The Countdown Timer and Daylight Saving Time

If your location does not observe daylight saving time at all, or if the there will be no changes to the timer between now and the date you count down to, all the options will work the same way.

Background information

Daylight saving time (DST) typically works by forwarding the clocks by one hour in the spring and setting them back one hour in the fall (or autumn). One hour is skipped on the day DST starts, when people move their clocks and watches forward by an hour, so the day essentially has 23 hours. When DST ends, people move their clocks one hour back so one hour is repeated twice, thus making the day 25 hours.

There are several options available for the added or removed hour to be accounted for in the countdown.

Options available

Automatic

This option will “ignore” that extra hour and the removed hour resulting from daylight saving schedule changes if the countdown only displays the remaining days left (and not smaller units). If hours or smaller units are displayed, it will take into account that extra or removed hour.

Take the DST hour into account

If you choose this option, the hour lost or gained will be reflected, and will always show the true amount of time left. This means that if you are currently on DST and are counting down to a date that occurs after DST had ended, the countdown will show the additional hour. For instance, if it is currently noon (12:00) DST, and you are counting down to midnight (00:00) at a later date when clocks are on standard time, the countdown will show 13 hours, not 12 hours. People might find the countdown to be inaccurate because it “is one hour off”, even though it is technically correct.

Pretend DST does not exist

If you choose this option, the system will ignore the fact that one hour is added or removed because of DST. So if you are currently on DST, and the date you count down to is on standard time (after DST ends), it will not add an hour to the calculation. For instance, if it is currently noon (12:00) DST and you are counting down to midnight (00:00) at a later date after going back to standard time, it will show 12 hours instead of 13 hours. The disadvantage with this option is that the countdown timer will appear to jump by one hour if you watch it exactly when DST ends.