A New Way to Tell Time

Long ago, when I started this blog, I wanted to release some new clock designs. I was motivated by the TokyoFlash approaches, and wanted to come up with some based on epicyclic movement. Why would one bother? Longer ago, I had difficulty reading an 'analog' clock. I was a child of the digital age, and preferred to the red blocky LEDs that simply spelled it out. I still find the hour and minute hand confusing sometime – squinting across the room – it's easy to confuse the two hands.

So, in this first installment, I show the simplest design. It's so simple that it may be deceiving how to read it. There is no hour hand. Instead the face of the clock moves to follow the minute hand. The minute hand is the most important anyway, right. Chances are when you look at a clock, you already know the hour, and you simply want to know the minute. In this clock (yes, I realize I need a better design – any offers?), the hour is indicated by the last number the minute hand passed. Get it? You can also download a Vista Gadget of this clock (remove the .zip from the end when you save), but it requires you to also install the following XAML extension: Windows Sidebar Styler.

Finally, I really would like a second hand to show some movement so that you know that the clock is working. So, in this modification, I've added an outer dial to show the seconds. The dial moves backwards and the exact second is indicated by the minute hand as well. In this way, your eyes need only go to where the minute hand is pointing to determine hour, minute, and second. Here's the Vista Gadget for this one (again remove the .zip from the end when you save) (don't forget the sidebar styler extension as well).