WAT to EDT: WAT is 5 hours ahead of EDT
West Africa Time is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Time right now. It is 10:12 pm WAT in West Africa and 5:12 pm EDT in Eastern.
Convert a specific time from WAT to EDT
Pick any time and date to convert it both ways. The conversion runs in your browser against the real zone rules, so a date inside a daylight saving period gets that period's offset rather than today's.
What is the time difference between WAT and EDT?
Eastern Time is 5 hours behind West Africa Time. To go from WAT to EDT you subtract 5 hours. That gap is not fixed. Across 2026 the distance between these two zones takes 2 different values, from 5 hours to 6 hours, because Eastern moves its clocks and West Africa does not. This page recomputes it rather than assuming.
WAT to EDT conversion table
Every hour of Saturday, September 26, 2026 in West Africa, with the matching reading in Eastern. 5 of the 24 hours land on a different calendar date in Eastern, which is the part people get wrong when they schedule across this pair.
| WAT | WAT 24h | EDT | EDT 24h | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 am | 00:00 | 7:00 pm | 19:00 | the previous day |
| 1:00 am | 01:00 | 8:00 pm | 20:00 | the previous day |
| 2:00 am | 02:00 | 9:00 pm | 21:00 | the previous day |
| 3:00 am | 03:00 | 10:00 pm | 22:00 | the previous day |
| 4:00 am | 04:00 | 11:00 pm | 23:00 | the previous day |
| 5:00 am | 05:00 | 12:00 am | 00:00 | same day |
| 6:00 am | 06:00 | 1:00 am | 01:00 | same day |
| 7:00 am | 07:00 | 2:00 am | 02:00 | same day |
| 8:00 am | 08:00 | 3:00 am | 03:00 | same day |
| 9:00 am | 09:00 | 4:00 am | 04:00 | same day |
| 10:00 am | 10:00 | 5:00 am | 05:00 | same day |
| 11:00 am | 11:00 | 6:00 am | 06:00 | same day |
| 12:00 pm | 12:00 | 7:00 am | 07:00 | same day |
| 1:00 pm | 13:00 | 8:00 am | 08:00 | same day |
| 2:00 pm | 14:00 | 9:00 am | 09:00 | same day |
| 3:00 pm | 15:00 | 10:00 am | 10:00 | same day |
| 4:00 pm | 16:00 | 11:00 am | 11:00 | same day |
| 5:00 pm | 17:00 | 12:00 pm | 12:00 | same day |
| 6:00 pm | 18:00 | 1:00 pm | 13:00 | same day |
| 7:00 pm | 19:00 | 2:00 pm | 14:00 | same day |
| 8:00 pm | 20:00 | 3:00 pm | 15:00 | same day |
| 9:00 pm | 21:00 | 4:00 pm | 16:00 | same day |
| 10:00 pm | 22:00 | 5:00 pm | 17:00 | same day |
| 11:00 pm | 23:00 | 6:00 pm | 18:00 | same day |
What are the best hours to schedule a call between WAT and EDT?
3 hours of the standard 9:00 am to 5:00 pm working day line up in both zones, from 2:00 pm WAT to 5:00 pm WAT. In Eastern that window reads 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Outside it, one side is either not yet at their desk or already gone.
| WAT | EDT | Working hours | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2:00 pm | 9:00 am | both sides | afternoon in West Africa, mid morning in Eastern |
| 3:00 pm | 10:00 am | both sides | afternoon in West Africa, mid morning in Eastern |
| 4:00 pm | 11:00 am | both sides | afternoon in West Africa, mid morning in Eastern |
Does daylight saving change WAT to EDT?
West Africa Time does not move its clocks at all, so its UTC+1 offset holds every day of the year.
Eastern Time is currently on EDT and changes next on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when the clock falls back from 1:59 am to 1:00 am and the offset moves from UTC-4 to UTC-5.
Because the two sides do not move together, the answer to this conversion changes during the year. For part of the year the gap is 5 hours and for the rest it is 6 hours. The table above is built for today, not for an average day.
Is WAT ahead of or behind EDT?
WAT is ahead of EDT by 5 hours: when it is 12:00 pm in West Africa, it is 7:00 am in Eastern. One wrinkle worth knowing: EST and EDT are two names for the same zone, not two zones. Eastern Time reads EST in winter and EDT in summer. When somebody types "wat to est" they nearly always mean the zone rather than the literal winter offset, so this page resolves WAT to Africa/Lagos and EST to America/New_York and applies whichever offset is genuinely in force on the day.
West Africa Time covers Lagos, Kinshasa, Luanda and Douala, the most populous zone in Africa. Eastern Time covers New York, Toronto, Atlanta and Miami. The identifiers behind them are Africa/Lagos and America/New_York, which is what any calendar or scheduling system should be storing rather than a fixed number of hours.
Questions
- What is WAT in EDT?
- WAT is 5 hours ahead of EDT. 9:00 am WAT is 4:00 am EDT.
- How many hours ahead is EDT of WAT?
- EDT is 5 hours behind WAT. That varies across the year, between 5 hours and 6 hours.
- What time is it in Eastern right now?
- 5:12 pm EDT on Saturday, September 26, 2026.
- When can West Africa and Eastern meet during working hours?
- Between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm WAT, which is 9:00 am to 12:00 pm EDT.
- Does this account for daylight saving?
- Yes. Every reading is computed from the IANA database for the actual date, so WAT and EDT are the abbreviations genuinely in force today rather than a fixed assumption.
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