Date & Time control panel

The Date & Time control panel was included with classic Mac OS from System 7.1 until Mac OS 9.2.2. In System 7.0.1 and earlier, the date and time were set in the General Controls control panel.

System 7.1
In System 7.1, only the Current date and Current time panes of the control panel were available (the top two sections of latter versions). They enabled the user not only to set the date and time, but to control how they are displayed (see Mac OS 9 below).

System 7.5
System 7.5 expanded the control panel. Below the Current date setting appeared a new Time Zone option, which offered a simpler alternative to manually readjusting the time after travel between time zones.

Next to the Time Zone pane and below the Current time pane, was an option for the Menubar Clock, a direct descendant of SuperClock!. Not only can it be switched on or off, but it can also have its options and preferences set.

Mac OS 8
The control panel in Mac OS 8 underwent cosmetic updates, using the new Platinum theme that was salvaged from the cancelled Copland project. However, all Date & Time control panels from Mac OS 8.x and earlier contain a 2020 date limit bug which causes dates after 2019 to cycle back to 1920. A workaround is to download Rob Braun's SetDate utility. This does not directly affect virtual machines running in emulation, such as Basilisk or SheepShaver, as the emulated system would be fetching its date from the host system.

Mac OS 8.5
The Mac OS 8.5 version offers options to set Daylight-Saving Time automatically as well as fetch the time from a Network Time Server, eliminating the need for any manual adjustment. The date limit bug was not addressed.

Mac OS 9
The control panel in Mac OS 9.x fixed the 2020 date limit bug. By clicking the Date Formats... option, a dialog box allows a North American to display today's date as August 27, 2024, whereas a shopkeeper in the British Isles may prefer 27 August 2024, and a Beijinger may choose 2024-August-27. Likewise, the Time Formats... allows customization of the display of the time.

Mac OS X
Under Mac OS X, much of this control panel was migrated to the Date & Time pane of System Preferences.