There’s not a single day we don’t look at clocks, watches or other time-dictating devices to track our daily activities. For years though, we have been conforming to traditional mechanical or digital clock designs without actually exploring the alternatives. Most of us are still used to clocks that comprise of the classic hour, minute and second hands against a square or circle clock face filled with 12-hour numerals.
Today, I will show you how some creative and unorthodox clock designs. Whilst some of them may not seem practical as a time-telling device, the key takeaway from these innovations is their ability to break away from what we have often considered the usual way to tell time.
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Binary Clock. A clock in binary code. Would you buy it? (Image Credit: Firebox)
Time Tuner. This radio tuner-inspired clock will bring a fresh new perspective on time. (Image Credit: Antrepo)
Around Clock. The concept of this rotating clock is based on the constant and subtle rotation of the globe and is thus a better representation of time than the common clock. (Image Credit: Anthony Dickens)
Canna by ChronArte. Like the sand in an hourglass concept, the individual tubes represent the hours of the day while the height to which each of time is filled by water shows you the minutes. (Image Credit: Heinz Mutter)
Recycled Sanyo Clock. This retro clock is made out of a recycled Sanyo turntable and is bound to be a conversation starter with guests around. (Image Credit: Allan Young)
Continue Time. Any idea how to tell the time for this one? (Hint: It’s 3:40:05) The minute hand is attached to the end of the hour hand, while the seconds hand is attached to the end of the minute hand. The result is a truly fluid clock that changes its shape constantly. (Image Credit: Sander Mulder)
Aspiral Kinetic Clock. As the clock face turns, the red ball within rolls slowly and tells you the time at the moment. (Image Credit: Will Aspinall & Neil Lambeth)
Decode Clock. The writins on the clockface are all gibberish until the hour hand passes each of them and decodes the hour for you. (Image Credit: Arthur Yung & Clement Cheung)
Domiuno Clock. Tell time with dominoes. (Image Credit: Carbon Design Group)
Digimech Clock. While the display is in digit form, it is not an LCD or LED display. Each of the digit is formed by a vertical slider which slowly move into a black decrypting box to reveal the time. (Image Credit: Duncan Shotton)
Good Afternoon Clock. Using beams of light as the hour, minute and second hand, this minimalistic clock aptly represents time as intangible and fleeting. (Image Credit: Mile Project)
Frivolo Black Wall Clock. This creative clock design says it all: Clock faces don’t always have to be in fixed shapes like squares or circles. After all, time is a boundless entity. (Image Credit: Calleadesign)
Sundial Clock. An interesting blend of traditional time-reading through sundials and modern-day analog clocks. Thee numbers on the clockface are all formed by shadows cast from the 3D digits. (Image Credit: Porro)
Handmade LED Clock. Very exquisite design that was handmade from scratch to create an old-school jukebox-like clock. (Image Credit: Barry Nijkeuter)
Hoos O’Clock. A clock that is (almost always) looking at you. (Image Credit: Zanzara)
Vacuum Tube Clock. Using vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) technology, time illuminates in neon-like bright lighting in this old-school vacuum tube clock. (Image Credit: Jason von Nieda)
Melting Clock for Shelf. Who says clocks need to be flat and upright? This ‘melting’ clock challenges such traditional notion and bring to life the clocks in the masterpiece of Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory. (Image Credit: Hilary Wiezbenski)
Mhin Clock. We’re so used to loading bars on our computer or mobile screens, so why not put them in clocks? (Image Credit: James Tobin)
Eyeclock. Don’t get paranoid and think that this pair of eyes are checking you out; they’re just telling you the time. Its cross-eyed look says 03:50. (Image Credit: Mike Mak)
Vague Clock. If you don’t like a clock that’s always showing you the time and pressuring your life, this vague clock will only provide the time when you press on it. (Image Credit: Sejoon Kim)
Normal Timepieces. In this cleverly designed clockpiece, the hour hand of this clock is actually a rectangular hole that exposes the time on the face. (Image Credit: Ross McBride)
Orolodiana. This minimalistic clock seemed to have borrowed its concept from a volume knob. As you would’ve guessed, the outer ring shows you the hour while the inner circle with the thinner black stripe across shows you the minute. (Image Credit: Enrico Pandolfini)
Atom Clock. Specially designed to resemble the the atomic planetary model, this clock stands apart from typical squarish or circular clocks. (Image Credit: Arti & Mestieri)
Empty Clock. An environmentally-friendly clock made only from bamboo and metal, and with only hands and no clock face. (Image Credit: Shuo Yang)
RollOClock. This looks a lot like another ‘loading bar’ clock, except there are two colors in this one. As the day progresses, the bar gets’ filled up’ displaying how much time you’ve left for the rest of the day. (Image Credit: Aleksey Belyalo v)
Segmentus Clock. This looks like an electromechanical scoreboard except that it works 24/7 to tell you the time. (Image Credit: Art Lebedev Studio)
Suede ‘Metal Mickey’ – Retro Redesigned. A very slick-looking retro wall clock made from Suede ‘Metal Mickey’ original 7" single is bound to take you back to the iconic Britpop era. (Image Credit: Amy Dolan)
Gear Clock. It’s always an awesome feeling to observe how individual gears fit together in complex ways to bring together a seemingly simple contraption to give you the time. (Image Credit: Invotis)
Spire. Can you even tell that this is a clock? Drawing inspiration from a Japanese folding fan, the hour and minute hand spiral while it unfolds and folds the blades as time ticks by. (Image Credit: Wireframe)
The Bent Hands. Instead of straight hands to give you the time, this clock has one long spiralling hand to tell you the time for different major cities at one go. (Image Credit: Giha Woo & Shingoeun)
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