European headquarters in Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Amsterdam coordinate with US West Coast engineering teams in San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. The CET–PST corridor is central to companies like SAP, Spotify, and scores of SaaS firms with transatlantic operations.
Central European Time is UTC+1, shifting to CEST (UTC+2) in summer. Pacific Standard Time is UTC−8, shifting to PDT (UTC−7) in summer. The standard gap is 9 hours: 5 PM in Berlin is 8 AM in San Francisco. Both regions observe DST, and because both shift on similar (though not identical) schedules, the gap remains at 9 hours for most of the year. Brief transition windows in March can temporarily push the offset to 8 or 10 hours.
Overlap is tight but manageable. A 5–7 PM CET slot is 8–10 AM PST — the primary window most transatlantic teams use. Some teams add an early-morning CET sync at 8–9 AM CET (11 PM–12 AM PST the previous day) for urgent matters.
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