# Who invented the first 24 Hr or GMT watch?



## Thomas Miko (Oct 25, 2011)

Hi
I am thinking about buying a Glycine Airman. I am trying to figure out who first invented a wristwatch with a 24 hour hand--independently of whether the watch was a Glycine Airman type of watch, or a Rolex GMT type of watch. If I Google this topic, I get a bunch of "Rolex" search results, but I strongly suspect that these are because Rolex (or somebody else with a financial stake) pays Google to post all of these search results (most of which do not address my question-directly-or even indirectly.) This is not an anti-Rolex slam, but I do get easily irritated by the clever use of language on Rolex's part, in which it implies that it invented the toaster, the microwave oven, and the cotton gin, without flat-out lying about it. Let's be honest; their marketing is deceptive (Blancpain invented the dive watch with a 60 minute rotating bezel, and Doxa invented the helium release valve for Rolex, but Rolex pretends that they did it in their secret lab under a volcano). I tried Googling the history of the 24 hour movement or the 2893 ETA movement, with similar (lack of) results. All I want to know is whether or not it was ETA or Rolex who first made a movement and put a 24 hour hand on it. I want dates.


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## Thomas Miko (Oct 25, 2011)

Bueller?

Bueller?


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## Cappyab (Aug 16, 2019)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## drunken-gmt-master (Mar 29, 2018)

Thomas Miko said:


> Hi
> I am thinking about buying a Glycine Airman. I am trying to figure out who first invented a wristwatch with a 24 hour hand--independently of whether the watch was a Glycine Airman type of watch, or a Rolex GMT type of watch. If I Google this topic, I get a bunch of "Rolex" search results, but I strongly suspect that these are because Rolex (or somebody else with a financial stake) pays Google to post all of these search results (most of which do not address my question-directly-or even indirectly.) This is not an anti-Rolex slam, but I do get easily irritated by the clever use of language on Rolex's part, in which it implies that it invented the toaster, the microwave oven, and the cotton gin, without flat-out lying about it. Let's be honest; their marketing is deceptive (Blancpain invented the dive watch with a 60 minute rotating bezel, and Doxa invented the helium release valve for Rolex, but Rolex pretends that they did it in their secret lab under a volcano). I tried Googling the history of the 24 hour movement or the 2893 ETA movement, with similar (lack of) results. All I want to know is whether or not it was ETA or Rolex who first made a movement and put a 24 hour hand on it. I want dates.


I believe the sources re: Glycine v. Rolex are clear & undisputed. The Glycine Airman (initially w/white dial) was introduced in 1953, whereas the Rolex GMT-Master 6542 was introduced in 1954. Depending on how you look at it, the original GMT-Masters were either a 24-hour watch w/24-hour bezel that had an extra 12-hour hand added (how a Glycine fan might see it), or a standard 12-hour watch that had a extra 24-hour hand added w/a 24-hour bezel (the Rolex fan's possible viewpoint).

However, I believe the crown for 1st 24-hour wristwatch that allowed the user to track international time zones really goes to the Louis Cottier World Timer that was made for Patek Philippe starting in 1937. It used a ring of cities on the dial instead of hours on a bezel, but accomplishes the same purpose.


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## drunken-gmt-master (Mar 29, 2018)

[Duplicate]


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## ilitig8 (Oct 11, 2013)

I think the Patek 1514 was the first separate 24-hour disc watch. I also think the first independent 24 hour hand was indeed the Rolex 16760 with the 3186 movement in 1983. By that time Glycine had gone quartz.

The ETA 2893-2 is a newer movement started around 2000 or maybe a year or two earlier.

I don't remember an independent hour hand earlier than the 3186 movement.

As for 24 hours HANDS whether independent or not I think that is the Glycine AM/PM predating the Rolex 6542 by roughly a year.


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## Emre (May 16, 2012)

I don't have information for the GMT hand invention but I am certain that the 24h rotating bezel is invented and introduced to the world of horlogerie by Glycine in Dec 1953. The 24h rotating bezel on a 24h dial, enables users to read two time zones already. As for the GMT hand I am certain it was not Glycine. The first Glycine GMT watches are from 1969 on the SST Chronographs, I am sure someone else invented that.

Rolex always like to claim - actually they officially don't, their fans do. If the company make false claims they correct themselves, as they did with the first automatic watches while Harwood and Glycine were steps ahead and shipping already automatic watches and Rolex wasn't in the game yet. But later they claimed to have the first automatic watch in Swiss chronicles and later corrected their claim and giving John Harwood the credit back as the first mass produced automatic watch inventor.

Patents are the proofs for such claims. Glycine's 24h rotating bezel patent is from 2nd Dec 1953, here you can see the patent in my website:
https://glycintennial.com/patents

If any company makes another claim for the GMT bezel, I will need to see a patent, not just 'we did it first '- unfortunately there are many of those for marketing gimmicks.


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## Emre (May 16, 2012)

And at the time when Glycine Airman was invented there was already the Tissot Navigator for example. You would read the time from the bezel and internally there was a 24h rim where cities would rotate on a disc. Pretty complicated way, but shows also how things evolve.


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## ccwatchmaker (Nov 28, 2015)

I defer to Emre when it comes to Glycine history. However, one point that has not been mentioned is the method by which the watch manufacturers achieved the hour hand rotating once in 24 hours. In every instance of which I am aware, except one, these are standard 12-hour watches with an extra pair of wheels (gears) in the cadrature (the stuff under the dial) to drive a second hour wheel or GMT hand once every 24 hours. The usual means of achieving this is to add a wheel to the date wheel which then drives the second hour wheel at a one to one ratio.

The exception is the Felsa caliber 692N, which is a true 24-hour movement, Felsa having changed the ratio between the minute wheel and the hour wheel in order to get a 24-hour hand without extra parts. This is the movement that Glycine used in the Airman watches from the beginning (1952) until into the early sixties when they discontinued the Felsa movement in favor of the A. Schild caliber 1701, which reverts to adding parts in order to have a 24-hour hand. In my opinion, this change was a cost cutting move. The Felsa movement has always seemed to me to be a higher quality and better designed movement than the A. Schild.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker


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## Emre (May 16, 2012)

Thomas Miko said:


> Hi
> I am thinking about buying a Glycine Airman. I am trying to figure out who first invented a wristwatch with a 24 hour hand
> [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]


And just for the records the GMT hand which we know now is a result of many previous inventions. A lot of companies kept working on rotating discs on the dial, the ones differentiating themselves moved the city names on the outer bezel. 
If you browse through the patents from 1945-1955 you will need contemporary keywords for search.That would be 'universelle ( FR for Swiss patents ), universal, Time zone watch, world time watch '.

You will see that Rolex has patented a watch in 1949 which has a 12 hour bezel where you read your local time. It has a 24 hour inner stationary dial, and inside that 24h dial there is another rotating dial with city names on it. That internal dial would rotate the cities around 24h dial for GMT function.

There is an inventor from California who actually did first time an auxiliary hour hand- as he calls it, which we would call GMT hand now. But his patent has no dial or bezel drawings, it just explains how the second hour hand also can move with the main hour hand but and can be set separately. It has its own crown actually.

But the earliest attempt for a 24h dial is from a obscure watch company Gigantic, they got it right with 12+12h dial in 1945 and separated it to AM/PM. This company is like Kelek, surfaced did some quick nice inventions like automatic watches, chronographs, alarm watches - which were all ahead of its time and disappeared from the market

All patents can be seen in my source pages:

https://glycintennial.com/horological-source


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## Chascomm (Feb 13, 2006)

ccwatchmaker said:


> I defer to Emre when it comes to Glycine history. However, one point that has not been mentioned is the method by which the watch manufacturers achieved the hour hand rotating once in 24 hours. In every instance of which I am aware, except one, these are standard 12-hour watches with an extra pair of wheels (gears) in the cadrature (the stuff under the dial) to drive a second hour wheel or GMT hand once every 24 hours. The usual means of achieving this is to add a wheel to the date wheel which then drives the second hour wheel at a one to one ratio...


I'm pretty sure the Raketa 2623N uses a different ratio rather than an extra wheel.


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## ccwatchmaker (Nov 28, 2015)

Chascomm said:


> I'm pretty sure the Raketa 2623N uses a different ratio rather than an extra wheel.


Having the ratio between the minute wheel and the hour wheel designed to provide a direct 24-hour hour hand rather than adding extra wheels makes sense. It is certainly possible that this is the case with the Raketa caliber 2623N; I have no familiarity with that movement. For watches with GMT hands, there is the need for two separate hour wheels.

There may be other calibers with direct 24-hour hour hands, I mentioned the Felsa 692N as the only caliber of which I am aware.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker


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## Thomas Miko (Oct 25, 2011)

Thanks!
Tom


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## Thomas Miko (Oct 25, 2011)

I love this level of detail.
Thanks.


ccwatchmaker said:


> I defer to Emre when it comes to Glycine history. However, one point that has not been mentioned is the method by which the watch manufacturers achieved the hour hand rotating once in 24 hours. In every instance of which I am aware, except one, these are standard 12-hour watches with an extra pair of wheels (gears) in the cadrature (the stuff under the dial) to drive a second hour wheel or GMT hand once every 24 hours. The usual means of achieving this is to add a wheel to the date wheel which then drives the second hour wheel at a one to one ratio.
> 
> The exception is the Felsa caliber 692N, which is a true 24-hour movement, Felsa having changed the ratio between the minute wheel and the hour wheel in order to get a 24-hour hand without extra parts. This is the movement that Glycine used in the Airman watches from the beginning (1952) until into the early sixties when they discontinued the Felsa movement in favor of the A. Schild caliber 1701, which reverts to adding parts in order to have a 24-hour hand. In my opinion, this change was a cost cutting move. The Felsa movement has always seemed to me to be a higher quality and better designed movement than the A. Schild.
> 
> James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker


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## FishTime (Jun 21, 2018)

Glycine Airman beat Rolex by about a year, not sure if anyone was before that or if they were, if they were commercially available...


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