The Thirteen-Hour Clock

It's not really a thirteen-hour clock, if you want to be technical about it. I mean, I didn't do any re-gearing of the motor to do a thirteen-hour cycle. This makes the clock more of an inside joke than a true reality bend. If you ignore the numbers and only look at the position of the hands, they're still accurate to the current time -- insofar as a plastic battery-powered clock can be.

I was inspired to do this little project while changing the dead battery in the clock at the shop. Actually, I think it might have been Mike who suggested it. I have to stop being bored when Mike's around.

First things first. Adobe Illustrator is the greatest doodling program the world has ever known. Even better than Paintworks Plus for the IIgs. It has the added benefit that I can draw the clock at one size for ease of manipulation, then resize it to the actual face of the clock when I'm done.

I drew the clock face -- at left -- in about five minutes. I'll admit, I cheated. I used the Star Tool to make a thirteen-pointed star (a triskadekacle?) to aid in the layout. I'm lazy.

I suppose I could have made it fancier with little filigree all over the place or "songbirds of the world." Perhaps the next incarnation will have such additions to it.

What I was after was a clock that would look perfectly normal when seen out of the corner of the eye, but which would prompt a double-take when actually checking the time. This kept things simple as the last thing I wanted was for people to notice the clock before I wanted them to.

After the drawing was complete, I resized it to fit inside the clock and punched the center hole. A little bit of glue and the new face was securely fastened to the backside of the old one (just a piece of cardstock with the numbers painted on).

I put it all together, changed the battery -- which is what I should have been doing to begin with -- and hung it up on the wall. It wasn't long before the clock was drawing strange looks and double-takes.