Dual time pocket watch with compass – €5500-7000 at Dr Crott.
Dual time zones watches first came into fashion in France, where they were used to show both ‘time’ in the traditional manner and also Revolutionary time, a short-lived idea based on the decimal system.
The need for dual time surfaced again in the late 19th century when, in the 1870s, the Scottish-Canadian engineer Sandford Fleming put forward his concept of a universal standard time with regulated time zones around the globe. Until then, each region applied its own time system (generally based on solar time) that created obvious confusion as the railway network expanded across Europe.