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"QUANTUM SHOT" #563
Link - by A. Abrams




"Time does not exist. Clocks exist." - wall graffiti

Today we look at various clocks, watches and means to tell the time, a fleeting continuum that is otherwise invisible and even irrelevant, especially when considered as a disappearing line between absolute concepts of "past" and "future".


The Horological Machine - info - called pure watchporn. We agree.


Somebody said that a "miracle" is nothing but a time compressed - a fast forward, or even skip button around the normal flow of things. Even without considering miracles, we seem obsessed with measuring time (perhaps to reassure ourselves in the world's normality?) - as it swirls around us in glittering fractal spirals, constantly teetering on the brink of eternity, yet never quite falling into it.


design by: Dale Mathis)


"Time Considered as a Helix of Semiprecious Stones" (S. Delany)

They are thousands of clocks online, sites that compete in their Flash-infused glory to show you the current hours and minutes; this site, however, has rather more sublime design and animation -


click to launch LeoGeo clock


Here is a very strange Digimech clock, designed by Duncan Shotton, with strips of alien code slowly moving through... time:



(design by Duncan Shotton)


Or consider this clock, that takes the idea of time as continuum literally - it tells the time in a continuous sentence, something like "It's about six o'clock" or "it's almost seven now". In other words, poetry in motion -


(image via, order it here)


Read time differently! These geek clocks need some time to figure out... check out the answers here -


(designs by DCIGift and EagleApex)



(images via 1, 2, 3, 4)


A lot more "nerdy" and hard-to-read clocks are shown on this excellent page.

Designer Buro Vormkrijgers presents the "Orbit Clock" - info - and Ross McBride came up with a minimalist "Extra-Normal" clock - info:



"The Explosion of Time", design by Niels van Eijk & Miriam van der Lubbe and "The Water Clock", via


Behold a thing of beauty... Lisa Boyer's wooden gear clock plans, inspired perhaps by Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, would transform any room into a baroque "workshop". They are "swoopy", kinetic, some even include calendar, and some are sophisticated enough to be called "Masochist's Corner" - to see the whole gorgeous lineup click here -


(image credit: Lisa Boyer)


Clock "sculptures" may require a separate page, see for example, the "grandfather clock" made from old bicycle parts - some videos here

For the ultimate wall clock piece you'll have to pay more than a million dollars, but it's creepy and perhaps even evil deep down inside. The Corpus Clock looks like one of H.R. Giger's haunting designs, uses grasshopper escapement, guarded by the sinister Chronophage insect on top... "Basically I view time as not on your side. He'll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he's salivating for the next." (clock's creator John C. Taylor) -


(image credit: Andrew Stawarz)


Alarm clocks that cannot be denied

More creative ways to yank you out of a blissful slumber into a jarring noise and bustle of this world:

Alarm-clock Ring for the couple: let's say you need to wake up at a different time from your spouse - you let the ring charge and put it on when going to sleep. The rings will start vibrating at a certain time, waking you up. (more info)


(image via)


More alarm-clock violence: retro-styled "Bomba" (on the right) and the Alarm Grenade, that are impossible to shut off, unless you smash them against the wall! -


(images via)


Combine all this with a Danger Bomb alarm clock, that requires your full concentration:


(image via)


The alarm clock shown on the left is very easy to shut off - just smash it! The whole clock is one big button.... which is very satisfying. If you dislike such displays of violence, there is a "Glo Pillow" that will simulate sunrise to gently wake you up - more info


(designs by Matthias Lange and Eoin McNally & Ian Walton)


LED clock design by Jonas Damon and the Puzzle Alarm Clock


Alarm clock carpet... and probably the most unforgiving alarm clock of all: "Three minutes after it goes off without having you turn it off, it will start to make random phone calls from your cell phone." -


(images via 1, 2)


With all these alarm-clock options, no wonder the simple retro-styled ones look unhappy:


(original unknown)


Clocks in your house that are impossible to ignore

Put this thing on the wall and let it "ruin" it with scratches. These are similar concept clocks: One-Hour Circle from EverLab - on the right - and the The Receipt Clock on the left; both have dubious practicality, but who knows...


(images via 1, 2)


Make a huge one on your garage door (pretty old concept, actually) - or enjoy a giant LED clock as a book shelf (more info)


(images via 1, 2)


If you want the ultimate freedom in wall clocks, well, try this one - the numbers can be arranged on the wall however you like (designed by Progetti Srl, Italy) -


(image via)


Check out the Watch Table from Lee J. Rowland Design:



(image via)


or the executive desk, with moving gears - made by Dale Mathis:


(image credit: Dale Mathis)


Combine measuring tape and kitchen timer, and you'll get this:


(image via)

The fastest clock in the world can be seen here, which aptly demonstrated the idea how swiftly the time moves - "on a scale millions of times smaller than most of us perceive".


Pocket- and Wristwatch Oddities

Even without featuring bizarre "Tokyo Flash" watches, you can load up on a slew of super-geeky time pieces, for example on ThinkGeek site: Binary LED clock, "Rotating Rings" clock, and even a "Stonehenge" pocket-watch for predicting solstices (more info) -


images via


Electronic Ink Watch from SEIKO is perhaps the most elegant time-telling device in history. Cartier, eat your heart out. It's ultra-thin, open to all sorts of styles, can be worn as a wrist bracelet or bangle design, can be any size, including very very small - more info


(images via)


If you don't like numbers, time can be told in phrases - check out the "Tubular Time" word-clock - order it here:


(image via)


It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad watch world - here is a smorgasbord of ideas:






Designer "Ruby Slice" watch, and other unknown designs, via


designs by Denis Guidone

The Cassette Tape Watch? Sure, buy it here - and a retro-phone watch by Zihotch to complement your nostalgia trip:




The "Richard Mille RM 01200", "Richard Mille 1" and "Harry Winston Tourbillon Glissiere" were only a few of many sophisticated unusual movement watches shown at the Geneva Watch Fair:




Vintage Awesomeness Achieved with Hands and Gears (mostly)

The RetroGrade Pocket-watch (circa 1900) is a definition of steampunk device - it's gorgeous, cryptic and full of its own mad movement:




"Blued steel hands that traverse the arc of the dial and then snap back." - see it being sold for $3,750 here. Lots of more modern retrograde watches are featured at Watchismo:




Speaking of steampunk watches, master Haruo Suekichi has been making them for 12 years - a watch pretty much every single day! That makes 7,000 unique time-pieces, and still counting!


(image credit: Haruo Suekichi)


Cabestan's "Winch Tourbillon Vertical" watches are in a league of their own. Nothing comes close to their sophistication, and sheer audacity of style:




Chain-driven movements! 1,352 components all working together! Only four watches made in one month! Priced approx. $400,000... As you can see, nothing else even comes close:


(image via)


A whole collection of "2001: A Space Odyssey"-themed watches can be seen at this wonderful "Watchismo" site. Did Stanley Kubrick himself contribute to their design?


(image via)


Other very cool vintage calculator watches: 1975 Calcron Calculator Watch, 1976 Uranus Calculator Watch -




An elegant 1977 Hewlett Packard HP-01, and a totally ridiculous 1976-78 Hughes Aircraft Calculator Watch -


(images via)


You might remember our series about Vintage Spy Guns and miniature spy cameras. Here is the 1886 Victorian Lancaster watch camera that predates better-known spy camera watches from 1907 - more info


(images via)


Here is more modern "spy-watch" tech - a wristwatch with hidden USB drive:


(image via)


Clocks made from recycled hard drives

SRK Consulting makes them in various styles, all sporting these good old retro-computing looks:


(images via)


And if you want to light up your room with a dazzling light show from a spinning LED-illuminated hard drive, here is a video demonstration (and a DIY project page) -


url


(images via 1, 2)

Article by Avi Abrams, Dark Roasted Blend.


Continue to "Unusual Clock Mechanisms"! ->





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YOUR COMMENTS::

13 Comments:

Blogger veinglory said...

The keep teasing us with the e-ink watch but the only one that ever went into general production was a half inch thick and all it could do was make the dial color either white or black.

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Anonymous speak said...

I am impressed, I know I should not be given that i have worked on a similar, blog post but you were able to find some real good germs.

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Blogger Nathan Billington said...

That SEIKO watch is amazing! It doesn't seem to be an actual product, however. It seems like plausible technology, however. A roll-up flat-screen monitor, in full color, was shown off at SIGGRAPH last year...

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Blogger Unknown said...

Superbe, especially the vintage ones made by Haruo Suekichi, they remembered me about the movies La cite des enfants perdus (1995), seemed like stuff made out of Jules Verne books.

And then the alarm clock that you could smack to stop the alarm, I became nostalgic remembering Pink Panther, how she broke her alarm clock in the morning and orTom si Jerry cartoons:-) So long time ago.

Spendid design. Hard to find them though on the market.

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Anonymous Jack Twisted said...

Wow, wow, and bloody WOW. Many, many thanks for this post!

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

not to be uber pedantic or anything, but the one that has math stuff to the numbers has an error...

the Equation for 9 is given as:

3(pi-.14) which equals 9.004777960... etc etc.

try it with calc lolz

;)

___  
Blogger TEcoArt said...

Here are more cool clocks and techie gifts from TEcoArt. The variety is more extensive than we have seen anywhere else. TEcoArt loves to rescue computers from e-scrap centers and landfills. It takes you to keep them there!

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the Horological Machine Looks a bit SteamPunk to me...:)

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

And then the alarm clock that you could smack to stop the alarm, I became nostalgic remembering Pink Panther

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

The "Danger Bomb" clock reminded me of the "Lost" Dharma Initiative alarm clock:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/dharma-alarm-clock.shtml
When it goes off you have to type in the numbers - 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 as every Lost fan remembers - and press enter.
Hopefully the snooze interval is something a bit more useful than 108 minutes.

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Blogger Unknown said...

A finger clock is a novel gadget. It is accessible in a wide mixture of styles and color plans. They are likewise ideal for men and ladies of all ages. These are not restricted to a simple framework; they additionally accompany different sorts of watches like computerized watches. Wrist watch mechanics are likewise accessible as ring watches. finger clock as a period piece is as of now enhancing and getting more noteworthy about whether.

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Anonymous Tek time said...

A few nice looking clocks here. All having unique features and style like some digital wrist watches. They are looking cool in these pics.

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Anonymous coolest said...

Here are different types of clock with unique features. I really like these clock collection. Thanks for this nice blog. Please see more at www.smartestclock.com

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