The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon, launched in 2014, features the tourbillon, a second time zone display, a day and night indication and ceramic used in its manual-winding movement, the Calibre 2930. Photo: © TANG Portfolio. 2014 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie
What day does the opening match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup fall on?
Is it on Thursday the 12th of June or Friday the 13th?
Would you cry “foul!” immediately and flash the yellow card if someone said it was on Friday, the 13th of June?
Well, for us, the answer is: it depends.
On the official website of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the first opening match of the 2014 World Cup when Brazil faces Croatia is scheduled to be played on Thursday 12 June at 1700 hours or 5 p.m. at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, Brazil.
However, it will not be wrong to say that this match is played on 13 June 2014 as well. Why? This is because of the different time zones.
For those residing in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand or the Philippines, this opening match will be played on 13 June. This is because the time difference in these countries is between 10 and 11 hours ahead of Brazil.
As such, when the referee blows his whistle for the game to begin on 12 June in Sao Paulo, it will be 13 June for hardcore football fans whose eyes are glued to their television sets or computers in Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.
In fact, it will be 3 a.m. on 13 June for those in cities like Bangkok (Thailand) and Jakarta (Indonesia) as these two countries are 10 hours ahead of Brazil.
Meanwhile, World Cup soccer fans will also be up and about in the cities of Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Hong Kong, Manila (the Philippines), Taipei (Taiwan) and Singapore at 4 a.m. on 13 June (11 hours ahead of Brazil) just to catch the live coverage of their very first match between Brazil and Croatia.
For watch collectors who are also soccer fans and are in a different time zone from Brazil during this World Cup, timepieces especially those with the dual-time feature or second time zone display which are also termed “GMT”, will come in handy.
With such a feature, they will know what time it is in Brazil and be prepared for their World Cup soccer games.
One high-end example will be the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon which was launched in January 2014 at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, Switzerland.
In addition to the tourbillon complication, this timepiece in a titanium case with a striking white ceramic bezel and pusher, including a white ceramic upper bridge, features the second time zone display at the 3 o’clock position.
The hours are indicated referencing the white triangular arrow and it will also display whether it is a.m. or p.m. just by looking at the colour of a second disc under the disc which the hour numeral is on. If the disc is seen to be white, it is day time and if in black, night time.
This will be known as home time, or in our particular example, the time in Brazil. The central hour and minute hand will display the time in the current location one is in, also known as local time.
The “H”, “N” and “R” are on the dial at 6 o’clock each represent a function for the winding stem: “H” is for the “time setting”, “N” for “neutral” when the watch is running normally and “R” is for “winding” the mainspring.
Winding the mainspring is like recharging the power in the movement, similar to the rest required to recharge (note: three “Rs”: rest, required and recharging) after losing around a few hours of sleep in order to catch live World Cup matches during those early mornings in June and July.