Could UTC Replace Time Zones?
Swatch once tried to kill time zones with .beats. But could UTC be the serious replacement the world actually needs? -
Best overlap: 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM in New York is 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM in Mumbai.
If you set up a recurring sync, 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM in New York (5:30 PM to 6:30 PM in Mumbai) is the natural home for it. There's just 1 hour of overlap here, so don't leave meetings to chance — lock 8:00 AM in New York / 5:30 PM in Mumbai into the calendar. Remember that New York shifts for daylight saving and Mumbai doesn't, so recalculate the overlap after each clock change.
| Local time | 12am | 1am | 2am | 3am | 4am | 5am | 6am | 7am | 8am | 9am | 10am | 11am | 12pm | 1pm | 2pm | 3pm | 4pm | 5pm | 6pm | 7pm | 8pm | 9pm | 10pm | 11pm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New York America/New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mumbai Asia/Kolkata |
Swatch once tried to kill time zones with .beats. But could UTC be the serious replacement the world actually needs? -
8 AM Tokyo is 4 PM in Los Angeles the day before. West Coast afternoon windows, the East Coast dead zone, and why the Philippines slot is an hour off. -
London to New York is five hours apart, except for the five weeks a year when it isn't. Exact overlap windows for every US zone, the 2026 DST mismatch dates, and where to put the recurring sync. -