Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Can anyone tell me the purpose of the red pointer on the GMT watch face.
- Thread starter Fatboy71
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes, I've spent quite a lot of time figuring it out.
Basically it's a second hour hand for the local time zone. However it completes one 360 degree sweep in 24 hours, as opposed to 12. It will be pointing straight up at midnight your time, and straight down at midday. You can count the hours using the markings on the bezel, you'll see there are 24 including the arrow located right at the top.
Now if you set a second time zone (e.g. tap the centre of the face), on the bezel where the red hand is you'll now see an hour indicator for the time in the alternate time zone. This will either be 1 through 12 if your Apple Watch is set to 12-hour time, or 0-23 if the watch is set to 24-hour time (you can change this setting within the Apple Watch app on iPhone --> Clock --> 24-Hour Time).
The bezel colour change then switches to the sun-rise / sun-set time in the location you have set.
If you don't want to set an alternate time zone you can still tap and set current location. This will have the bezel colour changes at the sun-rise / sun-set time and display the most recent completed hour in the location where you are. Tapping the centre and setting it to 'none', as you have in this photo, sets the bezel colour change to what you are seeing, e.g. 06:00 to 18:00, if you are reading the hour off the 24 hour outer bezel.
Basically it's a second hour hand for the local time zone. However it completes one 360 degree sweep in 24 hours, as opposed to 12. It will be pointing straight up at midnight your time, and straight down at midday. You can count the hours using the markings on the bezel, you'll see there are 24 including the arrow located right at the top.
Now if you set a second time zone (e.g. tap the centre of the face), on the bezel where the red hand is you'll now see an hour indicator for the time in the alternate time zone. This will either be 1 through 12 if your Apple Watch is set to 12-hour time, or 0-23 if the watch is set to 24-hour time (you can change this setting within the Apple Watch app on iPhone --> Clock --> 24-Hour Time).
The bezel colour change then switches to the sun-rise / sun-set time in the location you have set.
If you don't want to set an alternate time zone you can still tap and set current location. This will have the bezel colour changes at the sun-rise / sun-set time and display the most recent completed hour in the location where you are. Tapping the centre and setting it to 'none', as you have in this photo, sets the bezel colour change to what you are seeing, e.g. 06:00 to 18:00, if you are reading the hour off the 24 hour outer bezel.
It tells you the time based on a 24 hour clock. Looking at the outside (the dashes on the blue and red) each of those is an individual hour. So its showing 16:40 as the time
Why would I want to know the time in 24 hour format, when I can see the current time already. That doesn't seem to make sense to me.
Night Spring
macrumors P6
The purpose of this watch face is to see time in two different time zones. If you don't have a need to do that, then this face doesn't serve any functional purpose for you.
I like the look of this watch face, that's why I chose it.
It's just confusing why the red pointer remains on, when there is no second time zone set.
DougFNJ
macrumors 65832
It’s a complication many watch manufacturers use on their watches. That’s where you primarily see most GMT watches have what’s called a Pepsi dial like what you have here, or a black on top blue on bottom “Batman” dial. It makes it easier to know AM/PM quickly when looking at the second time zone. As mentioned here, it also offers 24 hour timekeeping as well.
It’s mimicking a conventional GMT watch and that’s exactly how it behaves when it isn’t set to a second time zone.
Even as someone who's owned GMT watches, I can understand the confusion. They should put the numerical hour markers on the digital "bezel." If you're gonna go skeuomorphic, you may as well go all the way.
GMT means Greenwich Mean Time....so I believe the red hand always indicates the time there unless you are able to reset it to another time zone...yes/no?
Yes and no. It was originally designed so international pilots could have the 24 hour hand set to GMT but can also be used for tracking other time zones.
What is a GMT Watch and How Does it Work?
Whether you’ve heard the term in school, seen it at an airport or come across it while researching the perfect outdoors watch, GMT has a lot of significance in the watchmaking industry.
hookandgaff.com
matrix07
macrumors G3
No. It indicate YOUR time. Just look at the number the red hand pointing. It will be exactly the hour time on your time zone.
Looks here. It’s exactly number 4 (even though you can’t see it clearly) as same as the hour hand pointing, which is 4 o’clock.
Now if you change it by turning the crown then it will point to time of another time zone of your choosing.
[automerge]1600411804[/automerge]
I believe this is easier to see. The analog one from Rolex just have too many number it’s confusing.
Last edited:
testcard
macrumors 68040
The idea of a GMT face is a good one, but I don't think Apple have got it right this time. The display isn't intuitive.
If all the even numbers were marked on the GMT "bezel" and the hour hand was shortened it would be a lot more intuitive.
matrix07
macrumors G3
I disagree strongly. The Apple design is far easier than Rolex’s that distracts you with those even numbers on “bezel”.
Here
I set the secondary time for the city that‘s 2 hours ahead of where I am and when I glance at it I know suddenly it’s now 18:01. Why?
Because on the GMT “bezel” the only number shows is 18. Far easier.
I'm used to the traditional GMT bezel and find it simple enough to understand so I guess we'll have to disagree on that point.
They have got the hour hand wrong though, it shouldn't mask the minute track like that.
Fried_Gold
macrumors 68040
A traditional GMT watch can do 3 times zones, the red hand being set to GMT, the normal hands to your local time zone and turning the bezel to a 3rd time zone, so +5 GMT turn the bezel 5 turns ahead.
The apple implementation does have a few quirks. It only reads 24 hour time for the second time zone if you have your watch set to display all digital times in 24 hour format. I don't really want my digital watchfaces to show using a 24 hour clock, but I'd really like it if this watchface did.
The second issue is that they have the colors backwards for most of the options. I would think that the darker color should be night and the brighter color should be day (so in the red/blue images that are typically posted, night - blue - is on top and day - red - is on the bottom). But most of the color options have the brighter color on top (night) and the darker color on the bottom (day).
Combine the backwards color combinations with the lack of 24 hour time for the 2nd time zone, and it can become kind of confusing.
The second issue is that they have the colors backwards for most of the options. I would think that the darker color should be night and the brighter color should be day (so in the red/blue images that are typically posted, night - blue - is on top and day - red - is on the bottom). But most of the color options have the brighter color on top (night) and the darker color on the bottom (day).
Combine the backwards color combinations with the lack of 24 hour time for the 2nd time zone, and it can become kind of confusing.
True, but it's not just useful for actual timezone changes. I'm a pilot and the weather reports we get are always given in UTC (GMT) time. So I can set my second timezone to UTC and then when I get a weather report over the radio that says "Santa Maria weather observation 18:51 zulu" I can look at my watch and see it's "19" on the GMT part and "11" on the minute (for 19:11 UTC/GMT/zulu) and know the weather report is 20 minutes old. Before I was always like okay pacific time is 7 behind UTC when it's daylight savings...er....or is it 8? So 19:11 minus seven is 12:11....Yes and no. It was originally designed so international pilots could have the 24 hour hand set to GMT but can also be used for tracking other time zones.
What is a GMT Watch and How Does it Work?
Whether you’ve heard the term in school, seen it at an airport or come across it while researching the perfect outdoors watch, GMT has a lot of significance in the watchmaking industry.
This just cuts the confusion instantly and is super useful. We use UTC/GMT/zulu time for this because if I'm flying how in the hell would I know what timezone I'm in or if they happen to follow daylight savings (looking at you AZ).
Sorry, disagree. It's as simple as it could possibly be. If you want a watch face for showing you the time in New York all the time and you bounce around mountain and pacific time a lot this is not for you. This is literally designed for UTC time.
1000% agree. It‘s such a missed opportunity - for me, the majority of watch colors on this face are unusable as they counteract my intuition, i.e., in “Plum” the purple is nighttime and gray is daytime! Because of these unnatural-feeling day/night designations, I use the watch face far less than I would like…the traditional GMT faces of “Pepsi” (red/blue), “Coke“ (red/black), and “Batman“ (blue/black) all convey this information in a visually elegant manner! Other colors should try to follow suit.
At the very least, I wish they would provide and option to let users designate if the selected face color represents daytime or nighttime, so we’d have the option to flip to what feels right for each of us…
I can only imagine that if Steve Jobs was still alive and a fan of GMT watch faces that this would never have been a screw-up from a user design perspective…
C’mon, Apple, rectify this issue!
Very true. I love this face for aviation. The sunrise/sunset complication is a great addition. I can quickly set it to the time zone I’m in or will be in to see those times. And then the WatchMetar complication is hands down my favorite.
However I do wish the arrow/0 hour was always at the top. It would be more intuitive for me to read at a quick glance I think, with 0600 always at three o’clock, 1200 always at six o’clock, and so on. This is especially so for those unfortunate moments when I look at the time and the minute hand is mostly covering the UTC number/hour.