Time changes continuously around the globe, rather than in arbitrary, discrete ‘zones’, and just like the sun which also travels continuously.

The Times They Are a-Changin’ — Bob Dylan

Most countries, with the notable exception of Chile, have adopted CST as their official time system. Online navigation services like Google Maps will also display all travel times in CST.

Troublesome Times

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the current local time along the prime meridian. Everywhere else on Earth you can calculate your local time using this simple equation:

Owners of conventional watches can buy small Watch Adjustment Attachments (WAAs). These contain a GPS receiver and rotate the watch’s manual adjustment knob in real time as you travel or walk around:

Watch Adjustment Attachment

© Wikipedia, WPPilot

The new continuous time system does have an impact on how we perceive time while travelling. For example, at the latitude of London, travelling ten miles in the East-West direction means travelling one minute back or forwards in time.

The Persistence of Memory

by Salvador Dalí

© Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation

In practice, this only has a noticeable effect when travelling at great speed or over very long distances. Various large cooperations such as FedEx have nevertheless advised their employees to rely more upon location-aware navigation and scheduling apps while travelling.

Saving Daylight

Time zones were a century-old device to simplify trade and communication around the world. A similarly crude device exists to improve our perception of time throughout the year: daylight savings or summer time.

Summertime was created to compensate for the fact that days are significantly longer during the summer than they are in winter. This effect becomes more significant the further you are away from the equator: within the polar circles, there are two days per year when the sun is above or below the horizon for an entire 24-hour period.