Time Machine ball bearing clock
The Time Machine clock tells the passing time by dropping a chrome ball onto a multi-tiered track. Every five minutes, the last ball is dropped a level to mark a twelfth of the hour while the rest are flushed to the ball bearing time hopper; the same happens every sixty minutes to flush out the five-minute markers and mark the passing of another hour. The clack of connecting metal balls seems like a peaceful and rhythmic way to tell time... the Newton's Cradle of office clocks. Only $24.99.
Time Machine Tabletop Clock [Amazon via Gadget Grid]
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My grandma had one of those 28 years ago. Seriously.
There was one of these in my house when I was a kid back in the late '70s, early '80s. Mesmerizing to a young geek like myself. But a bit too noisy for an office. Of course, I kept stealing the balls so it wouldn't roll over at midnight.
$24.99? The link to amazon.com gives me a price of $34.56...
I got one of those for my birthday in 1979 or 1980. It was the coolest thing ever. In fact, as was the case in the late 1970s with many things, they had a number of versions to, with little tennis-ball painted versions of the ball-bearings and golf-ball painted versions and the like. It wasn't the best-built thing in the world and after a year or so it started falling apart. But watching it turn over from 12:59 to 1:00 was hella cool.
I had one for a while, it kept good time and it was fun to watch. But something they don't tell you: It's loud. Really loud. I had it in the living room of a 1 bedroom apartment, and it was loud enough to keep me up until I shut it off.
It's like water torture, too infrequent to ignore, too frequent to fall asleep between sounds.
Hardly news... I had one of these on my office desk 12 years ago. It wasn't quite as charming as it would appear to be; it was constructed from flimsy plastic, and had an annoying tendency to drop a ball on the desk now and then.
Nobody said it was news, just that it was cool.
I have fond memories of giving one of these to my dad for his office when I was a kid. I think he has slightly less fond memories of the whirr-clunk!-roll-roll-roll-tap-whirr-clunk!-roll-roll-roll-tap-whirr-clunk!-roll-roll-roll-tap noises it made in operation. He started leaving it unplugged within about a week of receiving it. Oh, well.
It's not news, but who cares? I've had one for years and it's great. It's a bit noisy at first but if you can get used to a chiming clock you can get used to this.
I just wish the tracks were more complex; maybe a few extra switchbacks, detours and a couple of loops to make things more interesting? What I really want is sonething that looks like the sculptures made by the central character in Fracture, except without the bloodstains.
I was hoping 30 years would have evolved us more elaborate "rolling ball clocks" than this.
That's how it's supposed to work, right? Take a classic curiosity like this, then subsequent revisions make it even more elaborate?
We used to have one of these when I was a kid. I loved it! I may have to get one of these for my kids. I used to love to watch it hit 1:00.
Grandma nothing. I had one of those about 28 years ago. I can say without reservation that you can't have one in a bedroom. It is way too loud to enable sleep in the same room. It also attracted my cat who insisted on pushing it off my dresser so that it could play with the cute little chrome balls.
XZZY: They added the seconds indicator. What more could you want?
We had one of these for a while. The sound it made _every_60_seconds_ was exactly the same as our VCR starting to play a tape. Very distracting. It might be fun in a noisy office, but it was impossible in a quiet home.
Every night at 01:00 AM, all hell breaks loose. Don't put it anywhere near a bedroom.
Yeah, the old one I remember was cheap plastic and prone to ball-dropping errors, it begs for a remake, though — what kinds of clocks can be made that run on dropping balls every minute? Hmmm... I think my sketchpad will be occupied while I'm in Hospital for day surgery next week.
My main memories of this clock we had in the seventies was that it seemed a bit flimsy. I'm sure it was tossed because it broke or locked up.
Not that it could not be made more sturdy, and still work.
I get a price of $40 at the Amazon link. Hmmm...
i remember these from the innovations catalogue (paper based crapvendor of pre internet days) in the early nineties
The modern version is rather cheesily made, but it is indeed quite cheap, and seems to work well enough. I reviewed one years ago here:
http://www.dansdata.com/timemachine.htm
I bought one of these for my husband last year. He used it daily for about a month before it broke. :(
This really cries out for a steampunk version...