Did the wristwatch President Joe Biden was wearing show a time other than the current local time during a live address on July 24, 2024, indicating the speech was prerecorded or edited? No, that's not true: Biden's watch was visible showing the correct local time at various moments during the address, filmed and photographed by several cameras. The time of the watch face advanced in real time throughout the 11-minute speech.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on July 24, 2024. It was captioned:
His watch wasn't on the right time during his 'live' speech.
The internet is undefeated
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jul 25 17:20:24 2024 UTC)
Numerous images from multiple camera angles show Biden's watch keeping the correct time during the address between 8:01 and 8:12 p.m. EDT. The White House footage published on YouTube has a slightly different camera angle than the C-SPAN footage pictured below. Throughout the C-SPAN broadcast the live clock display in the upper right corner of the frame alternately showed Eastern time and the three-hour-later Pacific time. Biden's watch was set to the local time for Washington, D.C., which is EDT.
In the Lead Stories composite image below (image will open larger in a new window), high-resolution still photos published by NBC News (top right) and The New York Times (bottom right) (archived here and here) show the time on the watch face (center details show 8:07 and 8:11 p.m. EDT) and gestures Biden made during the address, aligning with corresponding minutes (5:07 and 5:11 pm PDT) in the C-SPAN video footage.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image made with C-SPAN, NBC and New York Times screenshots taken on Thu Jul 25 20:20:04 2024 UTC)
The Lead Stories composite image below shows the progression of time during the address in three sets of screenshots from the C-SPAN footage of Biden's July 24, 2024, address. On the left side of the composite are enlarged detail images of Biden's watch, with the corresponding "Live clock," which appears in the upper right corner of the broadcast footage -- these match, and show time elapse during the 11-minute address. The screenshots happen in the C-SPAN video at (from top to bottom), 1:50, 5:40 and 9:42 minutes.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image made with C-SPAN screenshots taken on Thu Jul 25 20:20:04 2024 UTC)
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims about Joe Biden can be found here.
