This writing is part of a series of articles in which I investigate the patterns (or rules) that describe the visualisation patterns of the classic clock. Classic means here “typical”, “common”, what we are used to. My goal is not only to find these patterns, but also to create solutions which alter from the classic, everyday solutions. See preivous articles here, here, here and here.
Dial with a non-continuous line
The classic dial has a continuous line which means that if you follow the circle with your finger, you do not have to raise your hand. But with a digital solution you might let this rule go. On below example the hour dial has three separate circle arcs, each section is 8 hour long. The minute dial is classic.
The next example breaks the minute dial into 6 pieces and the hour dial is classic.
The next example is a classic clock broken into four pieces.
OK, we can go even further and say that why not have a minute dial with 12 separate lines so that each hour has its own minute scale.
Here the outer circle which is the hour dial is broken into pieces, while each spoke is a minute dial on its own.
Non-evenly distributed graduation
On the classic clock face the graduation is evenly distributed which means that the distance between graduations is the same all around the scale. There are historical examples for non-evenly distributed graduation: the sun dials. As it can be seen on the picture below, the distance between the hour lines are somewhat different
The next example which is a 24-hour dial, uses two different graduation density: the graduation of the night hours is much dense compared to the daylight hours. Why should night hours take the same space when we are sleeping anyways? On this example the minute scale follows the classic patterns. The dial has one more non classic feature: the 0 hour point is not on the top, but a little bit right from the bottom — this is in order to put the active hours (from 6 am to 22 pm) to the same distance from the bottom.
Another example of the non evenly distributed graduation is the so called Hyperbola clock, where the minute dial is classic, and the hour dial follows hyperbolic distribution. The stick which is slowly going around shows the hour on the x-shaped, vertical hour scale.
Graduation other than minute
We are used to the classic clock where each small line (graduation) on the clock means one minute. But this rule can be broken too.
If the graduation on the scale is not per minute but per five minutes, or in other words, the smallest intervals for the minute hand to show is five minutes, then the clock is either only 5-minute accurate or there has to be an additional scale and hand which shows where we are in the 5 minute interval. Like the next example which has a sci-fi bouquet, where the minute value is shown by the white outer ring and the squares in the middle together: the missing piece on the outer circle shows the minute in 5 minute increments, now at 25, which means we are somewhere between 25 and 29. And then you have to add 0 to 4 values according to the number of white squares in the middle to get the exact minute value. As there is one white square on the example, the exact minute is 12:26 (25+1). This logic is similar to what we are used to with cash where we use bank notes with different values. Here the hour value is shown by the missing piece on the inner circle (now at 12).
Another interesting example is the so-called Fibonacci clock, where you’ll have to calculate a little bit to get the actual time in 5 minute intervals (this clock is only 5 minute accurate) . The squares in this clock have side length 1, 1, 2, 3, and 5. The squares in red tell you the hour, and the squares in green give you the minutes (in multiples of five). A square lit up in blue means it has to be added for both hour and minute. White squares are not counted. The first one on the left: red: 5+1=6, plus the blue 3, 6+3=9 hours. Green is 2, plus blue 3 = 5, you have to multiply by 5, which is then 5*5 = 25 minutes.
The Fibonacci clock is non-classic from many aspects, it does not have visible scales. Actually it is using a sign system where each sign means either minute or hour or both. It’s elegant in its own way. I’ve added it to the article because the graduation of the Fibonacci clock is 5 minute, not one.
