The first two digits represent the hour and the last two digits represent the minutes. 0000 (said “zero-hundred”) is midnight, and 1200 (said “twelve-hundred”) is noon. But what if you’d like to check what is the military time right now? Both digital wristwatches and 24-hour clocks are sources of military time. Many digital watches provide the option of displaying the time in either regular or military format. Switching back and forth is usually done by pressing a button labeled “12/24” or something similar several corporations manufacture 24-hour clocks. The 24-hour clock, also known as military time, tells time by dividing the day into 24-hour increments, numbered 0000 to 2400. Military time differs from standard time, which uses numbers 1 through 12 and an a.m./p.m. With this came an international system of time zones known as Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It is important to know the history of military time because it is based on the same system as the universal time zones. For a full breakdown of how to learn military time take a look at our military time guide. If you want to convert another military time or a standard AM/PM time back to military time you can do so using our tool to convert military time on the fly. This site has a wide array of resources to help you to learn, pronounce, read, convert, and tell military time. Because military personnel can be involved in missions that cross time zones, they need a common time zone reference, so they know they’re talking about the same thing. “Zulu” or “Z” indicates that the time zone being referenced is Greenwich Mean Time (Coordinated Universal Time), the time zone that regulates the world’s clocks. But a much more recent historical event is why the American Armed Forces use a 24-hour clock for military time.