UTC−12:00

UTC−12:00
Time zone
World map with the time zone highlighted
UTC offset
UTC	UTC−12:00
Current time
03:19, 25 November 2024 UTC−12:00 [refresh]
Central meridian
180 degrees
Date-time group
Y

UTC−12:00: blue (December), orange (June), yellow (all year round), light blue (sea areas)

UTC−12:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of −12:00. It is the last to enter a new year, and is sometimes referred to as the International Date Line West time zone (IDLW).

As standard time (all year round)

Oceania

• United States
  • Baker Island and Howland Island (uninhabited islands belonging to the United States)

UTC−12:00 is a nautical time zone comprising the high seas between 180° and 172°30′W longitude, and the time is obtained by subtracting twelve hours from UTC.

Characteristics of UTC−12:00

A number of inhabited territories lie within the longitudinal limits of this time zone (Tonga, Wallis and Futuna and Chatham Islands as well as parts of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia, the US state of Alaska, Fiji, Tokelau and Samoa) but none of them keeps the date and time of UTC−12:00. Instead, they keep the time and date (or just the date) of one of the neighboring zones, usually because they belong, politically, to a country which lies mostly in the neighboring time zone.

Since the International Date Line West (IDLW) time zone represents the last place on Earth where a particular time and/or date exists, it is referred to as Anywhere on Earth (AoE). This means that, for instance, if a deadline has not passed in the UTC–12:00 zone, the deadline has not yet passed "Anywhere on Earth".

The IDLW is also used in software testing for time zone related code that uses system default time zone, as in some cases they may be the same as on the developer's computer. Since the area of the IDLW has no programmers or data centers, there is no conflict.

See also

• Greenwich Mean Time
• Howland and Baker islands
• UTC+12:00
• UTC+14:00