Oh I love these! It just reminded me of a small project I had in which I was creating experimental watchfaces using SVGs and JavaScript, this is before the AI boom so I made all of these by hand and, although there's nothing impressive here, I'm proud of them as a designer who learned basic code by myself.
I love this. You might've just convinced me to get back into hardware/PCB and make something to put on my wall (with your blessing). I'm not sure if it's just because I'm on mobile, but I think it would be great if the pages that show the watch faces in action had a way to input a time to see what it looks like.
They are very nice! I'd love to see them 'in action' – I'd suggest something similar to what is on clocks.dev if you click in the bottom right corner on the 'timeline' feature: https://clocks.dev/clock/824d7b87d123
is kind of similar to one of my clocks: the Filling Digit clock [2], which fills the hollow digits with water from the bottom up to represent the seconds in a minute:
Another one that made the rounds here on HN was "Alphabetical Clock" [3] which is pretty amusing.
The binary one in the bottom row seems to think that the digit to the left of of the 8s place is the 10s place and not, as is normal, the 16s place. Therefore 10 o'clock shows as "00010000" not "1010". Weird.
2300 hrs or 11pm shows as "00100011" which would be 35 o'clock. I guess the 32s place is a... 20s place? Somebody help me out here.
This is awesome! I made a Soroban (Japanese abacus) version, but I couldn't add it to the collection since I used css-based animations. Published here:
https://soroban-clock.netlify.app
Some of these seem subtly off. For example, on the orange "number field" clock (https://clocks.dev/clock/number-field), you can't distinguish between 12:10 and 10:12. On the "word field" one (https://clocks.dev/clock/word-field), there are "X"es in lieu of unused characters, which makes the emergence of words a lot less mystifying than in the original "word clock" design this is based on. The "temporal exposure" one (https://clocks.dev/clock/temporal-exposure) has weird off-center bands in the blurred area. The "figure hands" one has text sticking out of the drawing area, etc.
I think the one you are calling "figure hands"... if you mean the one where hands are numbers could just use better styling overall. Two colors, different sizes, better choice of font.
Tried my best at reproducing it: https://clocks.dev/clock/eee40ea8130b (but feel free to add your own real version of it! Anyone can add a clock via the top right button.
"Number field" felt like the best spacial representation of a numeric clock (would need to be 24h to be perfect but that's a small tweak)
There are plenty of them in a more linear style, but the 12 columns design really works well IMHO. It's really easy to roughly guess the time at a glance.
My favorite digital clock was an LCD watch made by Fossil that had the digits spelled out in white Chinese characters on a cobalt background.
Not only did it show the characters, it slowly painted them on the screen. This wasn't a dot-matrix display. It was more like a 40-seg display. I've never been able to find a replacement, or even a photo of it online.
I'd really like an analog watch face for the lock screen of my iPhone.
I really wish I could turn the clock OFF on my iPhone. The best I can do is to change the numbers to a language I can't read, and make the characters really thin and translucent.
I've read that in iOS 27, we'll at least be able to make it small.
It might not be for everyone, but sticking ones active phone on a qi2/magsafe stand is great IMHO.
Time and notifications are on one place, so they're only noticed when you're trying to plan or organize your work. Switching to timer mode is seamless.
The desk is also less cluttered thanks to the verticality of it, and the phone stays visible from afar when taking small breaks, so you don't mind leaving it there.
I've seen and used some variations of these in my Pebble watch.
They're cool for one day or two. But, in the end, I will always go back to some boring but more information-dense one (with battery charge, weather, heart rate, steps, etc).
I am not sure I want to use the API when it is not that hard to get the hands of a clock going with Javascript. I know I can do the latter, but the former poses a new learning challenge that doesn't guarantee a result.
My current SVG clock is modelled on a wall clock and it has the really small text that can normally found on a clock, for example 'Made in China' and 'Quartz'. I also have a fictional brand name, plus a bezel specified with 'pathLength="60"' and a dash array.
As a design exercise, a standard clock is interesting because you have to remember the stack order of the hands, and, despite looking at clocks many thousands of times, that detail requires a modicum of thought.
I think it is a good start to get a credible wall clock that tells the time at a glance before branching out into 'cool' clocks that put design before telling the time.
I now want to add a drop shadow that changes throughout the day, as if the clock is south facing, in the northern hemisphere, corresponding to my lat/lon.
This would be easy with three js because it could be modelled, along with the entire solar system, with the camera pointed at a 3D modelled clock, however, in SVG filters, could be a while.
Getting the hands to move is the easy bit, all considered. I really don't need another API for that, but I am not in the Svelte ecosystem.
Oh I love these! It just reminded me of a small project I had in which I was creating experimental watchfaces using SVGs and JavaScript, this is before the AI boom so I made all of these by hand and, although there's nothing impressive here, I'm proud of them as a designer who learned basic code by myself.
https://watchface.netlify.app/
And I wrote about it here: https://72mena.medium.com/designing-watch-faces-using-svgs-a...
I love this. You might've just convinced me to get back into hardware/PCB and make something to put on my wall (with your blessing). I'm not sure if it's just because I'm on mobile, but I think it would be great if the pages that show the watch faces in action had a way to input a time to see what it looks like.
They are very nice! I'd love to see them 'in action' – I'd suggest something similar to what is on clocks.dev if you click in the bottom right corner on the 'timeline' feature: https://clocks.dev/clock/824d7b87d123
These are awesome
At this point it'd be worth creating an old-school webring [1] for all the HN clock enthusiasts. :)
The clock at: https://clocks.dev/clock/lock-screen
is kind of similar to one of my clocks: the Filling Digit clock [2], which fills the hollow digits with water from the bottom up to represent the seconds in a minute:
Another one that made the rounds here on HN was "Alphabetical Clock" [3] which is pretty amusing.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring
[2] - https://clocks.specr.net/filling-digits
[3] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47571401
The binary one in the bottom row seems to think that the digit to the left of of the 8s place is the 10s place and not, as is normal, the 16s place. Therefore 10 o'clock shows as "00010000" not "1010". Weird.
2300 hrs or 11pm shows as "00100011" which would be 35 o'clock. I guess the 32s place is a... 20s place? Somebody help me out here.
https://clocks.dev/clock/35bb1995bc5d
This is awesome! I made a Soroban (Japanese abacus) version, but I couldn't add it to the collection since I used css-based animations. Published here: https://soroban-clock.netlify.app
Some of these seem subtly off. For example, on the orange "number field" clock (https://clocks.dev/clock/number-field), you can't distinguish between 12:10 and 10:12. On the "word field" one (https://clocks.dev/clock/word-field), there are "X"es in lieu of unused characters, which makes the emergence of words a lot less mystifying than in the original "word clock" design this is based on. The "temporal exposure" one (https://clocks.dev/clock/temporal-exposure) has weird off-center bands in the blurred area. The "figure hands" one has text sticking out of the drawing area, etc.
In the "number field" clock, the hours are always along the top row only. 12:10 and 10:12 look different.
I think the one you are calling "figure hands"... if you mean the one where hands are numbers could just use better styling overall. Two colors, different sizes, better choice of font.
They have names in their URLs when you click. I meant this one: https://clocks.dev/clock/figure-hands
Around :15 and :45, the minute arrow is sticking outside the drawing region.
yeah, that's the one. Yep it doesn't seem as intended.
Please add this one (my design) https://euclid.tulv.in/
Tried my best at reproducing it: https://clocks.dev/clock/eee40ea8130b (but feel free to add your own real version of it! Anyone can add a clock via the top right button.
"Number field" felt like the best spacial representation of a numeric clock (would need to be 24h to be perfect but that's a small tweak)
There are plenty of them in a more linear style, but the 12 columns design really works well IMHO. It's really easy to roughly guess the time at a glance.
https://clocks.dev/clock/number-field
My favorite digital clock was an LCD watch made by Fossil that had the digits spelled out in white Chinese characters on a cobalt background.
Not only did it show the characters, it slowly painted them on the screen. This wasn't a dot-matrix display. It was more like a 40-seg display. I've never been able to find a replacement, or even a photo of it online.
I'd really like an analog watch face for the lock screen of my iPhone.
Tim Cook would really like to sell you an Apple Watch.
I'd really like an analog watch face for the lock screen of my iPhone.
I really wish I could turn the clock OFF on my iPhone. The best I can do is to change the numbers to a language I can't read, and make the characters really thin and translucent.
I've read that in iOS 27, we'll at least be able to make it small.
Not a single 24-hour analogue face? That unexpectedly turned into one of the best reasons I keep carrying my smartwatch.
The nice thing is that anyone can easily add such design.
Created a simple 24-hour analogue face just now: https://clocks.dev/clock/c4a0aef0c379
Midnight at the bottom! I really like this one: https://sunclock.net
Added one more with some day/light signaling: https://clocks.dev/clock/ea4059c74748
What would be the best device to put any of these ones over the desk? And old phone? Maybe an esp32?
It might not be for everyone, but sticking ones active phone on a qi2/magsafe stand is great IMHO.
Time and notifications are on one place, so they're only noticed when you're trying to plan or organize your work. Switching to timer mode is seamless.
The desk is also less cluttered thanks to the verticality of it, and the phone stays visible from afar when taking small breaks, so you don't mind leaving it there.
For some really quirky/weird/cool physical clocks, the British Museum channel has a few great videos:
Curious Clocks and Watches through time with Oliver Cooke | Curator's Corner S8 E1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywD5kngMuYM
Nice inspiration for world building, especially Steampunk!
I had one of these in my bedroom as a kid. Clearly I slept more deeply than I do now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_ball_clock
This is cool. I'd love to see a collection like this for date representations. Anyone?
I've seen and used some variations of these in my Pebble watch.
They're cool for one day or two. But, in the end, I will always go back to some boring but more information-dense one (with battery charge, weather, heart rate, steps, etc).
I am not sure I want to use the API when it is not that hard to get the hands of a clock going with Javascript. I know I can do the latter, but the former poses a new learning challenge that doesn't guarantee a result.
My current SVG clock is modelled on a wall clock and it has the really small text that can normally found on a clock, for example 'Made in China' and 'Quartz'. I also have a fictional brand name, plus a bezel specified with 'pathLength="60"' and a dash array.
As a design exercise, a standard clock is interesting because you have to remember the stack order of the hands, and, despite looking at clocks many thousands of times, that detail requires a modicum of thought.
I think it is a good start to get a credible wall clock that tells the time at a glance before branching out into 'cool' clocks that put design before telling the time.
I now want to add a drop shadow that changes throughout the day, as if the clock is south facing, in the northern hemisphere, corresponding to my lat/lon.
This would be easy with three js because it could be modelled, along with the entire solar system, with the camera pointed at a 3D modelled clock, however, in SVG filters, could be a while.
Getting the hands to move is the easy bit, all considered. I really don't need another API for that, but I am not in the Svelte ecosystem.