World Clock for Your Desk: Multiple Time Zones on One Screen
A world clock puts New York, London, Tokyo, and your own time on one fullscreen panel you can read from across the desk. Leave it on an iPad or a second screen and the page stays awake.
How to use
The panel opens on your local time plus New York, London, and Tokyo. Each card shows the city, the time, and whether that date is today, tomorrow, or yesterday. The offset is the gap from this device. A sun marks 06:00 to 18:00 in that city, and a moon marks the rest. The chip says Working hours from 09:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, and After hours outside that. Press S, or tap the gear, to add a city. Search Mumbai or an IANA name such as Asia/Kolkata. Drag the handle to reorder, or focus it and use the arrow keys. Remove a city you do not need. On a wide screen, four cities sit in two rows and eight sit in two rows of four. A tall screen uses one or two columns. Press F for fullscreen.
Set it up on an iPad or second screen
Set an iPad on a stand at the back of a shared desk, or leave a window on a second monitor. In Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen, and open the page from that icon so the browser bars stay hidden. The page asks for a wake lock, which keeps the display on while this tab is open. iPadOS can still sleep from Auto-Lock, so set that timer to Never on a stand you use all day. For a lobby, turn on Guided Access under Settings, then Accessibility, and start it with a triple-click of the side button. At night, set Dim to 40 so the backlight softens. Keep the iPad plugged in. Burn-in shift nudges the cards a few pixels so they do not rest on the same spots.
Customize it
The table lists every control and the URL parameter that stores it. Change a value and the address bar updates, so a bookmark is a complete setup. Theme, font, scale, and dim are shared across tools on this site. The city list, hour format, seconds, offset, working-hours chip, and layout belong to this page. Values that match the defaults are left out of the link. Local follows the device that opens the link. A name the browser does not know is dropped, and the other cities stay. Copy link to this setup sends that address.
| Setting | URL param | Allowed values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time zonesUp to 8 cities. Search by city, country, or IANA name. Local follows this device. | z | Up to 8 time zones, comma-separated. local, or an IANA name | local, America/New_York, Europe/London, Asia/Tokyo |
| Hour format | format | 24-hour (24h), 12-hour (12h) | 24-hour (24h) |
| SecondsOff updates every card once a minute. | seconds | On (1) or off (0) | Off |
| OffsetGap from this device, such as −5:00 h. | offset | On (1) or off (0) | On |
| Working hours09:00–18:00, Monday to Friday, in that city. | work | On (1) or off (0) | On |
| LayoutGrid packs the cards. Row is one line. List is a column. | layout | Grid (grid), Row (row), List (list) | Grid (grid) |
| Theme | theme | Midnight (midnight), Carbon (OLED) (carbon), Paper (paper), Forest (forest), Dusk (dusk), Ocean (ocean), Aurora (aurora), Terminal (terminal), Graphite (graphite), Porcelain (porcelain) | Midnight (midnight) |
| Font | font | System (sans), JetBrains Mono (mono), Space Grotesk (grotesk), Fraunces (serif), Bebas Neue (condensed), Orbitron (digital), Condensed Bold (flip) | System (sans) |
| Scale | scale | 50–150, step 5% | 100% |
| Dim | dim | 0–80, step 5% | 0% |
| Burn-in shiftNudge the display a few pixels so a static clock does not mark the screen. | shift | On (1) or off (0) | On |
Keyboard shortcuts
These keys work when focus is not in a text field. The shell handles fullscreen, settings, hiding the bars, and this list. This page does not add keys of its own. Focus a time-zone handle and press the up or down arrow to move that city.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| F | Fullscreen |
| S | Settings |
| H | Hide or show the interface |
| ? | Keyboard shortcuts |
| Esc | Close |
A world clock built for remote teams
A spare screen answers the question people ask on a call: what time is it there? The working-hours chip uses 09:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday, in that city, so the overlap is visible without a spreadsheet. The offset is measured from the device in front of you. A desk in Bengaluru sees New York as a negative gap and Tokyo as a smaller one. It also works as a time zone clock on a desktop you leave running. Daylight saving time comes from the browser. America/New_York moves an hour in March and again in November, and that card follows. Pair it with the clock when you only need one zone, or the flip clock for split-flap cards.
FAQ
Does it handle daylight saving time?
Yes. Each city uses the IANA time zone data in your browser, the same data that moves America/New_York between standard time and daylight time. When New York springs forward in March or falls back in November, that card shifts by an hour on its own. You do not type an offset. A link that names a zone the browser does not know is ignored, and the other cities stay on the screen.
How many cities can I add?
Eight. Open settings with S or the gear, then search by city, country, or an IANA name such as Europe/London. Drag a row by its handle to change the order, or focus that handle and press the up or down arrow. Remove a city with its button. The address bar stores the list under z, so the same row opens on another desk. Local follows the device that is showing the page.
Can I leave this on an iPad all day?
Yes. In Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen, and open the page from that icon so the browser bars stay hidden. The page asks for a wake lock while the tab is open. iPadOS can still sleep because of Auto-Lock, so set that timer to Never on a stand you use all day. At night, set Dim to 40 so the backlight softens. Burn-in shift nudges the cards a few pixels.
Why does one city say tomorrow?
The label compares that city's calendar date with the date on this device. Just after midnight in Tokyo, a card for New York can still say yesterday, because the dates have not caught up. The offset under the time is the gap from your local zone, and it changes when either side is on daylight saving time. The sun marks 06:00 to 18:00 in that city, and the moon marks the rest of the day.
What does the working hours chip mean?
It marks 09:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday, in that city's own time. Outside that window, including the weekend, the chip says After hours. It is a fixed office day, not a holiday calendar, so a public holiday on a weekday afternoon still shows as working hours. Turn the chip off in settings if you only want the time. The sun and moon are separate from the chip and follow 06:00 to 18:00.