Visualize the World's Rhythm
A complete dashboard of global time, exploring the history of how we measure our connected world.
The Story of Time Itself
Why do we have time zones? The answer lies in the age of steam and steel.
Before the 19th century, time was a local affair. Each town set its clocks by the sun's position at noon. This worked perfectly well for centuries. However, the invention of railways changed everything. Trains moving at unprecedented speeds made "local time" a logistical nightmare.
The solution was a standardized system. In 1884, at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., the globe was officially divided into 24 time zones. Greenwich, England was chosen as the prime meridian (0° longitude), establishing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the world's time standard. This single decision synchronized the entire planet.