Gizmodo
Christiaan Postma's morphing, malleable matchstick clock is pretty amazing, though a tad flawed. A portion of the 150 white lines plastered about the clock's 160 cm by 160 cm face form a word corresponding to the hour of the day. If it's three o' clock, the area where the number three appears on a typical clock would read "three." As four o' clock approaches, "three" disassembles and "four" slowly takes shape. There is one omission that could be painful if you're trying to use it to, well, to tell time. See a time lapse photo of shifty clock in action and the reason for its failings after the jump.
Do you see the glaring issue with this shape-shifting timepiece yet? That's right, this "clock" doesn't have a minute hand. Another minor quibble: The immature among us can't rearrange the matchsticks into funny words, like "poop," "grundle," or "redrum," for example. [Christiaan Postma via Design Milk]
Comments
just add a digital minute ting bellow the "blackboard" area and I'm sold.
That's pretty massive for something that can't even tell time.
It's cool, though.
All it would need is a matchstick in the center that spins in a circle. Wherever the colored tip is pointing is how many minutes that have gone by.
Though, the images don't appear to have the match stick heads. That would mean you might be 30 minutes off the correct time.
@Leonard Nimrod: or you can just have that one matchstick spin around its end, that way you just go by where the longer side is pointing.
@jbhitter24: Nice idea.
OR you could buy a wristwatch AND attach it to you wrist...works for me.
@moukkis:
In a world intent on finding more and more difficult ways to tell time, this is better.
Or you could use the clock on your menu bar.
Or sundial.
you can't tell time by looking at alcoholics either.
but you know it ain't too early or too late when see normal people drinking.
rusty nail o'clock!
it looks like it's controlled by one rotating magnet...seems like the numbers smoothly focus and unfocus...you'd think you might be able to tell say, four from four thirty...
It's a time *estimater*. When it says "Four", it's anywhere between three and five :)
-KENT
Hm.
As imprecise as it is, I like it.
fuckin stupid.
c'mon.. some retards cant tell time on a regular non-digital clock.
Big problem is it is made from 150 different clockworks, each presumbably moving a different matchstick. Pretty cool, but it would seem likely that over time they would become un-syncronized and then what?
Watching the mini-video on the link really does show how interesting a piece this is. I would say its more of a moving sculpture that a reliable clock, but the beauty of it should not be reduced because it can't tell you exactly how long it is to the BSG rerun.
If it were somewhat bigger it would make a elegant and interesting
wall-piece for, say, a hospital waiting room - something to amuse
and pass the time until they snagged the gerbil.
C'mon Giz, you guys can't cream yourselves over watches that *tell* time in binary (or better/worse yet some crazy light pattern) and then trash on this clock for also being temporally illegible. Trash on it for other things, perhaps.
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