Summer time begins on Sunday, 28 March 2021 in Switzerland.
In line with the surrounding European nations, at 2 a.m. on Sunday, 28 March 2021, Swiss clocks will move forward on hour to 3 a.m.
Switzerland will remain on summer time until 31 October 2021.
Abolishing daylight savings in Europe has been a subject of political discussion for many years. In 2018, 84% of 4.6 million people who took part in a public consultation across the EU called for an end to daylight saving. Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President at the time, said millions “believe that in future, summer time should be year-round, and that’s what will happen”.
However, to date, no decisions have been taken at the European Union level or by all individual states. Switzerland continues to follow developments in neighbouring countries.
With the introduction of the Central European Time (CET) at the end of the 19th century and the introduction of daylight savings in 1980, the Swiss government decided, primarily for economic reasons, to align its time with neighbouring nations.
Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS) is responsible for keeping and disseminating official Swiss time and maintains several atomic clocks in its laboratories. METAS also provides a time server to which computer clocks can be compared with the official Swiss time to within a few milliseconds.
More on this:
Government press release (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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