The fact that the most recent versions are really the youngest aside, is it wrong that I think the wrinkly-pixels make the older Mario look kinda sexy? [Etsy via Technabob]

[Henrik Amberla via The Design Blog via Unplggd]

There aren't any notes on how long it would take to wear out a vase on average, but the entire idea is to have different chime sounds due to switching the flower pots so it can't be too long. I just hope Gerogios never decides to make an alarm clock like this, because just imagining the porcelain shards near a bed makes my feet hurt. [Yanko Design via The Design Blog]

Technically, the moment to hop back in time is whenever 2 a.m. strikes in your time zone (or sometime last week if you're in Europe), but if you're getting ready to snuggle up in bed then you might want to take care of the clocks first.

Now let's be open and honest with each other. What are you doing with your extra hour? Will it be spent spooning, snuggled up with a loved one? Getting a head start on the next month? Recovering from chocolate overdose? Reading through Gizmodo comments? [Thanks for the DST reminder, Jrsy Devil's Advocate®!]

Photo by Robbert van der Steeg

Of course, looking at these videos it is plain to see the Mr. Wake is a moron. I'm pretty sure I could capture him even when my eyes are half open and I'm stumbling around the room. Still, it's a good proof of concept. Perhaps you can use Vadim Ryazanov's notes on the build to make Mr. Wake more elusive—although I have no earthly idea why you would want to torture yourself like this. [Let's Make Robots via Make]

Do kids need to learn how to tell time on a digital clock? It's been a long time, but I figured if kids can count they pretty much have it down. [Ponoko via Technabob via DVICE]

Designed by Greg Wolos, the Emily alarm clock is both wall-mountable and sideways oriented so that it is by your bed and easily readable when you're in a prone position. It mixes retro looks with some modern styling, but will make your pockets $130 lighter. It still might be worth it. [Generate Design via Oh Gizmo via Gadget Lab]

The instructables version may not be as glossy, or as polished, or as big as the real version, but it works on the same principles. Head on over to test out your self-making skills. [Instructables via Make]

This strange little nook, hidden behind a clockface, pictured below, that thousands of people see every day, doesn't even exist as far as most people are concerned, except for the few intrepid graffiti artists who've made it up here—"SODA TIME" is an easy favorite defacement, but click through to the panorama to find your own—and the guy who comes up here to keep this ancient timepiece greased and running with appropriately quaint, old-timey oil cans.

His name is Vernon—an overly distinguished name, he thought; one he always hated, and which the kids at the foster home made sure to hold against him. He was stricken with a rare fungal growth at the age of 14, which transformed his right eye—the good one, the one he could use to seek refuge in comic books—into a grizzled keloid. He was given, or bequeathed, really, a job by the friendless old man who'd been oiling the gears since the early 1900s, and who took a shine to the boy, for, however offensive his visage, he had a fine heart.

Until it was broken, by a girl from Hoboken. Her name is Tiffany, and she just couldn't find it in her being to love him, no matter how many times Vernon made it clear, with kindness, affection, and even once, heroism, that she was a rare—nay, his only hope for a life that wasn't miserable. Now, as Vernon sits idly in this faintly luminescent cell, oiling gears and scratching words into the walls, Tiffany sits in a courtroom, on trial for murder. But trust Verne—and trust me—she didn't do it. [Victor Hugo via the NYT via Fark]

Apparently built by some Polish tinkerer, this clock uses LEDs and the hard disk's natural reflectiveness to create these crazy patterns and colors. It's remote controlled too, in case you need to switch to a different eye-piercing background color. It doesn't seem to be available for purchase, but let's be honest—would you really put display this in your house? If you answered yes, take the lights out of your mouth and go back to Burning Man. [Elektroda via Hacked Gadgets via Boing Boing Gadgets]

So if you notice that you use a lot of energy around 7pm, maybe it's time to turn off the TV, lower the thermostat or eat that steak raw rather than using the Earth's dwindling natural resources to char it all fancy-like.

The only real design flaw with the Energy Aware Clock is that the face only looks more interesting by displaying your corpulent energy spikes. So while your data could be handy, the end product positively reinforces wastefulness. A better idea, and I'm just spit-balling here, would be a clock that kicked you in the nuts every time you left a room without turning off all the lights while running a hairdryer, or something. [designboom via DVICE via geek via BBG]

Features:

•Cool glowing blue tube with 8 digits and alarm on/off dot
•Adjustable brightness
•Alarm with volume adjust
•Precision watch crystal keeps time with 0.002% accuracy!
•Clear plastic enclosure protects clock from you and you from clock
•Battery backup will let the clock keep the time for up to 2 weeks without power
•Selectable 12h or 24h display
•Displays day and date
•10 minute snoozer
•Integrated boost converter so it can run off of standard DC wall adapters, works in any country regardless of mains power
•Great for desk or night table use, the clock measures 4.9" x 2.9" x 1.3" (12.5cm x 7.4cm x 3.3cm)
•Completely open source hardware and software, ready to be hacked and modded!

Again, the design is completely open source, so if you prefer to build from scratch you can hit up the project page for the full schematics, source codes and files. [Ladyada via Slashdot]

Each tab sets off an alarm that is disabled by turning the tab itself 90 degrees, showing the progress of your day's work along with the actual clock's progress bar. I love the tabs idea: It gives a clear visual demonstration of events that day, and being able to write (and erase? Or just replace?) each item's title is a really nice touch. It wouldn't be as jam-packed as my iCal, but it'd show big items in my to-do list at a glance. So, Mintpass? Please make this thing. [DVICE]

So no matter what the time of day, Qlocktwo can spell it out for you by illuminating just the right spots.

But while the design is pleasing, Qlocktwo's price is not. You see, it's a designer product, meaning that you'll need to pay somewhere around $1500 to own on of your own, along with a few hundred bucks should you want to change out the faceplate.

Then again, if Qlocktwo can replace all the other reading you do in your life, it could save you a boatload on print materials. Our reserves from Danielle Steele alone will be staggering. [Qlocktwo via Design Milk via technabob]

That's right, there are AB, B, O and A Clockmen for some reason only the Japanese can understand. Speaking of Japan, that's where masochists will be able to score one of these starting in September. [Kaden Watch via Technabob]

It's actually an early concept proof of the Chime Generator for the 10,000 Year Clock. It can generate unique chime sequences every day for 10,000 years, and there are over 3.5 million possibilities. Brian Eno even used the same algorithm for his album "January 07003 – Bell Studies for the Clock of the Long Now."

The brainchild of Computer Scientist, Danny Hillis, The Clock of the Long Now is designed to operate with minimum human intervention (winding, easy maintenance), and is constructed of largely valueless materials to limit looting by future civilizations.

The first prototype began working on December 31st 1999—in time to chime twice for the new millennium—and is now on display in London. The two more recent prototypes are in San Francisco.

Pics below:
- First working prototype of Orrey—or planetary display—for the 10,000 year clock
- Prototype of a Solar Synchronizer to maintain the clock's accuracy using the sun.

Tied to the broader range of Beo home theater product, the BeoTime is a bit minimalist, even by B&O's standards—it's basically a stylized aluminum stick. But, as I'm sure the salesmen will be eager to tell you, it does so much more than an aluminum stick! On top of telling time, it can wireless switch B&O audio and video products on and off with alarms or sleep timers. Menus are navigated with the large center button, the snooze switch is the device's accelerometer, which triggers when the device is moved, and the alarm can be totally disabled by depressing the metal plunger protruding from the device's end. Time, alarm time and alarm source info are displayed on a set of low-res panels.t's a bit disappointing to find out that a $375 single-function device is powered by AA batteries (included!), but Bang and Olufsen says each set will last a year. Besides, if you're wealthy enough to own the full battery of B&O equipment necessary to fully take advantage of the BeoTime, you've probably got some manner of battery-changing servant. Available in August. [Bang and Olufsen]

Amazingly enough, this marvel of modern engineering can be had for only $100 on Amazon. [Amazon via The Awesomer via Craziest Gadgets]

In the morning, you can then transfer the findings into your PC, then upload the results to Zeo online, which will then give you a diagnostic of how well you sleep at night, and suggestions of what you can do to improve that sleep. Or I can just tell you why you can't sleep at night—it's either because of the never ending abundance of porn, or that uncomfortable headband, pressing down on your forehead, strangling your brain and messing up your hair. [Zeo via Technabob via DVice]

Artsick's kit comes with a hands-only clock mechanism and a series of decals that you can use to set up your wall in any way you see fit. Naturally, it also allows you to customize the look on a whim. It's like a functional, design-oriented magnetic poetry for the new millennium. [Artsick via Unplggd]

If my careful calculations are correct, the thing is fully extended at a different point each hour. Which means not only would a physical version of the Hand In Hand clock need to be mounted in the exact center of your wall, it would need a hell of a lot of room a full 360 degrees around in order to function without smacking into stuff. Unless of course you feel a titillating sense of mystery when the hands of your clock disappear behind a wardrobe, bookcase or framed portait. [Hand In Hand Clock in action, via Yanko via
Unplggd]

This is the alarm clock that faithfully reproduces the subtle wit employed by P. G. Wodehouse's most famous character—the valet Reginald Jeeves—as he politely affirms the beginning of the day. The clock plays 126 different wake-up messages in the reserved voice of Stephen Fry, the original actor from the English comedy Jeeves and Wooster. When the alarm sounds, Jeeves speaks softly as he assuages your displeasure that the morning has indeed come: "Excuse me sir, I'm so sorry to disturb you, but it appears to be morning... Very inconvenient, I agree... I believe it is the rotation of the Earth that is to blame, sir," or asks "Shall I inform the news agencies that you are about to rise, sir? If you are not roused sufficiently, a series of beeps will ensue; a press of the clock's rosette cancels the beeps, prompting Jeeves to interject "Sir has a firm touch, but fair," as one of ten possible snooze replies."

The clock will run you $70—but it might actually be worth it. That is unless you would prefer something cheap and tawdry. [ThinkGeek via Slashgear via BBG]

Designed by Swedish designers Humans since 1982, the Clock Clock's 48 hands will never give you the correct time unless you take all of them in at once. But when you do... POW! Time to start telling time in convoluted a way as possible. [Dezeen]

I don't quite get the "What the fuck is Heimat?" thing on all of them, but apparently it's a joke about a German word that doesn't translate to English. OK then! In any case, these are certainly a lot more unique than my clock radio. [Wicked Halo via Albotas]

Made out of plywood and laminate, the clock runs on a AA battery and comes with a dry erase pen and eraser—all for $135. On second thought, I'm sure I could find a midget to stand in the corner and announce all my appointments via bugle and royal scrolls for that kind of money. [Product Page via NerdApproved]

Priced at $110, the clock is comprised of 12 vintage Action Fleet Micro Machines, finished in "pewter-like" color. You can even request your favorite mix of ships for the order. (No one's stopping you from getting smarmy and asking for 12 cloaked Klingon vessels...just don't expect everyone you know to get the joke). [Etsy via GeekyGadgets via CrunchGear]

I'm not saying I could cobble together a 1,200-part machine that you wind up to write down the time in 4th-grade block print. That is indeed a feat. But I am saying that the stuff Pierre Jaquet-Droz himself apparently contrived way back in the late 1700s, for instance, the 6,000-piece Writer—arguably the first input-output computer—sounds a lot cooler. [Oh Gizmo]

Designed by Denis Guidone, the minimalistic wood clock will actually be produced, by NAVA, and will be displayed at Milan Design Week (and in a year or two, at the MoMA store). [Yanko Design]

The only real difference between Friedman's concept and Evil's working device is that they simplified the mechanics by mounting a ring of lights at three different heights instead of a single rotating light to achieve the shadow effect. Complete instructions on how to make one yourself are available on the EMS Labs website and there is talk of producing a kit for sale. Hell, I would probably buy one. [EMS and Ironic Sans]

Waving, however, could be a problem for this clock. Because it is buttonless, the only way to control all the settings and switch between the time, date and temperature settings is with motion sensors and gesture controls. I personally wouldn't want a clock that might turn off my alarm or change my settings every time I lifted my head to check the time in the middle of the night. [Homeloo via Coolest Gadgets via OhGizmo]

The Tokyoflash guys are good sports and looking for feedback from you, lovely readers, via an online survey. So if you find them too bewildering or eyesore, please perform your civic duty and speak up. The information gathered will then be used for product development and selected designs will hit the shelves. You could be a part of history.

Currently the collection includes a series of multipurpose clocks, such as ambient table lamps with subtle, animated textural designs. Some include the ever trendy iPod docks or have multiple time zone displays and calendar functionality. Others are structurally versatile enough to be be positioned on your desk, wall, or floor. [Tokyoflash Japan]

The outer transparent, crystal globe represents Earth, bearing outlines of the continents and oceans. The inner sphere shows at all times the exact position of Sun, Moon and fixed stars in relation to any location on Earth. So it's not really a whole universe, but you get the idea. Rotating at the speed of a real day, one revolution takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. Separate Sun and Moon hands rotate once in 24 hours indicating which parts of the Earth is illuminated by each celestial body. Finally, a DRAGON hand moves with the signs of the zodiac. Dragons, people! Now I really want this thing.

After you get past the astrological drool factor, a standard clock on the front panel of the mahogany case indicates the hours and minutes. The Earth clock comes in a limited edition of 99 pieces. [Ulysses Nardin via DVICE]

By Diamantini & Domeniconi, the $230 Striped Cuckoo Clock has ditched the typically rustic bark and straw birdhouse design for a more modern approach to avian living. After all, in the age of dyed plastics, there's no need for birds to live in leaky, drab houses. I mean, seriously, just because you're a traditionalist doesn't mean that the entire mechanical bird world needs to suffer. Ass. [Rockett St George via Switched On Set]

Needless to say, this testing requires a lot of bulky equipment that's at least a cubic meter in size.

Now, a team of researchers out of Reno have successfully used a new technique that cuts down on gear. Using lasers (of course), scientists can hold atoms to be observed in place without a vacuum. The system still requires a bit of equipment, but it could pave the way for portable atomic clocks to be used in space laboratories, or just very, very complicated watches from Tokyoflash. [NewScientist and image]

The design is pretty simple. You set the alarm, then you make you breakfast selections, and go to sleep. When you wake up, you'll have some toast, water or juice at the ready. Provided you haven't knocked everything over with your arm after a failed attempt to find the off button. [Yanko Design]