Next Sunday, Oct. 30, standard time returns: at 03:00 Sunday night the clocks will be moved back one hour, to 02:00.

In recent years, the possible abolition of the annual time change has become the subject of political discussion, particularly in neighbouring states. However, not all decisions have yet been taken, either at the level of the European Union or in individual states.

Switzerland is following the developments in the neighbouring countries. It will carefully study the relevance of a possible adaptation of the official time and its interest for our country. Until further notice, the current regulations remain in force. Thus, we can already say today that next spring, on Sunday, March 26, 2023, we will switch back to daylight saving time.

Both at the time of the introduction of Central European Time at the end of the 19th century, and when the time change was introduced in Switzerland in the 1980s, the Federal Council and Parliament agreed to align the official time with that of our neighboring countries. This decision was mainly motivated by economic reasons. An official time different from that of our neighboring states would turn Switzerland into a time island, with all the consequences that this difference could have for commercial transactions, transportation, tourism and communication.

Standard time, not winter time

The fall time change is often associated with the fact that at the end of October, clocks go from summer time to winter time. But in reality, there is only standard time and daylight saving time. Standard time in Switzerland has been, for over 125 years, Central European Time.

A bit of history

Over the course of the year there is an alternation of the time change due to the change in the number of hours of daylight which, in the past, took place mainly out of economic necessity since electricity was produced with Coal. The time change was introduced in 1916 in the countries bordering Switzerland, but the Helvetic Confederation initially did not adhere to this measure as it did not consider it necessary.

Later, the Helvetic confederation also had to adapt because, the different time, complicated trade relations with neighboring countries; hence, in 1981, “dual time” was introduced.

This system raises criticism every year as many see negative effects on health, a decrease in milk production of cows etc.

Daylight Saving Time in the World

In the southern hemisphere, as the seasons are reversed from the northern hemisphere, daylight saving time also follows an inverted calendar: in Australia it is in effect from October to late March or early April, with possible variations from state to state.

In Africa, daylight saving time is sparsely used.

Daylight saving time in the United States is triggered on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, but it is one step closer to becoming permanent: the Senate has passed a bill extending it year-round, and if it is approved by the House and signed by President Joe Biden, it will become permanent as of November 2023. All states in America have daylight saving time except Arizona and Hawaii.

In Latin America, Brazil, at the hands of President Jair Bolsonaro, decided to abolish daylight saving time nationwide in 2019, considering the induced energy savings insubstantial. In the rest of South America, countries near the Equator do not use dual time as do Argentina and Peru.

In Asia, China adopted daylight saving time from 1986 to 1992 and then adopted UTC+8, for the entire country, which is the current time zone, while Cyprus, Israel, and Lebanon use daylight saving time. Japan used daylight saving time from 1948 to 1951 during the occupation by the United States and then abolished it in 1952, immediately after regaining sovereignty following the Treaty of San Francisco. Jordan permanently introduced year-round daylight saving time in 2022.

In Russia since October 2014, daylight saving time has been abolished and year-round daylight saving time is back in effect. Belarus, given its political proximity to Russia, has decided to adopt its own time system while Ukraine adopts the same system as the European Union.