How to Change a Watch From Military Time to Standard Time?

Written by

John Cotton

FACT-CHECKED BY

Logan Miller

how to change a watch from military time to standard time

The 24-hour clock, or military time, was created to eliminate confusion between daytime and nighttime hours. Ironically, it can be confusing if you are accustomed to using standard time. That being the case, how to change a watch from military time to standard time?

Check below easy steps to convert military time to regular time on various devices.

Convert Military Time to Standard Time

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There was a time that I was confused about military time also, and I didn’t know how to take military time off my phone, thus, I did the conversion manually.

To convert military time to normal time, essentially, you would just subtract 12 hours from the current time.

For example, if it’s 23:20 on your digital watch with military time, subtract 12, then it’s 11:20 PM.

The Steps

How do I change my clock from military time to regular time?

Although we cannot pinpoint the exact steps on each type of device to change a watch to 12 hour time, since it is impossible to list all types of devices here.

However, by following these simple steps below for common devices, you may have a general idea on how to do it yourself.

1. On Digital Watches

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There are many types of digital watches available in a wide range of designs, and functionalities.

To change the time on a watch, you would have to press a series of buttons on the watch, and then adjust accordingly.

Similarly, to change military time to regular time can just be as simple as adjusting the time. For a general idea of how to do this on all kinds of watches, follow the steps below.

  • Step 1: Hit the MODE button until you see that the display is blinking.
  • Step 2: When you see that the display of the watch’s dial is blinking, hit the RESET button until the digits are highlighted by the cursor or until they are blinking.
  • Step 3: Afterward, click the START button, and press it until it exceeds the 24-hour mark which will automatically back to the 12-hour format.

This goes the same when you change time on an Armitron watch to standard time.

2. On an iPhone

You may want to change military to regular time on an iPhone since it syncs to your Apple Watch as well.

You might be using a different iOS version compared to what was used below, however, the Settings on iPhones don’t vary that much, and if they do, the difference is negligible.

Step 1: Locating the Settings App

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First, locate your iPhone’s Settings app, then click on it.

Step 2: Find the Date & Time setting

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Then after you are in Settings, scroll down and click on General. Once again, scroll down and find Date & Time.

Step 3: Toggle On or Off

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And finally, you will find a toggle for the option, 24-Hour Time. To get watch off military time, turn it off, and on if you want the opposite.

3. On Android Phones

By default, an Android device, on a Samsung, Huawei, or whatever manufacturer, all shows the time in a 12-Hour format.

In the following steps, the device we will be using is a Google Pixel 4. Again, like the guide for the iPhone, the layout and location of the options may vary, however, this would serve as a general guide to give you an idea of where to navigate.

Step 1: Locating the Settings

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To start you need to locate the Settings app on your phone, a gear icon. You can either swipe down on top of your device or navigate through the home screen or app drawers.

Step 2: Finding the System options

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Then afterward, scroll down and click System, then inside the System options, you can usually find a Date & Time option, click that.

Step 3: Toggle On or Off

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Again, settings may vary between different manufacturers, you may or may not have the option network-provided time zone, in cases where you do, turn it off.

Then, on the option Use 24-hour format, toggle it off to change your device’s time from 24 hours to 12 hours format, or vice versa.

Conclusion

This was written due to people asking, ‘how do I change my clock from military time to regular time?’ or ‘how to change a watch from military time to standard time?’

Hopefully, this short guide helped you have a general understanding of how to convert military time to normal time, as again, we cannot list all possible devices.

By following the steps that are outlined above, you can see that changing a watch from military time isn’t so daunting after all!

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