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I know that characters in Star Wars make use of Chronometers in computers, wristwatches, etc. Mention is made of duration in terms of days/hours/minutes, but I've not been able to find out how a day is split up and referred to.

The fandom wiki mentions that 12-hour clocks were used in "ancient times", but I've not seen any mention of time of day.

Are there any references to time of day in the Star Wars universe? Seems odd that something so fundamental would just be ignored.

Invisible Trihedron
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3 Answers3

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The Star Wars universe use the Standard Day as reference, which is based on the planet Coruscant, which had nearly the same rotation period as Earth.

That means the galactic calendar have 365 days1, each day have 24 hours, called standard-hour. There is no leap year in the galactic calendar.

Of course different planets can have a duration of the "day" - as time with sunlight - totally different (multiple stars, different rotation period...). Usually character refer to "rotation" instead of day. Usually "rotation" refer to the Standard Day (which means 24h, the rotation time of Coruscant), but it can refer to local rotation (the day/night cycle of the current planet).

The canon reference book Smuggler Guide states that you can express a specific point in time within a day in hours and minutes, and its written without separators, 17:10 for example became 1710.

In Episode IV: A New Hope Han states that the estimate time to arrive to Alderaan is 0200 hours from their position.

1. The standard year is often referred as 368 days long as stated in The Essential Atlas but The Essentials Guide books are not canon, meanwhile in the canon Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know is stated that the standard year is only 365 days long.

Rick Starrunner
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    I always thought he said "be at Alderaan in about, oh, 200 hours" meaning they were on the Falcon for 8 days, which explains enough time for Luke's training. I say this in jest as clearly the time on the ship is much less as the go instantly from training to "coming up on Alderaan". Which makes me wonder why Han gave a time in hours at all, the trip was a couple minutes. – Skooba May 14 '21 at 20:17
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While no longer canon, the Star Wars RPG did outline time measurement.

60 standard minutes = 1 standard hour
24 standard hours = 1 standard day
5 standard days = 1 standard week
7 standard weeks = 1 standard month
10 standard months + 3 festival weeks + 3 holidays = 368 standard days = 1 standard year

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Galactic_Standard_Calendar#Time_measurement
(I can't find the exact page available online to cite directly)

GeoffAtkins
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    7 standard weeks? Everyone loves a gratuitous prime number – Separatrix May 14 '21 at 11:22
  • Has the whole RPG been taking out of canon? Was it a Disney decision? – vol.2 May 14 '21 at 14:31
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    @vol.2 - Yes, it has been taken out of canon. Everything but the movies and the Clone Wars show from the pre-Disney era is no longer canon. However, they have been picking and choosing from the non-canon stuff to re-canonise. Thrawn and the Tie Defender in Rebels, are a good example. – GeoffAtkins May 14 '21 at 14:34
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    @vol.2: Of course Disney wants Money. It's not enough unless they are the only ones making it. – user21820 May 14 '21 at 17:28
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    @user21820 say what you will about the decision to de-canonize legends (I hate it myself), trying to create new movies in the legends timeline would have been a nightmare. Too many people simply would never read the books, leaving you with the unenviable position of who to anger: readers by re-covering material done better in books (because the movie is never as good as the book), or non-readers by presenting material that assumes content they'll never acknowledge exists. I have to admit Disney probably did right by doing the later just because movies never, ever, ever live up to the book. – RonLugge May 14 '21 at 17:32
  • @user21820 people will complain no matter what they do, you'll never please everyone with such a franchise. If the movie/show is good, that will shine through in the end. – vol.2 May 15 '21 at 22:49
  • @vol.2: Of course. But that doesn't make what I said false. Anyway, it was half a joke. – user21820 May 16 '21 at 02:39
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Within the canon literature, 'military time' is used exclusively by both civilians and soldiers. The term "o'clock" doesn't appear.

“I’ll look forward to it,” Eli said. “Come on. The orders said to be on the Corellia transport at eighteen-hundred hours. We don’t want to start our careers by missing our ride.”

Thrawn

and

“Hi,” Rey said with a nod.

“Any word from Bracca or Corellia?” Leia asked.

“Zay checked in at oh nine hundred hours. She said they had made planetfall and Dross Squadron was headed to their rendezvous point with their contact from the guild.”

Resistance Reborn

and

Just after twenty-three hundred hours shipboard time, Quell checked in with the ground crews and her comrades and confirmed that her squadron (commanded by Captain Nosteen, who had appointed Quell his second-in-command upon her transfer fourteen weeks prior) was ready for combat.

Alphabet Squadron

and

Before Leia could respond again, a red light shone down from the ceiling of the arena—a familiar signal in the senatorial complex, one that indicated a special announcement. Lettering appeared on the highest screen as a droid voice intoned, “There will be a formal address in the main chamber at sixteen hundred hours. All senators currently on Coruscant are required to attend.”

Leia: Princess of Alderaan

and

Han grumbled, “Don’t everybody thank me at once. Anyway, we should be at Alderaan at about oh two hundred hours.”

A New Hope - Official Junior Novelisation

Valorum
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  • Are these quotes from books that are Disney Canon or Legends Canon? – nick012000 May 16 '21 at 04:10
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    @nick012000 - All of those are (Disney) Canon. – Valorum May 16 '21 at 05:54
  • It never occurred to me before, but if the millennium falcon's ship-time lines up with some standard time (along the lines of GMT) and the Death Star is running on the same time, then the reason the Death Star's halls seemed so quiet in most of the areas we see may be because it's the night-shift and only something like 3 or 4 AM. No wonder Grand Moff Tarkin looks so tired... – Ruadhan2300 May 20 '21 at 07:54