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Europe/Zurich time zone

2:09PMCET

CETUTC+1+6 h vs New York (you)

About Europe/Zurich

Europe/Zurich is the IANA time zone for Büsingen in Switzerland, Germany and Liechtenstein. It currently keeps Central European Standard Time (CET, UTC+1) in winter and Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2) in summer.

The zone serves 3 countries or territories because their clocks have agreed since 1970; tzdata lists them together in zone1970.tab. That says nothing about borders or sovereignty, as the file’s header points out.

Its principal location is Zurich at 47.38° N, 8.53° E.

Abbreviations in use: CET, CEST. Offset page: UTC+1.

Rule for future years (POSIX TZ string)

CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3

The standard time is called CET and is UTC+1. POSIX writes the offset with the opposite sign (west of Greenwich is positive), which is why the string says "-1". Daylight saving time is called CEST and is UTC+2. It starts on the last Sunday of March at 02:00 and ends on the last Sunday of October at 03:00, local time. Software that has no full tzdata copy, such as many embedded devices, can use this string directly as the TZ environment variable.

Upcoming transitions

Computed from tzdata 2026f; local times are read on the clock just before each change.

History of Europe/Zurich since 1970

The record starts with local mean time (UTC+0:34), which ended on July 15, 1853. The first daylight saving time in the record is in 1941.

YearsClocksAbbreviations
1970–1980UTC+1 all yearCET
1981 onwardUTC+1 in winter, UTC+2 in summerCET, CEST

Before 1970

6 offset changes before 1970 in the record:

tzdata commits to accuracy from 1970 for every zone (zone1970.tab); earlier entries are historical research and may be incomplete.

Aliases and zones with the same clock

These older or country-specific IDs are links to Europe/Zurich in tzdata. Their pages redirect here: Europe/Busingen, Europe/Vaduz.

Other zones that keep exactly the same time under the current rules (but have a different history): Africa/Ceuta, Europe/Andorra, Europe/Belgrade, Europe/Berlin, Europe/Brussels, Europe/Budapest, Europe/Gibraltar, Europe/Madrid, Europe/Malta, Europe/Paris, Europe/Prague, Europe/Rome.

Places on Europe/Zurich

Convert Zurich time

Tip: Alt+↑/↓ steps the time by 15 minutes (Shift: one hour). The link keeps the date, time and direction.

Using Europe/Zurich in code

Every major platform reads the same IANA ID. Store instants in UTC and convert with the ID at display time; never store a fixed offset for a place that has daylight saving time.

// JavaScript
new Date().toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'Europe/Zurich' })

# Python 3.9+
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now(ZoneInfo('Europe/Zurich'))

// Java
java.time.ZonedDateTime.now(java.time.ZoneId.of("Europe/Zurich"))

// Go
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("Europe/Zurich")
time.Now().In(loc)

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'Europe/Zurich';

# Shell
TZ='Europe/Zurich' date

Platforms ship their own copy of tzdata and update it on their own schedule. After a rule change, outputs can differ until the platform updates; this page uses tzdata 2026f.

Questions

What is the UTC offset of Europe/Zurich?
UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer (daylight saving time from the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM to the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM).
Does Europe/Zurich observe daylight saving time?
Yes: clocks move one hour forward on the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM and back on the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM.
Is Europe/Busingen the same as Europe/Zurich?
Yes. Europe/Busingen and Europe/Vaduz are a link (alias) to Europe/Zurich in tzdata and give the same time since 1970. They remain valid IDs.
Which countries use Europe/Zurich?
Switzerland, Germany and Liechtenstein, according to zone1970.tab in tzdata.

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