Special Relativity tells us that two inertial observers in relative motion each perceive the other to be ageing more slowly – ie each infers that the tick intervals of the moving clock appear to be dilated. But can time contract as well as dilate?
Yes, but with the proviso that the dilation or contraction is just a description of how the progress of one clock appears relative to another and that two observers will not necessarily agree on which events in their lives are simultaneous – and so can only compare average (rather than instantaneous) clock rates using the total time intervals on their clocks between events where they are together.
Two observers who separate and reunite will agree that the total time experienced by the one that felt more forces of acceleration (or of resistance to gravity if spending time near a massive object) will be less than that experienced by the other. This means that from the point of view of the one who was more accelerated (or spent more time at the bottom of a potential well) the clock of the other appears on average to have been speeded up (ie tick intervals appear contracted), while the one who remains unaccelerated interprets this as meaning that that the other’s clock tic intervals were, on average, dilated.
Source: (1000) Alan Cooper’s answer to Can time contract, as opposed to dilation? – Quora