Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re redecorating the office and are looking for a unique clock to sit on your desk, the Word Clock should fit the bill. Alternately, if you’re redecorating the bathroom and are looking for a towel rod that tells the time, the Word Clock would also be an appropriate choice.

Instead of a traditional clock face with moving hands or even a digital display, the Word Clock uses a couple of rotating cylinders to tell the time in phrases. The cylinder with the hours is pretty straightforward, but the other one listing the minutes is a bit on the verbose side. Instead of just saying 2:55 for example, the clock would be read as ‘five minutes to three’ and so forth. The minute phrases are listed in 5-minute increments so the clock is fairly accurate, but I wouldn’t recommend it for timing a marathon or anything like that.

The Word Clock is currently available from Amazon for $122.88.

[ Nextime Word Clock ] VIA [ GadgetGrid ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you were a child of the 80’s you might remember that Transformers toys came with a red strip of transparent plastic you could use to ‘decode’ your character’s strengths on the back of the box. The same idea is used here with the Seeing Double wall clock created by the Hong Kong design group, Chillychilly.

The minute and hour markings are displayed on top of each other in red and green, making them difficult to read. But the minute and hour hands have a red and green transparent film that passes over these markings allowing you to easily read the current time.

It’s currently available from Revive Home for $112.50.

[ Chillychilly Seeing Double Clock (flash) ] VIA [ Cribcandy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m sure at one point the look of a digital clock was considered cool or even high-tech but now it’s actually kind of tacky looking. So here’s another take on the projection clock that instead displays an old-fashioned analog clock face complete with roman numerals and a sweeping second hand.

The size of the projection is of course based on how far the clock is placed from the wall but at 10 feet you get an image that’s about 3 feet in diameter. There’s also controls for tweaking both the focus and the brightness. I find it odd though that while there’s clearly a power cord shown in the product shot the clock also requires a AA battery in order to operate.

It’s available from Plow & Hearth for $99.95.

[ Projection Clock ] VIA [ The Green Head ]

By Andrew Liszewski

No one’s gonna argue about the importance of a good night’s sleep but I have to raise an eyebrow when I see someone selling a $2,500 alarm clock that claims to give you a better sleep but isn’t covered in valuable gemstones. The NightCove from Zyken uses a combination of specially engineered lighting and sounds that not only help you fall asleep and wake up more naturally but also seems to encourage the body’s phases of light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep.

The colored lighting apparently helps influence the brain’s production of melatonin which is linked to the body’s transitions between feeling awake and feeling sleepy. So when you use a regular light bulb for reading before bed you can throw off the levels of melatonin which in turn makes it harder to fall asleep. The lighting in the NightCove however is specially tuned to keep things in balance which should make it easier to drift off when you’re ready. In the morning it then wakes you up gradually with a combination of blue and white lights to ensure you feel awake instead of wanting to hit the snooze button.

While I still question the $2,500 price tag at least the NightCove can be integrated with your MP3 player, TV, computer or whatever remote-controlled devices you have in your bedroom. Oh, and it looks kinda cool.

[ Zyken NightCove ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

By Ryan Nill

What time is it? Well, its apparently “maybe more like around eight.” While this isn’t accurate enough for something along the lines of cooking, being useful, or being anywhere on time there are those of us who are not wedded to normal people time (writers, insomniacs, plumbers or UPS delivery men). To those unique beings, this clock could be slightly interesting. Featuring one long sentence of vaguely time related details, the About Time clock slowly rotates around a flat surface, indicating what time it’s “about.” Much like a large top. Or a piece of performance art.

This clock makes a distinct statement for 179$, available now at Greenhead. Maybe it would be prudent not to expect the best shipping service in the world.

[ The Greenhead ] VIA [ Newlaunches ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Like many people I’ve got friends all over the world that I talk to on a regular basis but sometimes I’m afraid to call or message them because I have no idea what time of the day it is where they live. So I could definitely use something like the Knowhere Cosmos Clock which is designed as a quick and easy way to figure out what time it is in different cities all over the world.

The clock face has the 24 hours of the day mapped out around the edge with midnight being at the 12 position and noon being at the 6 position. The hands of the clock each graphically represent 8 major cities around the world through the use of famous landmarks. (Including Paris, New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo and London.) Each silhouetted landmark points to the current time in the city they represent ensuring you’ll never get someone out of bed again by accidentally calling them at 3 in the morning.

The Knowhere Cosmos Clock is available from Generate for $79.

[ Knowhere Cosmos Clock ] VIA [ Popgadget ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When it comes to functionality the D-Day Count Down Clock is kind of self-explanatory. It’s a clock that includes a large timer that can be programmed to ‘count down’ to a specific time/date/event that you’re anticipating. There’s even a series of suggested events you can wait for like “Lose 10 lbs in 100 days!” or “Santa Clause is comin’ to town!”

But when it comes to the design I have to admit I’m a bit confused. For some reason the clock is made to look like a film slate complete with a clapper arm at the top. While the website does make some vague reference to your life being like a movie I think someone just found an overturned truck filled with clapboards and decided to repurpose and sell them to the public. But as for how much they’re actually selling them for, I have no idea.

[ D-Day Count Down Clock ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Ilya Kochanov

We all know that anything with Transformer in its name (read: not Transformers) is worthy of being blogged about, so check this clock from The Design Town. This unique time piece can be arranged in a boatload of different positions which range from one leg to two legs or even one springy leg. The possibilities are clearly endless so pick this up while you can as it is only available for one day. It’s $25.

[ Transformer Alarm Clock ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Two things that graphic designers have to deal with on a daily basis are fonts and deadlines. So this Font Clock designed by Sebastien Wrong seems like the perfect combination. It’s supposedly a 21st century take on the iconic British 24 hour clock and it uses twelve different fonts (hopefully Comic Sans isn’t one of them) that end up creating a random, mixed display of the time and date depending on which clock you own.

The Font Clocks are all available from thorsten van elten with the small version selling for about $400, the middle sized one for about $1,115 and the largest one for about $1,640.

[ Font Clock ] VIA [ Cribcandy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Like with watches there’s really no reason to buy a standalone clock these days unless it’s for reasons of fashion or design. So it’s no surprise we’re seeing more and more clocks that push form over functionality, like this ZER00:00 clock for example. Created by WAT from the Netherlands it’s as minimal as a digital clock can possibly get since it’s comprised of only a circuit board and a basic 4 character LCD display.

In fact it doesn’t even include a way to stand on its own and instead relies on a 9-volt battery connected to the back to remain upright. And while I don’t see any buttons I assume there has to be at least one somewhere on the clock for setting the time. (FYI it doesn’t include any date functions.)

The ZER00:00 Digital Clock is available from Charles & Marie for a very unminimalistic price of $40. But at least you have the choice of either a butterfly or tree branch design on the front.

[ ZER00:00 Digital Clock ]