UK daylight saving: GMT, BST and your watch

GMT and BST

In winter the UK uses Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the same as UTC. In summer it uses British Summer Time (BST), one hour ahead (UTC+1). The clocks go forward one hour on the last Sunday in March and back one hour on the last Sunday in October, at 01:00 GMT in both cases.

Working out the dates…

What to do with each kind of watch

• Quartz and automatic watchesdon't change themselves. Move the hour hand forward one hour in March and back one hour in October. On watches with a date, adjust in daytime, away from midnight, so the date isn't accidentally advanced. Some watches let you jump the hour hand on its own; your manual says.
• Radio-controlled watches set themselves from a time signal (in the UK, the MSF signalfrom Anthorn) and usually switch between GMT and BST automatically after their next successful reception, often overnight. Check the home city or time-zone setting is correct.
• Smartwatches and phones change automatically when automatic date and time is turned on, as they take the time from the network or the paired phone.
• GPS and connected watchesmay update automatically too; check for a time-zone or “summer time” (DST) setting.

Not sure if yours changes itself?Look in the manual for “DST”, “summer time” or “radio-controlled”, or just compare it with the live UK timethe morning after a change.