If you were to stumble across this freaky ring of hairs hanging on a wall you’d probably dismiss it as another confusing piece of modern art. But if you were to give it more than just a passing glance, you’d notice that some of its hairs were moving, because it turns out this piece is actually a functional clock.
In lieu of moving hands or a digital display, Bina Baitel’s Lash Clock—so named because it looks like a ring of eyelashes—uses a clever hidden mechanism that creates moving gaps between the individual hairs. The larger gap indicates the current hour, while the smaller, faster moving gap indicates the minute.
The clock takes a subtle approach to displaying time, and while it probably wouldn’t take that long to master reading those moving hairs, it’s a moot point since the Lash Clock isn’t for sale. It does, however, actually exist, and if you find yourself in Belgium from January 22 to April 30 this year, you can see it in person at the Grand-Hornu museum, among other exhibits.
[Bina Baitel Studio via designboom]