The city is on Central European Time (CET), the time zone covering most of western and central Europe. Vienna also observes daylight savings time, so between late March and late October, the clocks go forward one hour (technically known as CEST).
At the moment, the time in Vienna is:
Viennese time tips
(Dusk can get quite impressive)
The CET time zone is one hour ahead of UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time), which usually means the city (and the whole of Austria) is:
- one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland
- six hours ahead of the east coast USA
- nine hours ahead of the west coast USA
- eight to ten hours behind Sydney, Australia
In December, the sun sets at about 4pm, which is when the Christmas lights tend to go on. The Viennese soul then allows itself a little grumble in the early evening dusk. However, liberal quantities of Weihnachtspunsch brighten up the dark winter.
In June, the sun sets at around 9pm. And the Viennese soul still allows itself a little grumble in the late evening dusk. A glass of Viennese wine or Austrian beer rounds off those warm summer evenings (perhaps in a Heuriger wine tavern).
(The Ankeruhr clock in Vienna, built in 1914)
Time slows down considerably after lunch in city and federal offices. It comes to a near standstill in most coffee houses (and you may even have to wind your watches back a few decades as you cross the threshold).
Vienna also has two related attractions:
- The Ankeruhr: a large Jugendstil clock installation where famous personalities from the city’s history rotate around the time display
- The Uhrenmuseum: a museum housing over 700 timepieces from around the world and throughout history. It’s part of the Wien Museum collection of sites