The Best 24-Hour Watches for 2024 and Beyond

24-hour watches are a fascinating niche. Here’s our list of the best ones you can buy!

Most analog watches on the market today feature a classic 12-hour track around the dial’s periphery. While they are certainly a straightforward, no-nonsense way to read the time, must that always be the case? Well, no. There is a surprisingly wide array of 24-hour watches nowadays. 

24-hour watches introduce an alternative way to read the time. They always attract attention because, quite frankly, they look pretty different! Wearing one of these watches gives you an overview of the entire day. Although a digital watch is similar, there is something beautiful and traditional about wearing a 24-hour analog watch. They combine modern elements with tradition and come in plenty of styles. 

What is a 24-Hour Watch?

Simply put, a 24-hour watch displays time in a 24-hour format rather than a 12-hour format. Remember, a 24 hr watch is not a model that simultaneously shows a 12-hour track. Those are either GMT or field watches (like the Hamilton Khaki Field watch). A 24-hour watch completes one full revolution around the dial every day. Anything that makes two revolutions around the dial per day is a 12-hour analog watch. 

Above all, 24-hour watches suggest a more relaxed approach to reading the time. This is thanks to the decelerated hour hand, which completes a lap of the dial in double the time it takes a 12-hour analog. Indeed, tracking the time with one of these timepieces is slow, controlled, and somewhat relaxing. 

The 24 Hour Analog Dial Watch

Personally, I think watches with a 24-hour display help you focus on the essential elements of a watch. They don’t add anything unnecessarily complicated to timekeeping. Because we’re so familiar with 12-hour analog watches, the 24-hour analog dial watch naturally intrigues us. It appears pretty extraordinary despite displaying time in a very logical, practical way. 

We can trace this simple timekeeping method back to ancient times. After all, the tracking of time depends on the sun’s positioning. Since our biorhythm naturally aligns with the light and dark phases of the day, we can divide a watch dial into sections. It’s one reason why GMT watches tend to have two-tone bezel designs. Take the Pepsi watch design as an example. The hours from 6 pm to 6 am are in blue to signify the darkest hours of the 24-hour period. Contrastingly, the red hours signify the lighter hours of the day. 

The Best 24 Hour Watches 

Most 12-hour watches feature 12 indexes or numerals around the edge of the dial. The style of watch is popular with military personnel or those in the aviation industry. However, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the watch-collecting society can’t enjoy these watches either.

Many leading brands offer watches with a 24-hour scale simply because many collectors enjoy wearing them. Today, many options exist, from classic designs to vintage models, pilot’s watches, and contemporary iterations. 

The 24-hour watches we rounded up here represent a wide range of styles, concepts, and price points. Let’s take a look!

1. Longines Heritage Twenty-Four Hours

Longines is a master in creating expert chronographs for pilots and stellar navigation instruments. This on-board equipment once aided the development of civil and military aviation, and the brand is still celebrating that today. Plus, Longines is a pretty good brand to boot. Watches like the Heritage Twenty-Four Hours is a perfect example.

There are two things we need to talk about first. One is that this is no small watch by any stretch of the imagination. The steel model measures a daring 47mm, but look at how the lugs slope in. This architectural element and the classic black leather band help the watch to wear smaller on the wrist. The second is the dial. Upon first glance, it looks busy. The 24-hour scale sits inside a 60-minute track, while the spade-shaped hour hand provides lots of character. I also love the bulb-shaped crown and the traditional back cover on the rear of the watch. Opening this reveals the fascinating mechanics at play. 

2. Botta Tres 24

German brand Botta makes a very quirky-looking 24-hour watch. In fact, the brand wholeheartedly dedicates itself to creating these timepieces. The Tres 24 design is remarkably modern. Its central hour hand represents the position of the sun each day. The wearer can also track time accurately down to the minute. The Tres 24 is the brand’s first multi-hand automatic. Like the earth, the dial features two shades for daytime and nighttime hours: grey for day and black for night. 

The vibrant shots of lime green are a striking addition to this design. You can also enjoy the watch with orange elements or in a grey and white dial version. The Botta Tres 24 watch features a Tri-Titanium case measuring 40mm in diameter and a trusty ETA movement. For a little over $2k, Botta offers a lot in its neat, lightweight package. The Tres 24 features a sapphire glass front and comes on a variety of different straps, including a Milanese bracelet.  

Botta offers a quartz version of the Tres 24 for under $700 if you’re on a budget.

3. Glycine Airman

The Glycine Airman set the benchmark for many of the brand’s aviation watches. Some models from the series even feature three time zones. Something like this Airman Contemporary Men watch brings modern functionality to the wrist. This unisex watch measures 36mm on the wrist and features a steel case and a black dial. 

This straightforward-looking 24-hour time watch has a grey case coating, a sapphire glass top, and two crowns. The second crown locks the bezel into place, which can track a second-time zone. This unambiguous 24-hour wrist watch oozes vintage style and will look great with a bomber jacket or shell jacket. 

4. Raketa Polar 0300

Looking for a Soviet/Russian watch? Take a look at Raketa’s take on the 24-hour dial watch. The brand has an extensive history of creating watches for Soviet polar explorations and space. The Raketa Polar 0300 will appeal to explorers with its rugged 41.6mm stainless steel case and rotating bezel. What makes the watch so unusual is its entirely lume-coated dial. The brand separates the dial into six sections, enabling crewmembers of maritime expeditions to track their shifts. 

This is another GMT watch, while the enamel-finished bezel can also operate as a solar compass. Interestingly, this watch comes with a Russian certificate to prove it can operate in the harshest conditions of the polar regions.  

5. Poljot Polar Bear

With its exotic green display, you cannot miss the Polar Bear watch by the Russian brand Poljot. The brand actually manufactures these watches in Germany, but its Russian roots are as prominent as ever. The combination of the green dial and the stylish font is genius. Despite its simple layout, I love how this watch stands out with its colossal presence. This is a manual winding watch and features a sapphire glass front. And if you’re unsure how to wind a mechanical watch, don’t worry. We run through the mechanical winding process in great detail here. 

6. Glycine Airman GL0058

Another Glycine makes it to the list, this time a white variant. This 24-hour format watch affords a clean and crisp aesthetic with military-like looks. The brown leather strap with white contrast stitching looks traditional and classic. It secures with a comfortable stainless steel buckle bearing an Airman-engraved logo. An exhibition case back reveals the GL293 Swiss automatic movement. The engine provides a power reserve of 42 hours, a date function, and a GMT hand. 

Perfect for traveling, the Glycine Airman GL0058 is a 24-hour watch with many military and aviation-inspired aesthetics. I like that it’s still eye-catching despite displaying the time simply and pared back. 

FAQs

Here are some common inquiries regarding 24-hour watches!

How Do 24-Hour Watches Work?

24-hour watches work like regular 12-hour watches, except they run on military time. They feature hours 1 through 24 instead of 1 through 12.

How Do You Read a 24-Hour Watch Face?

After the 12th hour of the day, instead of going back to 1, the dial depicts the 13th hour. This is the same as 1 pm on a 12-hour clock. From there, 14:00 is 2 pm, 15:00 is 3 pm, and so on.

What Was the First 24-Hour Watch?

Ancient Egyptians used 24-hour sundials, and clocks in the Middle Ages were also 24-hour. In 1953, Glycine introduced the 24-hour rotating bezel, which Rolex popularised with the GMT Master.

The Takeaway 

Whether the 24 markers are on the bezel, the dial, or both, the 24-hour watch appears on more than just military tools. Sure, they may take a while to get to grips with, especially those familiar with the 12-hour design. But generally speaking, 24-hour watches are simple and logical and look pretty cool too!

If you can overlook twice the amount of numbers than a conventional watch, this way of timekeeping just makes more sense. And today, many quirky, exciting brands are tapping into this way of timekeeping. 

We hope you like the ones we chose, but if you have any recommendations of your own, don’t forget to share them. Leave your comments below and mention your favorite 24-hour watch!