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Faux Flip-Clock Alarm Dock
Although strictly speaking, this isn’t a phone, this cool iPhone dock from Areaware converts you existing iPhone into a neat retro-looking flip clock radio that looks it warped right in from the 1970′s. It gives you the look of one of those vintage GE Flip Clocks sitting next to your bed with all the modern technology and convenience of your trusty iPhone. Designed by Jonas Damon, the Alarm Dock by Areaware contains no actual electronics or speakers, it is simply a beautiful sustainably harvested beech wood case that you feed your charger cord into, then just dock your iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S and start [...]
Test Page Wall Clock
Please Stand By… From Nextime, Dutch design company which has made a name for itself by designing a whole slew of cool and funky clocks from the modern and mundane to the down right wacky, the contemporary styled Test Page Glass Wall Clock lies somewhere right in between. This glass faced wall clock was designed by Fritz Fink as a humorous take on the retro, nostalgic old test pattern shown on televisions when the networks went off the air. Gosh, it’s hard to believe there was a time when TV wasn’t running 24 hours a day. With a large, multicolored, 17″ glass face and rectangular metal hands [...]
Stylish Number Design Wall Clock
Cool Number Wall Clock! A recent trend in wall clocks has been oddly shaped numbers free-floating around the central movement and I have to admit that I am kind of a sucker for these contemporary clocks. I have seen them made from wood and plastic but the vast majority of them a cut out of thin metal with a plasma cutter. But anyone that has seen these clocks around has to admit that these number clocks can very widely in how well they are executed. Like any trend, the market is soon flooded with poor quality reproductions that don’t show [...]
Cool Retro Flip Clock
Remember the retro flip clocks from the 60s? The precursor to the digital clocks of the 1970s, flip clocks were an analog method of showing the time as a digital representation. As the minutes pass by, a panel with half of a numeral printed on both front and back flips down. The two halves of each digit fit together to form a bold and easy to read number to indicate the minute. The same thing is repeated once an hour to show the hour. It is a very simple mechanical solution from the days before miniaturization created circuits that were small enough to fit [...]
Build A 7 Ft Grandfather Clock With K’NEX
How would you like to build your own full size 7 ft tall, fully functional grandfather clock? Well unless you have years of experience in fine woodworking, this is probably something you are not going to attempt. Well, it may not be as hard as you think is you choose the right building materials. When my son was 7 years old we bought him a small set of a plastic building toy called K’NEX. It is kind of like the modern-day answer to the old Erector Set. Over the years, we collected more and more sets and his building projects expanded to be more and [...]

Time Machine Kinetic Ball Clock

Nov 132011

Many people remember this retro favorite from the late 1960s and early 1970s. The rolling ball clock was not only a fascinating way to watch the passage of time it actually has the distinction of being the first absolutely original way of keeping time in, quite literally, centuries. I remember my uncle getting one of these for Christmas in the mid 70′s and being fascinated with watching the balls ticking off the hours, minutes and seconds.

Although they were licenced by a company called Arrow Handycraft and later by Mattel in the late 70′s and early 80′s, many people don’t know that they were invented by Harley Mayenschein in the 1970′s. Harley Mayenschein was an inventor and tinker from Wisconsin who invented things like a bacon cutting machine for Oscar Meyers and had a major hand in inventing the radio that allowed people to listen to the moon landing live from earth.

After being laid off from Motorola, Harley continued to tinker and invent from home. He got the inspiration for the rolling ball clock one day while helping his young granddaughter count gumballs by lining them up on his workbench. It was then that he had is eureka moment! He began to create these amazing retro clocks as his hobby from his home workshop as gifts for friends and family they were originally made from solid hardwood. Soon everybody wanted one and word began to spread so in the 1970′s he founded the Idle-Tyme Corporation and began producing the Idle-Tyme Rolling Ball Clock.

The way these fascinating clocks keep time is through the use of three numbered rails, the top rail counts off five minutes, the second rail counts the minutes in multiples of five and the longest rail on the bottom counts off the hours. An electric motor scoops up one ball every minute and deposits it on the top rail. After five minutes, the fifth ball creates an imbalance and dumps one ball onto the second rail and deposits the rest into a feeder rail at the bottom to be re-used. The second rail count off in five minute intravals until, after an hour, the second rail dumps a ball onto the third rail to calculate the hours and the rest of the balls return to the feed rail to be re-used. After twelve balls count off on the third rail, all the balls cycle through and dump onto the feed rail and the whole process begins again.

As a child, I remember waiting for all the excitement to occur at 1:00 when with the tipping of rails and the rolling of balls the whole machine clattered in a flurry of kinetic action.

Well this wonderfully innovative retro clock design is available again from Can You Imagine, now called the Can You Imagine Time Machine Tabletop Clock. It has the same ultra-modern design and features an acrylic display case that covers the entire mechanism.

After singing it’s nostalgic praises, maybe I should fill you in on some of it’s drawbacks. The Time Machine Kinetic Ball Clock is pretty delicate and it can be a bit touchy. The arm sometimes can be mistimed which can lead to the time drifting off a bit. The rails don’t always tip and occasionally the entire feeder track can become misaligned causing the balls to fall into the acrylic case. It usually takes some fiddling around to get it to work right. Also, this clock is loud, much louder than you think. The clattering racket that so delighted me at 1:00 in the afternoon can be quite disconcerting at 1:00 in the morning so I wouldn’t advise keeping it in your bedroom.

Overall this retro clock is educational, entertaining and fun so if you ware looking for a fun gizmo that is a great conversation piece, the vintage design of the Time Machine Tabletop Clock is perfect. I have found these cool modern clocks online priced between $40.00 and $80.00 but if you click on the link below you van buy one through Amazon at a consistently low price of $40.00 or even less plus free shipping.

The Retro Classic Kit-Cat Wall Clock

Retro Clocks No Responses »

Nov 082011

My parents had one of these cool wall clocks when I was back in the early 1970′s. That thing was very cool and even retro at the time. It was one of the old plug-in versions with the glow in the dark eyes and though I look back at it now and think fondly of it, I distinctly remember that the glowing eyes moving back and forth late at night terrified me back then. Ours was hung at the end of the hallway and I had to walk towards it to get to the bathroom. I remember running to the bathroom a lot back then.

Most people look back at this cool retro wall clock with a nostalgic feeling and they are just as popular today as they were back then.

Kit-Cat Clock History

The Kit-Cat Wall Clock or Kit-Cat Klock was originally released in 1932, during the height of the depression by a small west coast clock company based in Portland, Oregon called the California Clock Company. Although the original design was quite similar there were a few differences, for example it had paws only at the bottom of the clock, no bow tie and a hole in the clock face to wind it with a key like most clocks of that era.

In the late 40′s and 50′s, the winding mechanism was replaced by a cord you could plug directly into the wall. Later models added the two top paws and bow tie and in the 1980s the word Kit Cat was added to the face. Aside from that, the iconic art-deco look and the animated eyes and tail of the Kit-Cat Clock is largely unchanged.

The new Kit-Cat Wall Clock

By the 1980s, the iconic Retro Kit-Kat Clock had lost the cord and moved mainly to battery power, but this advancement was very nearly its demise. You see, the new battery power works available was not powerful enough to power the small motor which kept up the animation of the eyes and tail. Rising prices of the American made clock motor looked as if it may drive production of this American Icon overseas.

When faced with the possibility of moving production overseas, the California Clock Company undertook a major redesign of the inner workings. The result was a battery-powered Kit-Cat Wall Clock with enough power to move the “one second” cat animation and still keep production of this classic retro wall clock in America. Just be sure that you hang the newer clocks level so the new mechanistic, which uses gravity to maintain the movement works correctly. If the animation does stop, a gentle nudge of the tail will usually get it going again.

The Kit-Cat Wall Clock comes mainly in black, although there have been special editions and limited productions of other colors and styles. These limited runs send Kit-Cat collectors into a frenzy and usually sell out pretty quickly. Personally, I like the original black cat version myself but that is just my personal preference. It is kind of like painting a Model-T some other color than black, you could, but why would you.

You can usually find these classic retro clocks at specialty clock stores and cool vintage stores or if you are really lucky, a vintage clock might turn up at a local garage sale. I have seen them priced online for around $54 to about $65 but the best price I could locate was $49.98 from ClockStyle.com.