Digital Mechanical Clock

UK Designer Duncan Shotton has created a very cool kind of offline, mechanical digital clock which he has named the Digimech Clock.

 As you can perhaps guess by looking at  the photos of the Digital Mechanical Clock above, it’s reminiscent of the old-fashioned “flip clocks” commonly found in clock radios from the 1970’s. Here I’m referring to clocks that have a digital display that is created through mechanical means. In the case of flip clocks, the digital time display is created through panels with digital numbers printed on them which then mechanically flip into place to display the correct time.

In the case of the Digital Mechanical Clock, I’ll let Duncan Shotton describe his creation in his own words:

Numbers are printed on vertical sliders and only reveal themselves when shifted into perfect alignment with the ‘display box’. When not aligned they look like random, alien forms.

What we at Online Clock find especially cool is the way the sliding panels with the number parts on them look when they are not aligned to display complete numbers. Indeed, these do look like some kind of wild alien hieroglyphics.

The designer displays his Digital Mechanical Clock in action in the video below:

As you surely noticed in the video, the sliding vertical panels with the number parts on them are raised and lowered by a system of small gears and motors inside the Digital Mechanical Clock.

It’s interesting to see and hear what happens when the last number has been reached on any of the sliding panels: the panel, having climbed to the very top of the clock, then comes quickly sliding back down to the bottom, making a curious kind of slapping sound. (OK, this noise would drive me crazy if I actually had one of these things in my apartment, but I’m sure it’d be pretty easy for the designer to eliminate the slapping sound the panels make when they fall back down.)

Kudos to Duncan Shotton for having designed a truly unique and attractive clock !

You can find out more about the Digital Mechanical Clock on the designer’s website.

Are you a designer who’s created a new, unique kind of clock or alarm?

Please contact us using the form below and send us some information about your clock – if we like it we’ll probably write a post about it!

Tags: clock designer, Crazy Alarm Clocks, Crazy Clocks, designer clock, digimech, digimech clock, Digital Clock, digital mechanical clock, duncan shotton, mechanical clock

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