John Taylor’s Corpus Clock, aka the Chronophage, or ‘time eater’, is an impressive looking beast of a clock that was made as a tribute to eighteenth-century clockmaker John Harrison’s grasshopper escapement, a low-friction mechanism for converting pendulum motion into rotational motion.
Despite it’s massive size (over 1.5 meters in diameter) the Corpus Clock’s inner workings are all mechanically controlled, including the world’s largest grasshopper escapement that adorns the top. Electricity does power an electric motor, which winds the clock, and blue LEDs which light up the hours, minutes, and seconds, but the blinking eye, moving mouth, swinging hands and everything else you see is all old-school mechanical.
Another interesting element of the clock is that it’s only accurate once every five minutes. The rest of the time, the pendulum can stop, the lights can lag, and then everything can race to catch up, symbolizing life’s “irregularity”. Despite this irregularity though, the clock is expected to stay accurate for the next 200 years or more.
At a cost of over one million pounds, this solid 24-karat gold clock definitely wasn’t cheap, and it took over five years for the two hundred people involved in the making of the clock to get everything put together, but if you’re going to design the world’s strangest clock, no one ever said it was going to be easy.
The Average Day is a fantastic watch from Mr Jones Watches that “eschews the conventional division of a day into 24 hours, instead it divides into units of median daily routine”.
By breaking the dial down into segments that represent what an average person does on an average day, you can see what you should be, on average, doing at any time.
It’s even split into AM and PM, with the outer loop representing the former, and the inner representing the latter, so that you can roll right through a full 24 hours without missing a beat.
The production is a signed limited edition of 100 pieces, and each has the edition number engraved on the back of the case, which itself features commissioned artwork by Kate Street.
The LIP Mythic Jump Hour Watch features three separate discs for hours, minutes, and seconds that spin exposed on the dial and then line up in the viewing window to tell the time.
With a stainless steel case, leather strap, and Swiss quartz movement, the LIP Mythic Jump Hour is also guaranteed to work as good as it looks.
A collaboration separated by thirty years with the 1970’s “TV case & strap” design by Roger Tallon and updated as a jumping hour display by French designer Prisca Briquet for LIP.
LIP watches have been around for over 150 years but were unavailable in the United States until now. The company is reintroducing some of their most important models from a modern collection that remains as visionary today as when first unveiled 35 years ago. Most are faithful recreations while others have been updated with new designer visions.
The UR-202 is the world’s first wristwatch to feature “an innovative new winding system regulated by compressing air utilizing miniature turbines”.
Time on the UR-202 is displayed using telescopic minute hands operating through the middle of three orbiting and revolving hour satellites.
The telescopic minute hands precisely adjust their length to follow the three vectors marking the minutes: 0 -14, 15 - 44, 45 - 60. Extended, they enable the UR-202 to display the time across a large easy-to-read, dial. Retracted, they allow for a very wearable and comfortably sized case; thus providing the wearer with the best of both worlds.
If you’ve got the financial fortitude, then the UR-202 is available in either red gold, white gold, black PE-CVD platinum, and ALTiN steel.
As if mechanical-digital watches weren’t already cool enough, Harry Winston has created a watch that uses mechanical pixels to display the time at the push of a button, and called it the Opus 8.
Even the back features a second time display, with a power reserve indicator to tell you when your awesome is running low.
Only 50 were made, and apparently they all sold before the watch was even unveiled, so if you want one, then get the house on the market and start checking eBay, because these aren’t exactly going to be cheap.
The De Grisogono Meccanico DG is possibly the coolest watch I’ve ever seen.
Scratch that; The De Grisogono Meccanico DG is the coolest watch I’ve ever seen.
Why?
Because it’s “the first all mechanical watch with a digital display integrated into it”.
Let me repeat: An all mechanical watch with a digital display. No LEDs. No digital parts. Just 651 of the smallest watch pieces imaginable working together to make magic happen.
Sink in yet?
Basically, the DG 042 De Grisgono manual movement that powers the watch uses some sort of half magic half mystery potion to make the numbers at the bottom change every minute, and in doing so, causes shock and awe inside of anyone that sees it.
It’s either that, or they figured out how to shrink little elves and keep them alive inside of the watch, but I prefer to believe the former.
According to the press release:
The mechanically operated digital display of the second timezone shows tens of hours, single hours, tens of minutes and single minutes, all displayed by mobile microsegments driven by an assemblage of 23 cams connected to a set of gears and a triggering and synchronization system. The time information is displayed by an array of 23 horizontally and vertically positioned microsegments. Vertical segments are 9 mm high and weigh at most 25 milligrams while the horizontal segments measure 2.90 mm in length and weigh only 10 milligrams. The segments have four faces: two opposing visible faces fitted with colored strips and two opposing unmarked faces. Time changes are effected by 90° rotations of the required segment or segments. Involving one to twelve segments, time changes are lightning fast.
Only 177 of this super limited edition will be made available in either red gold, titanium and gold, titanium and platinum, or titanium and rubber, and if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. (But believe me, with a watch like this, most people will have to ask!)
Despite (or perhaps because of) their ‘80s/retro style and unique look and functionality, Casio’s G-Shock watches continue to be popular among the hip and trendy.
Their latest series of limited edition watches, the G5500C series (aka Vivid Colors), features a unique solar technology which “combines a super sensitive solar panel with a high capacity rechargeable battery to power high-load functions”.
The solar technology also powers an auto light that illuminates the display automatically when the watch is angled towards the face (and only when available light is below a certain level).
There are three colors to choose from, and other features of the Vivid Colors series include shock resistance, 200M water resistance, World Time (48 cities), 4 Daily Alarms and 1 Snooze Alarm, Hourly Time Signal, Countdown timer, 1/100 Sec. Stopwatch, 12/14 Hr. Format, Battery Level Indicator, Power Save Function Tone and Button Tone Operation On/Off.
Show off your love of design with an Icon Watch from the MoMA Store.
The shape is supposed to look like a computer icon, and the dot matrix/8-bit look will definitely get some attention, so it’s an easy way to label yourself a designer.
The Zenith El Primero Zero-G is an impressive looking tourbillon watch that’s designed to be gravity resistant so that it works when you’re doing barrel rolls in your new F22.
I guess that kind of functionality isn’t exactly needed by everyone, but don’t you wish you were one of the lucky few?
John Taylor’s Corpus Clock, aka the Chronophage, or ‘time eater’, is an impressive looking beast of a clock that was made as a tribute to eighteenth-century clockmaker John Harrison’s grasshopper escapement, a low-friction mechanism for converting pendulum motion into rotational motion.
Show off your love of design with an Icon Watch from the MoMA Store.
The Zenith El Primero Zero-G is an impressive looking tourbillon watch that’s designed to be gravity resistant so that it works when you’re doing barrel rolls in your new F22.
