Mysterious Sunday only lasts 23 hours due to the time change
The clocks in Switzerland and most European countries went forward by one hour on Sunday night. Daylight saving time applies again. This means that Sunday only lasts 23 hours.
30.03.2025, 03:01
SDA
The clocks were set forward to 03:00 at 02:00. The changeover to summer time, officially known as "Central European Summer Time" (CEST), begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October.
Daylight saving time 2025 will last 30 weeks or 210 days. On October 26, the clocks will be set back to 02:00 and standard time at 03:00.
Criticism and confusion
The possible abolition of the seasonal time change has become a political issue, particularly in Switzerland's neighboring countries. The European Union presented concrete plans, but the member states did not follow suit. Critics of the time change complain about negative effects on health and animal welfare.
Whether the clock is set one hour forward or back for summer time often leads to confusion. Various mnemonic devices are intended to help. One, for example, is as follows: In summer, chairs are placed in front of the house and the clock is set forward one hour. In the fall, the chairs are brought back into the house and the clock is set back by one hour.
Atomic clock is located in Wabern near Bern
In Switzerland, the Federal Office of Metrology (Metas) is responsible for time. It maintains several atomic clocks in its laboratories and is thus involved in the realization of Universal Time Coordinated, as it announced in the run-up to the current time changeover.
There are around a dozen particularly precise atomic clocks, known as primary frequency standards, around the world for fine-tuning world time. One of these clocks is also located at Metas in Wabern near Bern. This Fontaine Continue Suisse runs so accurately that it takes 30 million years for two of these special clocks to show a difference of one second.
