I’ve owned the 39mm Longines Zulu Time (with green bezel) for almost six months now.
It’s grown on me more and more everyday since owning. Like many watch enthusiasts, I have leaned heavily into divers—at one point I owned four Seamasters. The Zulu time is a different style altogether, with pilot watch DNA as the foundation while adding the traveler GMT complication for functional utility.
[Links in this post may be affiliate links that earn me commission]
But the question is: how is it as a daily driver? In other words, if it were the primary (or only) watch you owned, would it be up to the task?
The answer is yes. With one major caveat: Do you deeply love the watch? A daily driver, especially if it’s a piece you buy to be the one-and-done watch purchase, needs to be something that gets your heart pumping a little faster. Watches are sentimental things, not merely instruments to tell time. Whether it makes you a little giddy is, in my opinion, the only thing that matters when considering a watch. There are many watches you may like well enough, or even get excited about when watching YouTube reviews, that you will try on and think, “Huh, that just doesn’t do anything for me.” Trust that instinct.
So if the Zulu time does that for you, then the answer is yes, daily drive it away into the sunset.
For me, I’d had the opportunity to test one 2 years ago, when Longines lent me one to wear during Pitti Uomo in 2024 and for a few weeks afterward. It wasn’t the color I wanted, but it did let me try it on for size. I liked it quite a bit, but wasn’t quite convinced enough to buy one. The color is what made the difference.
In January when I got the email that Longines wanted to gift me a watch (what in the world did I do to deserve this?!), I got to choose the color I wanted, so I picked the green bezel. Besides just the bezel color, I really like the gilt details on the handset and numerals, which make it stand apart from my other steel sports watches. I’d strongly considered the blue-bezel-black-dial, and even the titanium one, but green won because I already have the blue Seamaster, and the titanium’s red accents just didn’t do it for me.
[I show the watch is at the end of the video]
Next to consider is the size question. They make it in two sizes, but the 42mm feels much too large to me. Perhaps you have a giant 8-inch wrist, so choose accordingly. But for the rest of us, the 39mm is just perfect. You might wonder if the 14mm thickness feels too tall given the somewhat compact 39mm width. While some other GMT watches achieve thinner cases, at no point has this felt disproportionately thick given its diameter. (I’ve owned the 37.5mmx15.5mm gen 2 Planet Ocean, by the way, so I would know.) I think the pilot watch DNA with its Arabic numerals, alongside the 24-hour GMT bezel, and its straight, faceted case and lug design are such sporty design features that give the case a little permission to on the chunky side. But it doesn’t feel fat in daily usage. The rehaut isn’t weirdly too tall.
My favorite way to wear it has been on a NATO strap in tan from Longines themselves. It also looks great on a brown leather strap from Tuns Store (which punches way above its weight at the price). But the NATO makes it feel like the real tool watch it is, and I wear it confidently with tailoring that way, no problem. I’d also highly recommend Anchor strap’s NATOs (the code MWM20 gets you 20% off). The steel bracelet is good, very comfortable, but I think I’d prefer a simpler three-link design, and I haven’t worn it on the steel bracelet much at all since getting the NATO.
Buy the 39mm Zulu time at Bloomingdale’s or Longines.com or your local AD.
