Time in the Kingdom of the Netherlands is denoted by

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Eur ...

(CET; ) during the winter as

standard time Standard time is the synchronization of clocks within a geographical region to a single time standard, rather than a local mean time standard. Generally, standard time agrees with the local mean time at some meridian that passes through the r ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, which is one hour ahead of

coordinated universal time Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communicat ...

( UTC+01:00), and

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+02:00), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central E ...

(CEST) during the summer as

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (Daylight saving time in the United States, United States and Daylight saving time in Canada, Canada), or summer time (British Summer Time, United Kingdom, ...

, which is two hours ahead of coordinated universal time ( UTC+02:00). The

Caribbean Netherlands The Caribbean Netherlands (, ) is a geographic region of the Netherlands located outside of Europe, in the Caribbean, consisting of three special municipalities. These are the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (island), Saba,"Bonair ...

– which consist of the islands of

Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius, known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially "Public body (Netherlands), public body") of the Netherlands. The island is in the northern Leeward Islands ...

and

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Șaba or Șaba-Târg, the Romanian name for Shabo, a village in Ukraine * Saba, ...

– all observe

Atlantic Standard Time The Atlantic Time Zone is a geographical region that keeps standard time—called Atlantic Standard Time (AST)—by subtracting four hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), resulting in UTC−04:00. AST is observed in parts of North America i ...

(AST) year-round, which is four hours behind coordinated universal time ( UTC−04:00).

History

Early history

Before the 19th century, there was no need for a standard time zone across the country. Instead,

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

s were historically used to measure the

mean solar time Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Traditionally, there are three types of time reckoning based ...

.De wettelijke tijdregeling in Nederland (met een overzicht van de zomertijdregeling vanaf 1916)
(in Dutch). Faculty of Science.

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

. Retrieved 27 December 2021. But they could not function at night or if the sky was cloudy, in which case other methods such as the

clepsydra Clepsydra may refer to: * Clepsydra, an alternative name for a water clock A water clock, or clepsydra (; ; ), is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, an ...

were used, which measured time by the regulated flow of water into or out from a vessel. Sundials, which divide a

day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

into 24 hours, were subject to inaccuracies, as

Earth's rotation Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own Rotation around a fixed axis, axis, as well as changes in the orientation (geometry), orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in progra ...

around the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

does not follow a uniform time of 24 hours. On a sundial, the position of the sun would be 14 minutes behind around 11 February, and 16½ minutes ahead around 3 November. From the 13th century,

mechanical clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, and the ye ...

s began to be used across

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. However, they too remained imprecise, and had to be adjusted almost daily on the basis of the

position of the Sun The position of the Sun in the sky is a function of both the time and the geographic coordinate system, geographic location of observation on Earth's surface. As Earth's orbit, Earth orbits the Sun over the course of a year, the Sun appears to mo ...

with a sundial in order to remain accurate. In 1656,

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Halen, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , ; ; also spelled Huyghens; ; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution ...

invented the

pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is an approximate harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dep ...

, a clock that uses a pendulum swinging weight as its timekeeping element. It was immensely accurate, misaligning only about one second per year, and soon became the world's standard timekeeper until it was superseded as a time standard by the

quartz clock Quartz clocks and quartz watches are timepieces that use an electronic oscillator regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. The crystal oscillator, controlled by the resonant mechanical vibrations of the quartz crystal, creates a signal with ...

in the 1930s.

Advent of the railway and telegraph

In the mid-19th century, the need for a standard time zone across the country began to be realised with the advent of the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, which would follow precise

timetables A schedule (, ) or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things ...

– sailing ships and stage-coaches could not – and with the

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

, which allowed near real-time communication. While a mean time was proposed as early as 1835, the first law relating to a standardised time zone was the Telegraph Act of 1852, which stipulated that the national telegraph service adjust the clocks in its offices to "the central time of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

", which would later become known as "

Amsterdam Time UTC+00:20 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +00:20. History UTC+00:20 was used in the Netherlands from 1 May 1909 to 16 May 1940. It was known as Amsterdam Time or Dutch Time. The exact time zone was GMT +0h 19m&n ...

" (

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

: ') the mean time of Amsterdam ( UTC+00:19:32.13). Later amendments to the Telegraph Act allowed telegraph offices to indicate their opening hours in local mean time, but Amsterdam Time always had to be stated when the telegrams were sent. From 1 January 1866, both the opening hours and the times stated on the telegrams had to be given in both

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

and Amsterdam Time. According to the General Regulations for Railway Services Act, passed on 12 May 1863, each station had to be "provided with a well-running clock, regulated according to the mean time after which the service on the railway takes place", the choice of the maintained time being left to the railway companies themselves. Most railway stations chose to observe Amsterdam Time, and in a government decree dated 31 July 1866 to amend the railway regulations, it was stipulated that the time at all stations and in all timetables should henceforth be given according to Amsterdam Time. The

International Meridian Conference The International Meridian Conference was a conference held in October 1884 in Washington, D.C., in the United States, to determine a prime meridian for international use. The conference was held at the request of President of the United State ...

was held in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

in October 1884, which was attended by a delegate from the Netherlands. Geographically, the Netherlands is located closer to the

prime meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian (geography), meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. On a spheroid, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian ...

Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the local mean time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being ...

(GMT; UTC+00:00; also called

Western European Time Western European Time (WET, UTC+00:00) is a time zone covering parts of western Europe and consists of countries using UTC+00:00 (also known as Greenwich Mean Time, abbreviated GMT). It is one of the three standard time zones in the European Uni ...

) than to the

15th meridian east The meridian 15° east of Prime Meridian, Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Europe, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole. The 15th meridian e ...

(CET; UTC+01:00). However, a government decree dated 19 April 1892 proclaimed that from 1 May the Dutch railways would legally be required to observe GMT whilst the telegraph companies would have to observe CET. The latter decision came as to convenience shipping between the Netherlands and the rest of continental Europe, where the bordering countries observed CET. The ship's chronometers were also adjusted accordingly.

Nationwide standard times and the introduction of daylight saving time

On 1 May 1909, a government decree stipulated that the entirety of the Netherlands (including the Dutch railways) would be required by law to observe Amsterdam Time.

Daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (Daylight saving time in the United States, United States and Daylight saving time in Canada, Canada), or summer time (British Summer Time, United Kingdom, ...

was first attempted on 1 May 1916; the clock moved forwards one hour at 00:00 to UTC+01:19:32.13, and moved back on 1 October at 00:00. Daylight saving time continued the following year, this time moving forwards on 16 April at 02:00 and back on 17 September at 03:00. The government found the results pleasing, and formally implemented daylight saving time into law on 23 March 1918. Between 1918 and 1925 daylight saving time began on the first Monday in April at 02:00 and ended on the last Monday in September at 03:00 until 1921, when the end date was changed to the Sunday in the first weekend of October. Between 1926 and 1939, daylight saving time began on 15 May – one week later if it fell on

Whitsun Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the H ...

– at 02:00, and ended at 03:00 at Sunday in the first weekend of October. On 1 July 1937, the time zone of the Netherlands was simplified to UTC+00:20, and became generally known as " Dutch Time" (Dutch: ''Nederlandse Tijd''). In 1940 when

Germany occupied the Netherlands Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 m ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Berlin Time The time zone in Germany is Central European Time (, ''MEZ''; UTC+01:00) and Central European Summer Time (, ''MESZ''; UTC+02:00). Daylight saving time is observed from the last Sunday in March (02:00 CET) to the last Sunday in October (03:00 CE ...

(UTC+01:00) was adopted, and daylight saving time was removed. The Netherlands has retained UTC+01:00 ever since, today known as Central European Time (CET; Dutch: ''Midden-Europese Tijd'' (MET)).

Daylight saving time

In-line with the

EU directive A directive is a legal act of the European Union that requires Member state of the European Union, member states to achieve particular goals without dictating how the member states achieve those goals. A directive's goals have to be made the go ...

, the Netherlands observes daylight saving time yearly by advancing the clock forward one hour from Central European Time in UTC+01:00 to Central European Summer Time in UTC+02:00 at 02:00 on the last Sunday in March and back at 03:00 on the last Sunday in October.

Geography and solar time

Map of Europe with differences between time zones and UTC offsets, showing the Netherlands
Geographically, the Netherlands lies within the UTC+00:00 offset. The difference of

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

between the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

(3°21′30″E) and easternmost points (7°13′40″E) of the Netherlands results in a difference of approximately 16 minutes of

solar time Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Traditionally, there are three types of time reckoning based ...

Date and notation

IANA time zone database

In the

IANA time zone database The tz database is a collaborative compilation of information about the world's time zones and rules for observing daylight saving time, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems. Paul Eggert has been its editor an ...

, the Netherlands is given two zones in the file

zone.tab This is a list of time zones from release of the tz database. Legend Type * Canonical - The primary, preferred zone name. * Link - An alternative name (alias) which links to a canonical zone. * Link - A standard Link (as above). The dagger sym ...

– Europe/Amsterdam and America/Kralendijk for the

. " NL" and " BQ" refer to the country's

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special ...

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

s, the latter being for the Caribbean Netherlands and the former for the country in general. Data for the Netherlands directly from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database; columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself: Computers which do not support "Europe/Amsterdam" or "America/Kralendijk" may use the

POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX; ) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines application programming interfaces (APIs), along with comm ...

syntax: TZ="CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3" or TZ="AST4" respectively.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Current time in Amsterdam
at ''Time.is''
Current time in Kralendijk
at ''Time.is''
Time in the Netherlands
at ''TimeAndDate.com'' {{Europe topic, Time in Geography of the Netherlands