Most people have an idea of what the word “clock” means and when they hear the word, they usually think of a round face with a pair of hands. Granted, most clocks these days are digital ones, but the centuries-old analog clock image remains with us.
Traditionally, clocks were built with sets of gears and moving hands, with readable numbers placed at 12 positions around the face. This became the universal way of doing things hundreds of years ago, and aside from the minor variations of using Arabic or Roman numerals to indicate the hours, most clocks fall into pretty much the same form factor.
They’re going to be round. They’re going to have numbers. They’re going to have hands. And that is that.
Or so it would seem. Below are a few examples we’ve found of some interesting clocks that do not conform to the standard design in one way or another, and in some cases, several ways.
The Handless Clock
We might as well start off with something that defies multiple conventions. This clock shows the time via beams of light that represent the hands. There are no physical hands on the clock, and for that matter, no numbers on the face. Really, there isn’t much of a face, either, since the “face” is transparent glass.
This “modern” clock has no face, but the balls on arms around the design aren’t really new, as they strongly resemble the popular George Nelson designed “Ball Clock” that was built by Howard Miller in the 1940s and 1950s. It evokes “modern” in the mid-century sense, but not on the 21st century sense.
This clock rather inverts the very idea of a traditional clock. It only has one “hand,” and it’s really just a pointer. The “face” is a gear with numbers around the perimeter, and the gear rotates, so the time is always determined by looking at the pointer at what would ordinarily be the 12 o’clock position.
The Redundant Clock is clearly redundant, as the “numbers” surrounding the face are actually just depictions of what the hands on a clock should show at that time of day. But you knew that.
Color Blind Clock
Are you color blind? A lot of people are, especially men. If you are, then you may not be able to see the numbers at 3,6,9, and 12 o’clock, but they’re there. Really. This one might make your head hurt after a while.
This clock was inspired by Salvador Dali’s well-known work “The Persistence of Memory,” and it was undoubtedly quite a feat to actually make it work, which it does. Good luck finding a place to put it.
The Domino Clock
The Domino Clock looks, at first glance, like three dominoes hanging on the wall. If you look carefully, however, you’ll see that they’re actually displaying the time.
The video below will give a demonstration of the Domino Clock in action:
We’ve actually seen hundreds of unusual clocks that bend the very idea of what a “clock” should be. Perhaps we’ll share a few more in future posts.
As long as it works and you can tell the time of day from it, it’s pretty much “anything goes” when it comes to clock design.
We’re all for it.