Although this free electronic book isn’t strictly about the 24-hour analog clock, but about the 24-hour time system, it has some relevance to the clocks and watches displayed on this site.
If you have an iPad or iPhone or iPod Touch you can download it directly onto your device into the iBooks app from a link on this page. If you have some other kind of eBook reader, you may be able to download it if you can load ePub or PDF books. Either way, let me know!
The Astrolabe Clock is:
an astronomical clock inspired by the astrolabe, an ancient astronomical instrument used to tell time and to predict the location of the Sun, stars and planets. This modern interpretation gives a view of the sky showing at a glance the time of day, day of year, and the location in the sky of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. Astrolabe Clock also gives the time of sunrise and sunset, the phase of the Moon, transit times for the Sun, Moon, planets and stars, and can be used to show the occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses.
See the web site at http://www.twonineeightsoftware.com/AstrolabeClock.html or visit the iTunes app store.
Saw these two items of interest on eBay today.
Here’s a cool Soviet submarine clock:
As the description notes:
Hours use on submarines have dial up to 24 hours,as it is under water is not the time of day,day or night.
Well, you know what he means! Find this item here until 17-Nov-10 20:20:40 GMT.
Next is this fine-looking quartz clock described as an “Intensive Care Day and Night” 24 hour clock:
Brand NEW from Seldec Maritime
Use in intensive care wards in hospitals, waking up from an operation, not knowing where you are or what time it is,seeing this clock, immediately you are aware of the time day or night!
This 24 Hour clock is a must for people with relatives overseas, set the clock to their local time and see at a glance if its night or day! A black/white face, black/white hour and minute hands, hour markings for hours 1 thru 24, with minutes marked, a red second hand is provided. This clock differs from standard clocks in that the hour hand rotates only once every 24 hours, rather than twice as in standard clocks, thereby being able to indicate each of the 24 hours.
Find this item here until 11-Dec-10 07:59:40 GMT.
Check out this interesting logo for the Dezeen watch store. It’s a functional 24 hour analog clock built as a Javascript web app, and looks great.
Design is by Zerofee.
I think it’s similar in design to the excellent Timedisc.
Meet Skyclock:
Twilight awareness – the gift of time.
Skyclock is twilight, sunrise, and sunset times on an analog face for your exact location.
Skyclock, for both the iPhone and the PC (Windows only), has a 24 hour mode that makes a lot more sense to me than the 12 hour ‘conventional’ mode.
Skyclock for iPhone
Find the iPhone on the iTunes App Store (it’s free, ad-supported) and go to Skyclock for the PC version.
I feel it’s similar to the more minimal Sol for the iPhone, but sadly that seems to have disappeared from the App store.
In Prague, the great astronomical clock, the Orloj, celebrates 600 years of timekeeping. It’s worth seeing the video made by the macula:
the macula - 600 years of the Orloj
I made another screen saver for MacOS X, using Quartz Composer. This is a fairly accurate copy of the Glycine Airman Double 24 09. I’ve been reading about the Glycine Airman in André’s excellent book “Glycine Airman: a 24 hour timeline of flight” (more here).
This creative collaboration of The Light Surgeons(Production) and FIELD (Data Visualisation) consists of a 48 metre elliptical screen on which is displayed a large 24 hour clock:
From the Museum’s web site:
LDN24 follows a 24-hour day in the life of London with hundreds of filmed sequences from across the capital – framing the city waking, working and winding down on a giant plasma screen.
An enveloping stream of 35 real-time information flows around the LED ellipse producing an ever-changing map of the city. From tidal patterns to temperatures, flight arrivals to FTSE fluctuations, RSS feeds and live links to Google searches, partner news channels and Twitter keep an ear turned to the rhythms that compose the city. Software specially developed by the design studio FIELD choreographs the rituals and movements of London and Londoners into a compelling statistical dance.
There’s a movie too.
If you have some time (and a Mac), please could you test my one-handed 24 hour clock screensaver?
I added a GMT/UT0 hand, but I’m not sure if it works well outside GMT-land.
(It doesn’t make any sounds. That’s just a zen reference.)
