Europe's clocks turn back on 25 October
· BehindLines newsroom
One night, two different clock readings: the timetable for the return to winter time scheduled clocks to move back during the night of Saturday 24 to Sunday 25 October 2026. In metropolitan France, Service Public gives the announced change as 03:00 becoming 02:00. In the United Kingdom, GOV.UK indicates a move from 02:00 to 01:00.
Sharing a date therefore does not mean every watch shows the same number at the changeover. The published times are local times. The British portal describes the change from British Summer Time, or BST, to Greenwich Mean Time, GMT. Its table lists 25 October as the date for the backward change in 2026.
Why that Sunday rather than the following one? Numerama explains in its 11 September article that the date follows the last Sunday in October. As the month ends on a Saturday this year, the last Sunday falls on the 25th. The number may appear early, but it follows from the calendar.
Comparison with the previous year makes the shift clearer. GOV.UK's table places the British return on 26 October in 2025 and 25 October in 2026. This movement from one date to another is not, in itself, an announcement of a new clock regime.
Turning the hands back repeats a section of the local clock. Between the first and second occurrence of the same displayed time, time keeps passing: the two readings do not identify the same instant. That is a consequence of resetting clocks, rather than a change in the length of a minute.
These reference points describe the published timetable for the night of 24 to 25 October, whose scheduled changeover had passed by our check on the 25th. They are neither an account of how every device operates nor a transport report. Their purpose is to distinguish three pieces of information often confused: the chosen day, the direction of the change and the local time at which it occurs.