Researchers claim: it’s time to move to universal time without time zones

Travelers know this feeling well: a short trip between countries can confuse your watch, your computer insists on automatically updating, and you may miss an important meeting because you forgot the time differences between Jerusalem, Paris and New York. The purpose of time zones is to synchronize our clocks with the movement of the sun, but the result sometimes becomes a headache – especially when traveling or when trying to communicate with people in different parts of the world.

Time zones were originally created to reduce chaos, not increase it. Before humans adopted any standard way of measuring time, time varied from place to place—even within the same country—because time was based primarily on the movement of the sun.

Time zone differences didn’t become a real crisis until the 19th century, when trains became a common means of transportation that easily connected distant places. At this stage time became a sensitive element, and with it mistakes began. “People started missing their trains, and accidents happened that almost led to fatal collisions,” Hanke said.

Fleming’s method was based on Greenwich Mean Time in Great Britain, where the sun sets as the “reference hour” above the prime longitude. Since nautical charts already used Greenwich as the prime longitude, the new system appears to conform to international standards.

On November 18, 1883, North American railroads adopted only four time zones: Eastern, Central, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific. American cities soon followed suit, making the system a national standard. The adoption of Greenwich Mean Time also eliminated any internal competition for the right to be the “point of departure” for time around the world.

Can the world get rid of time zones?

Despite the convenience offered by the new system, confusion resurfaced in the twentieth century. Flights further strengthened the connection between places in the world, the Internet made communication instantaneous, and companies began to operate around the clock.

According to them, the idea is not only to simplify the lives of travelers, but a real solution for a connected world, where one meeting could include participants from Montana, Germany and Singapore at the same time. Hanke said, “Chaos will disappear forever.” Henry, on the other hand, believes that “life will become simpler.” Since the idea was first proposed in 2012, others have adopted it. In fact, the world has already begun, albeit partially, to operate according to a unified time zone.

How does Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) work today?

The US aviation industry already uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for communication between pilots and air traffic controllers. Traders in financial markets – especially cross-country transactions – also use UTC to ensure accurate pricing. Even the Internet itself operates according to UTC, ignoring time zones.

But will this system change the pace of people’s daily lives? Hanke rejects this idea: “Some people say that if we adopt universal time, the shops will open in the dark. That’s not true. You will still organize your day according to the sun. Only the numbers on your watch will change. If you normally open your business at 9 am in New York, the time will become 14:00 UTC.”

The clearest example of their claim comes from China, where the entire country uses one time zone even though it stretches several thousand kilometers from east to west. Henry argued: “China has the right geographic area to make this system absurd in theory, but it works in practice because people organize their lives locally around work and study schedules.”