, you can instead of using your math superpower use the bezel to calculate the time in different zones. Probably not faster, but definitely more fun... 😉
I had a RZE with the NH34 and the seconds hand kept getting stuck around the 50 second mark , I thought the hands hadn't been set properly but when I sent it back to RZE to be fixed apparently it was beyond repair so they sent me out a new watch which runs about +3spd , no idea what was wrong with it
Another use, GMTs are great for a compass if the hands are all synced to the same location. just like an Alpinist, point the hour hand at the sun, but instead of having to bisect the angle between hour hand and the 12 o'clock position to find south, the GMT hand will be pointing north (for the northern hemisphere).
I know to avoid setting dates between 9 & 3 but does that apply to the main hands only? What if local time is 6:00 but GMT time is between 9 & 3? Do both local time and gmt time need to be outside the 9-3 danger zone?
Don’t forget if you set both to the same time, you have an am/pm indicator, useful in caves and casinos, not to mention lands of midnight Sun or noon Moon, and a handy compass so long as you can see the Sun.
Yep, the dead zone still applies. I broke a gear while testing a date wheel swap. I should've pulled the crown out all the way and advance the date the long way to test it out.
Office/caller gmts are more functional for me because they retain the quickset date feature, unlike the travel gmt that loses the quick set date in favor of a jump hour hand. Not having a quick set date sucks if you ever let your watches rest, as with the case of a multiple watch collection. Thanks for the watch and learn Marc. 😊
Slightly OT, but: On my NH34 powered GMT-watch (San Martin SN 0109), there are two things that slightly bother me WRT the movement (or it could be the watch's fault, not sure): 1. The GMT-hand is misaligned in such a way that it seems both to me and my watch-maker that there's a "built-in" imprecision, so to speak. Meaning it would never be possible to get this thing to align properly, no matter how many times you'd take off and reset the hands. At least that's what the guy told me after he checked out the watch and the GMT hand's behavior. It will basically align differently when adjusting the hand on its own (crown one click pulled out) and when adjusting the time (crown all the way out). 2. Re-starting the movement (pushing in the crown) has to be done super carefully or else the minute hand will move/jump, resulting in a not-so-precise time-setting. Compared to my SW200/ETA movements it almost feels like the crown moves too freely in these circumstances. So... are these general issues with the movement or is it a problem with my watch and/or that watch's general construction? It's the only NH34 or in fact Seiko-powered watch that I own, so I can't compare it with other watches and their behavior.
I'll be honest and say I have not run into these issues. Regarding the alignment, there is a bit of play in the gears (backlash) but it should work itself out once the watch is running for a few minutes and maintain registration.
I have 4 Islanders with the NH34 GMT and a Seiko GMT (bought from LIW). With my first one I didn’t think the GMT hand was working accurately. Marc asked if I was setting the GMT hand when the hour hand was at 12o’clock. If its not the GMT hand will register at whatever point within the hour that the hour hand is on the dial. IE, if the hour hand is at 30 minutes after 12 the GMT will be offset. Might not be your problem but it was the solution for mine.
@@trappedindc8678 Thanks for that info, I'll definitely try and see if that makes a difference with mine. I also forgot to mention that the GMT hand's deviation from "true alignment" seems to vary depending on the position of the GMT-hand on the dial. IIRC, from the 12oc to the 6oc position (more or less) the misalignment is more pronounced and from 6oc to 12oc it is less pronounced. Also suggesting (I think) that this is more of a problem with the movement/gearing and probably not entirely related to how the hands were set/mounted at the factory.
@@islandwatch Thanks Marc! Hasn't worked itself out for me over 9 or 10 months, but then again: It's not a huge deal and I don't expect *too* much from a Chinese watch with an NH34 in the back... :)
I'm going for a 4th of july thing. black case, pepsi dual time insert, white dial. red hour and minute hand, blue gmt and a blue arrow second. blue and red GMT chapter ring. they say the gmt hand requires a double dome crystal so I got one in sapphire and i got a knurled black crown and bezel. sending it for assembly next week. :-)@@OscarOSullivan
This is totally useless for most Americans who have no idea that there is a thing called 24 hour time and clock. They are stuck in AM and PM. Indians are aware because their railway time table uses 24 hour day time. Europeans are aware of it too.
Are you seriously using a paper clip as a pointer? 🤦🏻♂️🤣 You also don’t need a GMT if you can do basic arithmetic in your head. I just don’t get the fascination. Plus, we ALL have phones with world clocks in them if you have trouble adding and subtracting. I’ll always wear a 3 hander but the 4 hander seems unnecessary to me.
