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Top 10 Creative Ways To Display Time

By Smashing Editorial, August 15th, 2008 in Events, Inspiration | 78 Comments | Forum

By Haroon Baig

Clocks don’t have to be boring. Of course, clocks need need to remain usable and display current time; however, they can do it in a number of creative ways. You are about to see some of the most creative examples out there. Take some time and enjoy.

1. Uniqlock

What shall I say. If the others are songs, Uniqlock is the concert. Japanese girls dance focusing your attention away from the passing time. Probably one of the strangest — unique — clock screensavers out there.

2. Word Clock

Whether you hate or love Helvetica, you’ll just love Word Clock (for you haters out there the typeface can be changed). Simon Heys, the creative director of Tonic, definitely deserves the place on the podium with this stunning piece. You can download the screensaver (PC and Mac) as well as an iPhone application here.

3. DropClock

DropClock is an aesthetically intriguing motion clock screensaver. Every minute of real time is numerically expressed with heavy helvetica dropping into water in super slow-motion. An impressive piece of art by Yugop. You can get the screensaver here (PC and Mac, price: $15).

4. Uncontrol Clock

Among other things Uncontrol Website offers the so-called “55 clock” for free download. This clock uses the 3rd dimension to combine an analogue display with a digital clock display. Ingenious.

5. FedEx “Just in time”

Just in time is the message of this advertising banner for FedEx, which won a Gold Lion in the Cyber Lions category in Cannes 2005. And deservedly so. You get the message.

6. Pulse Clock

This neat little Actionscript Experiment by Mrdoob currently rocking at HiReS! convinces through simplicity and aesthetics. Built using Papervision3D to experiment with real-time shadows.

7. Humanclock

Humanclock is a project by Craig D. Giffen. People from all over the world submit pictures with certain times on them. Every minute there is a new picture telling the current time. Simple as that. Read the project page for more info (you’ll find an analogue version, too).

8. Industrial Clock

Way back in 2000 the design legend Yugo Nakamura aka Yugop amazed the community with his Industrial Clock. It is not exaggerated to say that this piece has created a whole new genre of “video clocks” and served many others as inspiration (as you can see in some other examples).

9. Grid-Based Clock

This clock is built by Geoffroy Delobel and based on an idea by Sleepatwork. The Grid Based Clock is a rather “constructivist” approach to display the time. Its elementary formal vocabulary makes a unique and unusual charm. You can get the screensaver here (PC and Mac).

10. Clockr

Mario Klingemann (aka Quasimondo) came up with this classic. Clockr uses random digit images from Flickr to display the current time.Click on a number to change the image, double-click it to view the full image. Use the mouse wheel to cycle through (just give it some time if it doesn’t display the images right away). You can download the screensaver here (Win only).

Runners-up

Well, they might not made it to the top 10, but they are definitely worth a look:

Scott Blake’s Barcode Clock
Yugop’s ClockBlock
Flickr Clock
Mathieu-Badimon’s Block Clock
Human Clock
Georg Meyer’s Site with a “Tangram Clock” (see the middle of the navigation bar)
Mrdoob’s 2008 clock
Time Beat
Bluedotclock
Polar Clock

You disagree with the order? What is your favourite? You know another amazing clocks that are missing? Please use the comment section to show your examples!

About the author

Haroon Baig is a communication designer currently working as a User Interface Designer in Germany.

Editor’s note

This post is one of the finalists of our guest author contest. Over three weeks selected top-10-lists and discussion articles will be published. To rate the articles we’ll analyze their popularity, users activity, quality of backlinks, traffic and further data.

Published in Events, Inspiration, August 15th, 2008
Tags: clock, display, time, visualization

1.

D. Cellucci (August 15th, 2008, 4:54 am)

at first I was gonna say some of these I’ve already seen, but the runner up category sealed the deal for me. An excellent article all around.
2.

Johnob (August 15th, 2008, 5:03 am)

One link is wrong, please fix that:
Mrdoob’s 2008 clock, the tex link’s ok, but the iamge down under is linking to a wrong site.

but really a great article, loving the variation.
keep up good work.
3.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (August 15th, 2008, 5:04 am)

@Johnob (#2): fixed, thank you.
4.

Otafu (August 15th, 2008, 5:10 am)

Thank you so much for this!
Always a big fan of flash clocks (and then, transform them into a neat screensaver hehe!)!

Just a small detail:
“Time Bat” should be “Time Beat”

^_^

Once again, great post!

Otafu
5.

Daniel (August 15th, 2008, 5:11 am)

Some very insipring soltuions however i think you missed off the robot Link [gadgets.boingboing.net]

Link [www.dtsn.co.uk]
6.

ivan ortega (August 15th, 2008, 5:15 am)

The art of the empty one.
If a common man, a newbie-disowned freelance create it, has great value?

Those blinded for boredom !!!!!
7.

Ben Bodien (August 15th, 2008, 5:26 am)

Good list, thanks!
8.

Sonny Gill (August 15th, 2008, 5:34 am)

Nice list but missed a good one I saw on Link [www.tehcpeng.net]

Link [www.neologstore.com]
9.

henri (August 15th, 2008, 6:06 am)

link to 55 clock at the Uncontrol Website is not working
10.

Mayur (August 15th, 2008, 6:08 am)

Wow amazing Screensavers :D
hope if the Drop Clock one could be Free :p
Link [www.netbulls.co.cc]
11.

valp (August 15th, 2008, 6:27 am)

My fav is polar clock! Installed few days ago and it’s really cool - while it’s not so legibility it looks awesome :)
12.

pickupjojo (August 15th, 2008, 6:32 am)

Very nice post! It’s strange but I’ve also featured some of those screensavers few days ago on my blog! Thanks for sharing more cool stuff. :)

Joffrey,
Link [www.geekandhype.com]
13.

Onyeka (August 15th, 2008, 6:47 am)

I had a problem with a few of those links including the dropclock. Gave an error.
But good list.
14.

ap283227 (August 15th, 2008, 7:21 am)

Is there any way that you can get a clocks like these for your home? That would be awesome!
15.

Cosmi (August 15th, 2008, 7:34 am)

Very nice!
16.

AJ (August 15th, 2008, 7:50 am)

Wow - brilliant. First thing I did once I read it was download Wordclock.

Great article!
17.

Vlad Gerasimov (August 15th, 2008, 8:21 am)

Hey! Do not forget you can also have desktop wallpapers that show time! Link [www.vladstudio.com]
18.

mackGreen (August 15th, 2008, 9:21 am)

I personally like the clock that I created as my signature on several Texas Longhorn fan sites.

Link [mackgreen.com]
19.

kleight (August 15th, 2008, 9:51 am)

The best guest article so far! It’s what everyone loves about Smashing: lots of pictures, brief commentary and great examples of a single design concept.
20.

Sofia (August 15th, 2008, 10:32 am)

watch the hour get spelled out with the clock hands

Link [www.christiaanpostma.nl]
21.

heather (August 15th, 2008, 2:15 pm)

Good, but didn’t SM recently do a post very similar (on topic) to this?
22.

Eskimoooo (August 15th, 2008, 4:33 pm)

I enjoyed the top ten but thought it was a liiiiitttle bit sneaky to add a bunch more at the end!
23.

So (August 15th, 2008, 10:52 pm)

An other Link [www.humancalendar.com] where all the humans look at the one of the day.
Thanks for your impressive work.
24.

sylwia (August 16th, 2008, 12:31 am)

Some of the examples already were on Smashing Magazine!
25.

Christian (August 16th, 2008, 2:07 am)

Awesome! Triple thumbs up from me! (I had to borrow my daughter for the third thumb).
26.

h-a-r-v (August 16th, 2008, 2:17 am)

Pretty nice. I believe “Drop Clock” was previously mentioned on smashingmagazine.com, I really enjoyed it back then and used for a while.
27.

Kiran (August 16th, 2008, 3:29 am)

Amazing post.
Could you please post the Download Links for Runners-up 1, 5, 6, 7

Thanking you very for this.
28.

Keith (August 16th, 2008, 7:35 am)

Those are very nice - how about a look at some calendars for the next post? All those boring wordpress calendars need some sprucing up, there must be a better way!
29.

Billifer (August 16th, 2008, 8:43 am)

That’s what I would expect from a “Top 10″ Smashing list. Many of these clocks I’ve seen (and used before), but it was nice to see the others that were new.
30.

dizzl (August 16th, 2008, 10:03 am)

WOW!

Best article in the contest so far,
please post more like this for smashing magazine!
31.

Massimo Meijer (August 16th, 2008, 12:24 pm)

Wow! Great post :)
32.

Free (August 16th, 2008, 1:30 pm)

Great guest post, just like a regular smashing top ten list.
33.

Shiny (August 16th, 2008, 9:26 pm)

Good post! Thanks^_^
34.

hui (August 16th, 2008, 9:42 pm)

Cool
35.

PeterVk (August 16th, 2008, 10:11 pm)

These guest articles are really good. Thanks for being awesome.
36.

giorgio t (August 16th, 2008, 11:51 pm)

this guest article definetly has SMASHING quality! Please more of that.
37.

Kai Chi (August 17th, 2008, 12:36 am)

There is also a stylish clock in the Appstore (just shows the full hour).
Link [phobos.apple.com]
38.

Friedensreich (August 17th, 2008, 2:48 am)

Great article!
i also love the follow ups section as well as the posted examples in the comments,
wich makes this top ten list a great ressource.
39.

shearyadi (August 17th, 2008, 5:33 pm)

Looks too heavy for a blog displaying flash and/or java scripts clock like all the samples above.
40.

Travis (August 17th, 2008, 5:49 pm)

Take a look of Link [www.christiaanpostma.nl]. Should be included in the list!
41.

englishgerma (August 17th, 2008, 9:23 pm)

all cube no look free water
42.

Ashtash (August 17th, 2008, 10:12 pm)

a nice, simple yet aesthetic one is FLIQLO™ 1.1, its available from Link [www.9031.com]
developed by Yuji Adachi, its definitely a worth a look
43.

Zu Lee (August 18th, 2008, 4:47 am)

Great collection, my favourite is the dropclock
44.

css_godess (August 19th, 2008, 4:49 am)

wow..
came to this website via this post.
awesome!
keep on!
45.

Benjamin (August 19th, 2008, 5:34 am)

This list is missing my favorite screensaver Link [www.dqd.com]
46.

James Fleeting (August 19th, 2008, 7:58 am)

Great list. I personally use the World Clock on my iMac at work and home. It serves as an awesome screensaver.
47.

Alin Danila (August 19th, 2008, 2:06 pm)

i made Link [publicservice.inhive.com]
48.

Pieter (August 20th, 2008, 4:07 am)

Time is of little consequence to me yet I am obsessed with clocks for my computer. This was a very exciting article for me. I have no life……. help me, somebody…. anybody…..
So, what’s the time now? And now? What fun.
Seriously - HELP!!!!!
49.

mike (August 20th, 2008, 7:53 am)

amazing!
50.

Alexandre Plennevaux (August 24th, 2008, 2:19 pm)

how about this one? Link [lab-au.com]
51.

Schahryar (September 6th, 2008, 7:30 pm)

Woderful! very creative!

Schahryar - a Link [www.schahryar.com]
52.

web templates (October 10th, 2008, 3:29 am)

I like the drop clock very much. makes you want to jump into the water! nice one.
53.

CHess (October 19th, 2008, 10:57 am)

How do i use Mathieu-Badimon’s Block Clock on my pc? i really want this one as screensaver!

thanks!