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Etsy seller Steven Shaver turns old car parts into cufflinks, belt buckles and clocks. Here’s a desk clock that is built into a piston from an old Volvo engine. Don’t worry — you won’t have to change the oil in this clock.
You may remember Instructables user mezcraft from her amazing Harry Potter-themed gingerbread house. Believe it or not, she’s actually topped that achievement. Mezcraft’s cuckoo clock isn’t just gingerbread on the outside. The gears are gingerbread, too! Mind you, it doesn’t actually function as a clock. But gingerbread engineering has advanced so rapidly in the past few years that surely such a clock will be available in the near future.
Matt Jones of the London-based art studio BERG can feel which way the wind is blowing. He wants to get on the good side of the robots by building what he calls a “robot readable world”. One small way that he can help, he reasoned, is by building a clock that robots can easily read. As each minute ticks by, the Data Matrix code display changes to reflect the current time.
Justin Shaw loves the GeoChron, a clock that shows night and day changing across the world. But it’s far too expensive for him to purchase, so he made his own. Read his instructions at the link if you’d like to build one, too.
Link -via Geekosystem
Alexander Avtanski designed a clock that can be adjusted to keep time on many different planets based upon each one’s rotation period — at the same time. Here’s what sets this clock apart from other extraterrestrial clocks, according to its builder:
It has 16 timers that can be independently paused and restarted, and can run forward or backward. There are 16 alarms with configurable sounds and actions. Timers can show Earth, Mars, Jupiter, etc. times at the same time. How about sidereal time, Moon phase, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot transit time, and anything periodic in general?
Avtanski provides comprehensive building instructions at the link.
Link via Make | Previously: What Time Is It in Mars?
Design student James Auger was inspired by carnivorous plants to make a clock that is powered by converting the bodies of dead insects into electricity. A roll of flypaper catches the flies, which are in turn scraped off and dumped into a fuel cell. It’s an application of biomass energy conversion technology. You can watch videos about the clock at the link.
Link via OhGizmo! | Photo: Auger Loizeau
Does it seem like your lunchbreak goes too quickly? It’s time to reverse the effect with the Lunchtime Clock by Instructables user randofo. This clock slows down during the lunch hour so that you can relax a little:
Thanks to great in advances in clock technology, I present to you a clock that speeds up 20% every day at 11:00 and slows down 20% every day at 11:48, giving you an extra twelve minutes of lunch to enjoy. Twelve minutes may not seem like a lot but, to put it into perspective, this is a full additional hour of lunchtime gained every week.
Studio V is an industrial design firm in Tel Aviv. It recently produced the Manifold Clock, which folds and unfolds a fan as the hands circulate. At the link, you can watch a time-lapse video of it in action.
The Australian architectural firm Clarke Hopkins Clarke designed a clock called “Parallel of Time.” As the shapes move, the shorter hands indicate the hour and minutes:
Time is parallel. The speed of time (on earth) is indubitable but everyone’s perception of it is somehow different. Using multiple clocks and cables to create a number of parallelograms, a design is generated: the Parallel of Time. The parallelograms are interconnected, creating an optically illusory axonometric timepiece.
Mechanically speaking, since the hands on every clock (within the same time zone) produce the same angle, the lengths of the connecting cables remain constant as the clocks run. The hour and minute hands are positioned on either side of the glass to prevent cable collisions.
You can watch the clock in action at the first link.
Clock Website and Explanation via technabob
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Igor Barbashin and Daria Volokhova designed the “Shattered Clock.” Numbers break apart and form together. The hour number that is the least broken represents the closest hour to the current time. The minute hand tells you, well, the current minute. So it’s 3:55. The designers write:
The “Order in Chaos” clocks – is a vivid illustration of the self paradigm to overcome the anarchy in you and connect with the universe. This clock is an example of a strange relationship between order and chaos.
On Wednesday, the largest clock in the world began operating. It is mounted 400 meters into the sky on a skyscraper dominating the skyline of the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca. Measuring 43 meters across, it’s hoped that the enormous clock will draw additional Muslim pilgrims to visit the city:
Over 90 million pieces of coloured glass mosaic embellish the sides of the clock, which has four faces each bearing a large inscription of the name “Allah.” It is visible from all corners of the city, the state news agency said.
The clock tower is the landmark feature of the seven-tower King Abdulaziz Endowment hotel complex, being built by the private Saudi Binladen Group, which will have the largest floor area of any building in the world when it is complete. Local media have said the clock tower project cost US$3 billion (NZ$4.2 billion).
The clock is positioned on a 601-metre tower, which will become the second tallest inhabited building in the world when it is completed in three months’ time.
“Because it based in front of the holy mosque the whole Islamic world will refer to Mecca time instead of Greenwich. The Mecca clock will become a symbol to all Muslims,” said Hashim Adnan, a resident of nearby Jeddah who frequently visits Mecca.
Link | Photo: AP
We’ve previously featured a minimalist clock design by Giha Woo and Shingoeun. Another clock that they’ve built uses a staggered hour hand to indicate the time in multiple time zones. It’s called “Bent Hands”.
Link via CrunchGear | Photo: Dezeen
Industrial designer Siren Elise Wilhelmsen made a clock that knits a 2-meter scarf over the course of one year. It’s called “365″, and its purpose is:
[...]to give a physical manifestation to the change of time. drawing from the change that is witnessed through the growth of human bodies and hair, the same concept is found in ’365′ which translates time through the growth of knitted material. the clock houses a circular knitting machine with 48 needles, a thread spool, a thread holder and roll of yarn. moving in clockwise direction, one day leads to a complete round, while a year gives users 2 meters of a complete scarf.
The clock was exhibited at the DMY International Design Festival in Berlin this year. You can view more pictures and a completed scarf at the link.
Link via DudeCraft | Photo: Design Boom | Artist’s Website
The Front & Back Clock is powered by two AA batteries, which can be seen from the front of the clock. They’re used as hands to indicate the time. It was created by the design firm The Wrong Objects and was featured at the 2010 DMY International Design Festival in Berlin. The clock is not yet available for purchase.
Studio Website via OhGizmo! | Photo: Wrong Objects
Artist Chris Domino made this cuckoo clock inspired by the horror movie The Shining. Every hour on the hour, Jack Nicholson’s head pokes through the door and says “Here’s Johnny!” Then the Shelly Duval figure screams.
Andreas Dober’s wall clock for the German luxury shop Anthologie Quartett cycles a bicycle chain to display the hour with copper digits at the top. A custom job, it prices out at $2,338.
Link via Make | Anthologie Quartett
The Watchismo Times has a post about a series of rare clocks that were built by Oswald of Germany between 1926 and 1944.
The dials are represented as the eyes separating the hours on the left and minutes to the right. Most of their collection feature cross-eyed genies, monkeys, gnomes, owls, and dogs (LOTS of dogs).
