NSDate object: local, and UTC 'zulu' time:: seconds are not matching

So today I am dealing with a server outside my timezone and started seeing something I think is weird....

Code:

on the phone...

- (NSString *)getUTCDateString: (NSDate *)theDate

{

NSDateFormatter* dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];

[dateFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:@"UTC"]];

[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:SS.SSS'Z'"];

return [dateFormatter stringFromDate:theDate];

}

- (NSString *)getLocalDateString: (NSDate *)theDate

{

NSDateFormatter* dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];

[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss"];

return [dateFormatter stringFromDate:theDate];

}

...

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];

NSString *nowLocal = [self getLocalDateString:now];

NSString *nowUTC = [self getUTCDateString:now];

So, was I wrong in the hopes that the nowLocal and & nowUTC would be off by exactly an hour, and not have RANDOM seconds from "somewhere"???

This data is going into JSON, for transmission to the server.

Output I've been getting:

nowLocal = "2015-10-06 01:08:42";

nowUTC = "2015-10-06T19:08:48.487Z";

nowLocal = "2015-10-06 01:09:48";

nowUTC = "2015-10-06T19:09:58.588Z";

nowLocal = "2015-10-06 01:10:18";

nowUTC = "2015-10-06T19:10:15.150Z";

nowLocal = "2015-10-06 01:10:22";

nowUTC = "2015-10-06T19:10:75.754Z";

nowLocal = "2015-10-06 01:10:27";

nowUTC = "2015-10-06T19:10:67.674Z";

nowLocal = "2015-10-06 01:10:35";

nowUTC = "2015-10-06T19:10:74.748Z";

Anyone know what's going on here?

I am converting to "UTC from local" in iOS and then back to local in PHP in another timezone, and I need the seconds to match.

Am I really supposed to believe that everyone just ignores the seconds are off? No, these aren't transmit seconds!