Navigating Time Zones: Top Travel Watches from Watches and Wonders 2025

Travel watches are a vital tool for travellers and businesspeople alike. Essentially, these clocks keep the wearer in sync with several time zones, which is critical while crossing continents or coordinating across geographies. One of the most common complications found in travel timepieces is the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) function, which employs an extra hand and a 24-hour scale to track a second time zone — this is perfect for tracking home time while travelling abroad.

Another advanced feature is the world time complication, which shows the time in all 24 worldwide time zones at the same time, typically via a revolving city disc and an inner 24-hour ring. More advanced models may include dual-time or even triple-time zone displays, with some integrating day/night indicators or AM/PM subdials to prevent confusion across time zones. 

​At Watches and Wonders 2025, GMT India spotted six exceptional travel watches that blend innovation with elegance, catering for the needs of global travellers. 

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Geographic

This 49.4 mm steel watch has a sunray finish in rich blue. A large date display is found within a frame of polished metal that matches the case and amplifies its rectangular lines. The circular small seconds display provides a counterpoint to the linear geometry and echoes the circular world time display, revealed when turning the watch over. 

On the reverse side, the world time display is set into the polished caseback. On the steel model, details are in shades of blue. The construction of the display is on three different levels. The city names are engraved directly onto the caseback; set within the aperture, the rotating 24-hour ring indicates day and night; in the centre is the world map, marked with the longitudes that provide additional visual orientation in relation to the time zones. Created in-house at the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture, the map combines the crafts of lacquering and laser engraving. 

Beginning with a smooth disc of steel, the areas representing the oceans are hollowed out with a laser, leaving the land masses and meridian lines as raised areas. Then, lacquer is applied to fill in the oceans. Given the intricate shapes of the map and fine details of the meridian lines, the lacquer has to be applied, by hand, in carefully controlled drops using a syringe. The finished disc is polished multiple times and while a perfectly uniform finish is essential, the lacquer and metal reflect the light differently, creating a subtle three dimensional effect. Powering the watch is a manually wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 834 with a 42-hour power reserve. 

Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II

This 40 mm white gold destro watch features a green ceramic dial and a two-colour Cerachrom bezel insert in green and black ceramic. In addition to conventional hour, minute, and seconds hands, the GMT-Master II features an arrow-tipped hand, which circles the dial once every 24 hours, as well as a bidirectional rotatable 24-hour graduated bezel. The distinctively coloured 24-hour hand displays the home reference time in a first time zone that can be read on the graduations on the bezel. 

The traveller’s local time is easily set by “jumping” from hour to hour, thanks to an ingenious mechanism operated via the winding crown: the hour hand can be adjusted forwards or backwards independently of the minute and seconds hands. This allows travellers to adapt to their new time zone without affecting the precision of their timekeeping. The Cerachrom bezel insert features an original colour combination: black and an exclusive green that is reserved for this model. Powering the watch is self-winding Calibre 3285 with a 70-hour power reserve. On this watch, the crown and the crown guard are located on the left side of the watch case. The date aperture and the Cyclops lens are at 9 o’clock.

TAG Heuer Carrera Date Twin-Time

This 41 mm stainless steel watch has a teal and silver 24-hour scale, and a more pronounced teal and silver seconds/minutes track. The GMT hand stands out with its red lacquered tip, matching the Twin-Time mention on the dial with a date window at 6 o’clock. 

The model has rhodium-plated faceted hour markers, hour, minute, and central second hands, and the markings are positioned on the inner side of the sunray brushed green dial rather than on the polished stainless steel bezel. Super-LumiNova can be found only on the hour and minute hands. Powering the watch is calibre TH31-03 with an 80-hour power reserve. 

Tudor Black Bay Pro

This watch has a 39 mm stainless steel case, lugs, a stainless steel screw-down winding crown with the Tudor rose at 3 o'clock, and a 24-hour graduated fixed bezel in satin-brushed steel. On the Black Bay Pro model, the reference time is indicated by an angular yellow Snowflake hand (an aesthetic hallmark of the brand), which completes a lap of the dial every 24 hours. Local time is indicated by another, shorter Snowflake hand, set by a jumping hour, which can be moved either backward or forward. 

The date, displayed through an aperture positioned at 3 o'clock, is coupled with the local time hand so that when setting the time and passing midnight in retrograde, it instantly jumps to the previous day. A highly unusual, sophisticated, and particularly practical function for the user, no doubt. Powering the watch is Calibre MT5652 with a 70-hour power reserve.

Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time

Patek Philippe has reinterpreted the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time in white gold with an ivory lacquered dial and a khaki green composite material strap with a fabric motif. At the heart of this travel watch beats the 26-330 S C FUS calibre, a self-winding movement distinguished by its easy-to-use Travel Time display system. The date indicated by hand at 6 o'clock automatically adjusts to the local time, whether forward or backward. The two time-zone pushers feature a patented screw-down safety system preventing any risk of accidentally putting the local-time function out of order.

Parmigiani Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante Stainless Steel Verzasca

An unusual and exquisite take on dual-time watches, this 40 mm stain steel watch has a textured bezel with a typical PF style, adding a touch of refined discretion to its complication. The pusher at 8 o'clock adjusts the second time zone. However, there is another pusher in the crown, and this one allows wearers to conceal the extra 24-hour hand when it is no longer required. This year, a new Verzasca Green variant joins the line, with a delicate and subtle shade for the delicately guilloché dial. PF has recently been a big fan of colours, and some of them are quite unusual and appealing. Powering the watch is Calibre PF051, a self-winding movement with a 48-hour power reserve and a 22 ct rose gold micro-rotor.