[impute]

The more interesting question though is why didn't timezones develop like this initially? In 1868 there was no telephone to call another continent. There was no airplane for fast travel over long distances.

In retrospect this makes sense but in the late 19th century, no one could have foreseen this use case.

[p1mrx]

Time zones synchronized the "minute hand" between cities, but the "hour hand" was mostly unchanged.