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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.