Time in Zurich
Switzerland · Europe/Zurich · latitude 47.38°
Reading your clock…
Zurich changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC+01:00 and daylight saving time is UTC+02:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Zurich and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 25 October 2026 | 03:00 → 02:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+01:00 |
| Sunday, 28 March 2027 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC+02:00 |
| Sunday, 31 October 2027 | 03:00 → 02:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+01:00 |
Same clock, different sky: Geneva share Europe/Zurich. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Zurich
Where a range is shown, the gap genuinely changes during the year. That is not rounding or hedging — it is two governments moving their clocks on different weekends.
| City | Difference now | Across the year |
|---|---|---|
| London | 1 hour behind | constant |
| New York | 6 hours behind | −6h / −5h |
| Los Angeles | 9 hours behind | −9h / −8h |
| Chicago | 7 hours behind | −7h / −6h |
| Toronto | 6 hours behind | −6h / −5h |
| Paris | the same time | constant |
| Berlin | the same time | constant |
| Dubai | 2 hours ahead | +2h / +3h |
| Mumbai | 3 hours 30 minutes ahead | +3h30 / +4h30 |
| Singapore | 6 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Hong Kong | 6 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Tokyo | 7 hours ahead | +7h / +8h |
| Sydney | 8 hours ahead | +8h / +9h / +10h |
| Auckland | 10 hours ahead | +10h / +11h / +12h |
| São Paulo | 5 hours behind | −5h / −4h |
| UTC | 2 hours behind | −2h / −1h |
Daylight in Zurich through the year
From about 8.4 hours in December to 16.0 hours in June. This is the part a plain clock leaves out: 17:00 is a bright evening in one month and long dark in another.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 07:39 | 16:43 | 9h 4m |
| February | 06:58 | 17:32 | 10h 34m |
| March | 06:04 | 18:13 | 12h 9m |
| April | 05:03 | 18:56 | 13h 53m |
| May | 04:18 | 19:36 | 15h 18m |
| June | 04:03 | 20:01 | 15h 58m |
| July | 04:24 | 19:49 | 15h 25m |
| August | 05:03 | 19:04 | 14h 1m |
| September | 05:44 | 18:02 | 12h 18m |
| October | 06:26 | 17:04 | 10h 38m |
| November | 07:13 | 16:20 | 9h 7m |
| December | 07:45 | 16:12 | 8h 27m |
Daylight length is accurate. The clock times of sunrise and sunset assume each city sits at the centre of its time zone, which can put them up to about an hour and a quarter out for places near a zone's edge — Madrid being the standard example. Day length is unaffected.
Questions
About time in Zurich
What time zone is Zurich in?
Zurich uses the IANA time zone Europe/Zurich, which is UTC+01:00 in standard time and UTC+02:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers Geneva.
Does Zurich observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Zurich move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 25 October 2026.
Why does the time difference to Zurich keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. New York is a clear example: it sits 6 hours behind, then 5 hours behind across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Zurich get?
Around 16.0 hours at the longest, in June, and about 8.4 hours at the shortest, in December. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Zurich's latitude of 47.38° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.