Visual analytics using multivariate concentric rings with a visual start time mechanism includes displaying an interactive graph where the interactive graph has multiple concentric rings that have multiple cells that represent sequential time periods. The concentric rings form a time unit that starts at an origin and ends at a time unit end and also has a pre-nonorigin starting section and a post-nonorigin starting section. A color is displayed in the cells to represent measurements associated with time stamps corresponding to cells in the post-nonorigin starting section. Further, a background color is displayed in cells of the pre-nonorigin starting section. The cells in the pre-nonorigin starting section are reused by displaying a color to represent metrics associated with time stamps belonging to a subsequent time unit.