Through the hottest months, work on open sites pauses for a few hours in the middle of the day, which gives the schedule a hard edge whether or not anyone is watching a clock. If 1:38 pm is that edge, this page tracks the exact time remaining, down to the second, with nothing to set up first.
This is a display rather than an alarm. Nothing rings, buzzes or notifies at the end, and the page will not interrupt whatever else you are doing. If being interrupted is the point, set an alarm as well and treat this page as the running total you can glance at in the meantime.
Plenty of phones and dashboards default to a 24-hour display regardless of how people around them actually speak, so 13:38 may well be the figure staring back at you while 1:38 pm is what anyone would say out loud. Neither form is more correct; they are just aimed at different readers.
Common questions
Which clock does the countdown use?
Your own. It reads the local time and time zone from the device in front of you, which in the Emirates means Gulf Standard Time, UTC+4. Travel and the count follows whatever the device picks up.
Will it alert me when 1:38 pm arrives?
No. This is a live figure rather than an alarm — nothing sounds, vibrates or notifies at zero. If you need interrupting at 1:38 pm, set an alarm alongside it and use this page as the running total.
Do the clocks change here?
No. The UAE has no daylight saving at all, so the offset stays at UTC+4 in every month. When the gap to Europe or North America shifts, it is their clocks that moved, not yours.
What is 13:38 on a 12-hour clock?
The same instant is 1:38 pm in writing and twenty-two minutes to two in the afternoon out loud. Anything from 13:00 onwards loses twelve to give the pm figure, which is the only sum involved in moving between the two.