1 hour is easy to remember, makes the math easier, and not so far apart that it creates radically different concepts of time for people on the extreme ends.
With one hour time zones:
* If someone is 3 time zones ahead, they're 3 hours ahead
* There are 24 time zones and 360 degrees neatly divides by 24
* 2 hours between time zones means that within a time zone, the sun rises on one side at 8 am and on the other side at 10 am.