  Building on our previous work, we investigate the identification of the
electromagnetic field as a local gauge field of a restricted group of synchrony
transformations. We begin by arguing that the inability to measure the one-way
speed of light independent of a synchronization scheme necessitates that
physical laws must be reformulated without distant simultaneity. As a result,
we are forced to introduce a new operational definition of time which leads to
a fundamental space-time invariance principle that is related to a subset of
the synchrony group. We identify the gauge field associated with this new
invariance principle with the electromagnetic field. Consequently, the
electromagnetic field acquires a space-time interpretation, as suggested in our
previous work. In addition, we investigate the static, spherically symmetric
solution of the resulting field equations. Also, we discuss implications of the
present work for understanding the tension between classical and quantum
theory.
