If wood is the first thing you like to see in the morning, then you’re in luck!
Designed by Kouji Iwasaki, the Wooden LED Clock from Suck UK, appears to be a normal block of wood, until you plug it in. With a thin layer of real maple wood veneer the LED glows from the inside, creating the illusion that the time is actually hovering on the surface of the wood.
What a great clock for the nature enthusiast.

A three button interface lets you program the time and one of three display modes: always on, blinking mode (time flashes every 2.5 seconds); or slide mode (time displays one digit at a time as the minute changes; click here for demo)
Each clock is slightly different due to natural variation in wood grain.

• Dimensions: 7″ x 4″ x 3.5″ (20x9x9cm)
• Time Display: 12 and 24 hour formats
• Modes: Normal, Blinking, and Slide
• Includes: Clock, AC Adapter (120V), and Instructions

With a magnetic ball that slides along the horizontal day board and another magnetic ball at the end of a lease to indicate the month, this extremely simple calendar design is both interesting to use and look at.  Made of injection-molded ABS plastic and magnets, it can be wall-mounted or used on a desktop in two positions.  It comes in black and red, black and silver, or blue and yellow.

[Get It $44]

 
In an Ode to the days of relative time and the pursuit of precision within timekeeping, comes the Geochron World Clock*.  This electronic masterpiece celebrates the rotation of the earth around the sun as the fundamental principle behind our use of time.
Looking like a 3′x2′ framed Mercator projection of the earth, the Geochron is actually a continuous belt that slowly moves with the rotation of our planet.  The far left and right represent midnight while the middle depicts exact noon.  The date, month, and day for each side of the International Dateline are shown in a window near the bottom of the map.

The most fascinating aspect of the Geochron is the lighted pattern in the center which clearly delineates the exact portions of the earth that are illuminated by the sun.  At any instant, on any date you can look to the left edge of this pattern to follow the sunrise or watch as the moving earth falls under the right edge of sunset.  As the axis of the earth moves through the seasons, the light pattern of the Geochron gently and almost imperceptibly adjusts to the varying lengths of daylight.  This timepiece will give you a new appreciation for time.

*Comes in a variety of styles, all of which are timeless; well, not literally.

As recently as one hundred and thirty years ago, location dictated local time based on the instant that the sun reached its zenith at that locality, and "high noon" was the universal time for setting clocks and watches.  Those simple and straightforward days of Local Sun Time ended when the first transcontinental railroads ushered in the era of modern long-distance transportation.  In the 1870s the 24 "standard" world time zones we know today were set up by international agreement.

Because clocks and watches were created for the representation of local time, the user must work with zone conversion factors, A.M. and P.M., International date line, and 24 standard (and 10 nonstandard) time zones for applying their time piece on a global scale.

Lets see how the Geochron works with these problems:

Time Zones:

All known legal time zone boundaries are delineated on the map by dark blue lines which converge on stationary lettered pointers along the top edge of the map. These letters identify the standard time zones and also represent the short-wave radio prefix for that zone.  As the map moves through these time zone points, you simply find that place on the map and follow the zone boundaries to the arrow which points out the correct time. 
Nonstandard and pocketed zones have boundaries that do not extend to an arrow. These are marked with a letter and a number. The letter explains which arrow to read and the number shows the deviation from standard time. In the case of India, for example, the designation is E + 30. This means that you add 30 minutes to time you read on the E pointer.  A unit of 30 minutes is the only calculation ever required when reading the Geochron.

Reading the Date:

Since the map is moving slowly across the frame from left to right, the International Dateline crosses the frame once each day. The days of the week observed on either side of the Dateline are displayed in windows near the bottom of the map along with the month and date for these two days.

 Special Features:

As mentioned above, the Geochron shows the exact portions of the earth that are hit by the sun or blanketed in darkness.  As the map slowly moves like the minute hand of a clock, so too does the pattern of sunlight illuminating the map and revealing the patterns of the season with respect to the changing axis of the earth.  With a glance, you can easily read the time of sunrise and sunset as well as the relative length of day or night for any given latitude at any time of the year.  This makes abstract phenomena such as the summer and winter solstices (longest and shortest days of the year), and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes (equal lengths of day and night), more understandable through graphical illustration.

You’ll gradually gain an instinctive appreciation of world time as well as the position and movement of the sun and earth.  For business purposes, take a quick glance at the Geochron to know whether it’s an appropriate time to contact someone in a different part of the world.

The two basic controls allow the user a great deal of function.  A knob used to set the position of the map (time) and the knob used to set the date (light pattern mechanism), can also be used to move the map in an effort to determine the time of sunrise and sunset at any locality on any specific day of the year.  This has proven valuable for educators, motion picture producers, military operations, as well as by the average person planning a vacation.

Geochron graphically indicates the relationship between Apparent Solar Time and Mean Solar Time as expressed in the Equation of time. This is indicated by a small black dot that follows the zenith position of the sun as it traverses the earth.

The principal objective of the Geochron is to provide a device capable of depicting, on a flat surface, global solar time and its modifications as well as related natural phenomena.

Specifically, the Geochron displays the following:

• LEGAL ZONE TIME
• GREENWICH MEAN TIME
• GREENWICH APPARENT TIME
• LOCAL APPARENT TIME
• MOMENT OF SUNRISE
• MOMENT OF SUNSET
• DURATION OF DAYLIGHT
• SUN’S MERIDIAN PASSAGE
• SUN’S EQUATION OF TIME
• DEGREES LATITUDE
• DEGREES LONGITUDE
• THE GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT OF THE PREVAILING DAY AND DATE

Simplicity is beautiful. 

The Kam Kam Alarm Clock is a cute little feline cat named Kam Kam who has apparently just won a triumphant victory over a small fish. 

The Kam Kam Alarm Clock has a digital display that lights up with the touch of a button.  Kam Kam can also be found on shirts, bags, pillows and plushes; or with his good friend Don Don. 

If you have a child, you have the perfect excuse to purchase a Kam Kam alarm clock.  If you don’t have a child, you can always get yourself or someone else pregnant; either way you have no excuse for not enjoying Kam Kam’s companionship!