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Top 10 Creative Ways To Display Time
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.
Some contributors with just a single posting.
- 79 Comments
- 1
- 2August 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. - 4August 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
- 5August 15th, 2008 5:11 am
Some very insipring soltuions however i think you missed off the robot stonehenge clock
- 6August 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 !!!!!
- 7August 15th, 2008 5:26 am
Good list, thanks!
- 8
- 9August 15th, 2008 6:06 am
link to 55 clock at the Uncontrol Website is not working
- 10August 15th, 2008 6:08 am
Wow amazing Screensavers :D
hope if the Drop Clock one could be Free :p
http://www.netbulls.co.cc - 11August 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 :)
- 12August 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,
Geek and Hype - 13August 15th, 2008 6:47 am
I had a problem with a few of those links including the dropclock. Gave an error.
But good list. - 14August 15th, 2008 7:21 am
Is there any way that you can get a clocks like these for your home? That would be awesome!
- 15August 15th, 2008 7:34 am
Very nice!
- 16August 15th, 2008 7:50 am
Wow – brilliant. First thing I did once I read it was download Wordclock.
Great article!
- 17August 15th, 2008 8:21 am
Hey! Do not forget you can also have desktop wallpapers that show time! http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaperclock/
- 18August 15th, 2008 9:21 am
I personally like the clock that I created as my signature on several Texas Longhorn fan sites.
- 19August 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.
- 20August 15th, 2008 10:32 am
watch the hour get spelled out with the clock hands
- 21August 15th, 2008 2:15 pm
Good, but didn’t SM recently do a post very similar (on topic) to this?
- 22August 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!
- 23August 15th, 2008 10:52 pm
An other Human Calendar where all the humans look at the one of the day.
Thanks for your impressive work. - 24August 16th, 2008 12:31 am
Some of the examples already were on Smashing Magazine!
- 25August 16th, 2008 2:07 am
Awesome! Triple thumbs up from me! (I had to borrow my daughter for the third thumb).
- 26August 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.
- 27August 16th, 2008 3:29 am
Amazing post.
Could you please post the Download Links for Runners-up 1, 5, 6, 7Thanking you very for this.
- 28August 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!
- 29August 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.
- 30August 16th, 2008 10:03 am
WOW!
Best article in the contest so far,
please post more like this for smashing magazine! - 31August 16th, 2008 12:24 pm
Wow! Great post :)
- 32August 16th, 2008 1:30 pm
Great guest post, just like a regular smashing top ten list.
- 33August 16th, 2008 9:26 pm
Good post! Thanks^_^
- 34August 16th, 2008 9:42 pm
Cool
- 35August 16th, 2008 10:11 pm
These guest articles are really good. Thanks for being awesome.
- 36August 16th, 2008 11:51 pm
this guest article definetly has SMASHING quality! Please more of that.
- 37
- 38August 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. - 39August 17th, 2008 5:33 pm
Looks too heavy for a blog displaying flash and/or java scripts clock like all the samples above.
- 40
- 41August 17th, 2008 9:23 pm
all cube no look free water
- 42August 17th, 2008 10:12 pm
a nice, simple yet aesthetic one is FLIQLO™ 1.1, its available from http://www.9031.com/downloads/
developed by Yuji Adachi, its definitely a worth a look - 43August 18th, 2008 4:47 am
Great collection, my favourite is the dropclock
- 44August 19th, 2008 4:49 am
wow..
came to this website via this post.
awesome!
keep on! - 45
- 46August 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
- 48August 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!!!!! - 49August 20th, 2008 7:53 am
amazing!
- 50
- 51
- 52October 10th, 2008 3:29 am
I like the drop clock very much. makes you want to jump into the water! nice one.
- 53October 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!
- 00
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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.