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You’ve got your slip-on shoes, your handsome-yet-rugged duffel bag, your comfortable-yet-cool attire, your dopp kit, your tablet, your Nintendo Switch, your noise-canceling headphones, your camera, your guide book and hopefully your passport is in there somewhere. Yes, packing for a trip can seem overwhelming, but you can take solace in the fact that you only need one watch.
What Type of Travel Watch Is for You?
So what watch to wear on your globetrotting adventures? Some watches are made for hitting the road. Traditionally, the GMT (or dual time) has been the go-to travel watch ever since it was conceived in the mid-’50s for Pan Am pilots crossing several time zones at once. By allowing the wearer to monitor two separate time zones at once, the GMT frees its wearer from the grueling mental math required when keeping tabs on whatever is going on in your home time zone.
If you demand more time zones at once, you can opt for the world time watch which, though more mechanically complex (and thus more expensive) than the GMT, has actually been around longer, invented by watchmaker Louis Cottier in the 1930s. Here, the watch denotes the current time for every time zone in the world all at once. So if you’re in Tokyo, need to call a client in London and inundate your mother in Chicago with texts about your trip, no arithmetic is required to keep all that in check.
If you’re not stuck on the idea of a traditional mechanical watch, there are watches with advanced technology specifically for traveling. Of course, smartwatches will do just fine, but the big Japanese brands (Seiko with its Astron and Citizen with its Satellite Wave GPS) have long been competing to offer the ideal travel timepiece. They use tech like satellites, GPS, bluetooth and radio syncing to know when you’ve crossed a time zone and then to update your time automatically.
A watch you take traveling should exhibit the same qualities you always want to look for in a good watch, but there might be some additional considerations. You might want the functionality mentioned above to help keep track of time, but depending on your specific destinations, activities and travel style, there might be other factors to consider.
If security is a concern, you might want something with less bling. If you’re adventurous and headed outdoors, durability might important. You get the idea. But also consider that a simple watch might be the best travel companion. One that’s lightweight and unobtrusive (i.e., small and/or thin) will be more comfortable and won’t get in the way of sleeves or luggage straps.
What you choose depends on your own needs (and the state of your bank account), but rest assured there are options aplenty for the jet-setter. Though we wouldn’t stop you from traveling with multiple watches, the best for travelers combine value, durability, good looks and, of course, functionality, all into one handy package — so there’s no need to burden your carry-on any more than you already have.
Look around at GMT watches in this price point and even above: they’re going to be quartz. But here you have an automatic GMT with a solid Seiko movement from the same family of movements that powers famous dive watches like the Turtle. Yes, Seiko changed the GMT game when they released the Seiko 5 Sports GMT — and, like the rest of the collection, it’s shockingly well-built and thoughtfully designed for the money. Best of all, it’s fully got its own great look that doesn’t feel like another Rolex wannabe.
Farer, a young British upstart, makes watches inspired by those worn by great 20th-century explorers. Naturally, that means the Lander here definitely owes some debts to Smiths and the Rolex Explorer, but the result is nevertheless handsome and distinct. Its automatic movement is housed in a subtle 39.5mm x 10mm case (perfectly proportioned, if you ask us), and it’s paired with a bronze crown and a beautiful blue mid-century-inspired dial design. At $1,450, it’s not quite the cheapest mechanical GMT you can find, but its excellent design makes it a standout in the entry-level price bracket.
It can be tough to find a “tool watch” GMT for less than several thousand dollars, but the Atlas from Monta is certainly a value proposition if ever there was one. For less than $2k you get a steel GMT with 150m of water resistance, automatic Sellita SW330 movement with 42-hour power reserve and jumping GMT hand, steel bracelet or rubber strap designed by sister company Everest Horology Products (plus a very nice Nato), and much more.
If your travels take you to someplace …unforgiving, this is the watch to have. The automatic movement inside is protected by a burly stainless steel case with Sinn’s “Tegiment” case-hardening technology and built to satisfy DIN 8330, a certification for pilot’s watches that Sinn and the German Institute for Standardisation co-developed. As such, the brand states the watch is exceptionally shockproof and can reliably operate at temperatures between -49 degrees and 185 degrees Fahrenheit. And while this is ostensibly a pilot’s watch, given that it has a ratcheting bezel, loads of lume and a 200-meter depth rating means it could easily do double duty as a diver, too.
The 5X not only changes time zones with you but also allows you to swap home and travel times between the main and sub-dial at the push of a button (called Time Transfer). The movement also offers dual time and world time functions, AM/PM indicator, a perpetual calendar (showing the correct day and date until the year 2100), as well as indicators for power level and GSP-sync. Did we mention it’s ridiculously accurate?
Though it says “worldtimer” in the name, this pilot’s watch from Oris is more of an advanced dual-time watch, though it does go a step further than a standard dual-time or GMT in terms of convenience. It displays the wearer’s home time in the three o’clock subdial and the local hours and minutes on the main dial. When you twist the watch’s bezel, it moves the hour hand on the main dial, meaning that when traveling you don’t need to fiddle with the crown when you change time zones. It may seem trivial, but for frequent travelers, it eliminates the only real hassel of a GMT watch.
Similarly, Nomos’s Zürich World Time isn’t actually a world timer, but rather more of an advanced GMT. Yes, it has a world city ring, but it doesn’t display the hour for all 24 timezones individually. Instead, the city name at the 12 o’clock corresponds to the time shown on the main dial, and when the pusher at two o’clock is depressed the ring advances to the next city, while the hour hand advances one hour in synchrony. (The home time is indicated on the ring at three o’clock.) Though this complex take on the GMT function seems to fly in the face of the traditionally Bauhaus approach of “less is more,” the Zürich continues Nomos’s tradition of making incredibly beautiful and modern designs.
Grand Seikos are loved by hardcore watch guys because of all of the unseen details that make them so technically impressive. For example, this SBGJ201 GMT rocks the brand’s lauded high-beat movement that ticks at 36,000 bpm (most high-end mechanical watches tick at 21,000 or 28,800 bph). This bolsters accuracy, but it also gives the watch a much smoother seconds hand than most of its peers. Enthusiasts will also love the expertly-finished dial and the almost paper-like texture of the dial.
Yes, it’s the obvious pick, but the Rolex GMT-Master II is the definitive travel watch and an all-time classic. Go for a “Pepsi” bezel or a “Batman” bezel and you’ve got an interesting and iconic look. Driving the watch is a COSC-certified automatic GMT movement, and the watch comes with classic Rolex details like an oyster bracelet and cyclops date magnifier. The only problem is that they’re typically hard to get your hands on and cost more than retail, but they’re worth seeking out.
The Montblanc 1858 Geosphere has a lot going for it. For starters, its world time display is decidedly unique. While world timers with Lambert projection maps only display one hemisphere (usually the north), this shows both on two globes at 12 and six o’clock. Further, while most world time watches have a dressy look to them, this has the look of a classic tool watch, thanks to a black and gold color scheme, a rotating ceramic compass bezel and a chunky case design. The best part, though, is the price: about $6,300, making it one of the most affordable world time watches you can buy.
Patek Philippe’s World Time isn’t by any stretch of the imagination an affordable watch, but it seems to be the perfect convergence of class, durability, high watchmaking, and wearability. Patek Philippe is firstly known for exquisite haute horlogerie, and you’ll find the highest level of Swiss watchmaking on display through the caseback but around the dial side, the 5231 has a grand feu cloisonné enamel world map motif which comes in various versions for different regions. It’s easy to operate through the pusher and highly wearable with a diameter of 38.5mm and thin profile thanks to its mico-rotor.
