There are already some places with 30 or even 45 minute offsets from UTC; they seem to manage alright. Though I generally agree that it isn't necessary to divid

There are already some places with 30 or even 45 minute offsets from UTC; they seem to manage alright. Though I generally agree that it isn't necessary to divide the time zones that finely. Local noon should always be within about 45 minutes of solar noon, but you can do that just fine while rounding to the nearest hour. (Thirty minutes would be enough if we ignored political boundaries, but a 15-minute margin allows you to avoid splitting cities into multiple zones.)