Time in Zurich

Swiss voters rejected a daylight saving law in a 1978 referendum, largely on the objections of farmers. When Germany and Austria introduced summer time in 1980, Switzerland was left one hour out of step with every neighbor for six months: trains from Zurich to Munich or Milan had to be retimed, and border commuters lived with two clocks. Parliament passed a new law and Switzerland joined summer time in 1981. It has stayed in step with the rest of Central Europe ever since.

Swiss railway clocks are famous for their design: the red second hand sweeps round in about 58 seconds, pauses at the top, and waits for a central signal before the minute hand jumps forward. Swiss trains run to that synchronized time, and a minute late counts as late.

Offices in Zurich typically run from 8:00 to 17:00 or 17:30, earlier than in Southern Europe. The SIX Swiss Exchange trades continuously from 9:00 until about 17:20, followed by a closing auction at 17:30. Zurich is six hours ahead of New York for most of the year, so a 9:00 AM call in New York lands at 3:00 PM in Zurich; in the weeks of March and late October when the US and Europe are out of sync, the gap is five hours. London is always one hour behind. The CET to EST page lays out every hour of the day.

Around the June solstice Zurich sees about 15 hours 57 minutes of daylight, from roughly 5:29 AM to 9:26 PM. In late December the sun rises near 8:10 AM and sets around 4:38 PM, leaving under 8 and a half hours. Deep valleys and mountain shadow can trim those numbers locally; the table above shows the astronomical values for the city itself.