Art Engineering - Dave Bruckenstein


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Artwork Engineering

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David Bruckenstein
"I nclinoClock"
February 2023

This is the 13th collaborative clock project that Dave Bruckenstein and I have completed. It is deceptively simple, but took many weeks to construct which is documented in six videos on YouTube. (see below).

The brass clock face rotates to position a weighted ball inside a glass tube next to the hour dots. In the resting position it sits at 6 o'clock and then when triggered by touching or waving your hands near the button on the top - the disc rotates counterclockwise to line the ball with the left dot which indicates 12 o'clock, then it moves in increments pausing at each hour, followed by a slow crawl to the approximate minutes between the hours. After holding there for five seconds, it reverts back to the 6 o'clock position. If you touch and hold the button on the top the whole clock face does a complete clockwise rotation which reveals an air bubble moving through the glass tube as it rises up in the liquid inside and also the small ball drops down at a certain point in the rotation. This special feature also occurs every 12 hours at noon and midnight to give Dave something fun to look forward to at those times. To see the clock in action - look at the last video at the bottom of this page.

A button on the back allows you to advance or back up by one hour to correct for daylight savings time - this simplifies the time setting issue so you can only make time adjustments on the hour. A real-time clock chip with battery backup maintains accurate time.

The original inspiration for this clock is an inclinometer which is used in boats and earth moving equipment to indicate the tilt angle. The Lev-O-Gage Sr. that we used contains a glass tube filled with clear liquid and a black ball that always settles to the bottom of the curve.

Once we decided on this as the primary element for displaying time, Dave did a number of renderings exploring various design options a few of which are shown below.

The final rendering resembles the completed clock very closely. This is partly because Dave would adjust the rendering to the clock as I built it and came up with minor improvements or changes to proportions etc.

The process of creating this clock is documented in a series of six videos linked below.

And here is a link to Dave's webpage for this clock.

Visit Dave's web site:
DAB's Clocks

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This is the 13th collaborative clock project that Dave Bruckenstein and I have completed. It is deceptively simple, but took many weeks to construct which is documented in six videos on YouTube. (see below). The brass clock face rotates to position a weighted ball inside a glass tube next to the hour dots. In the resting position it sits at 6 o'clock and then when triggered by touching or waving your hands near the button on the top - the disc rotates counterclockwise to line the ball with the left dot which indicates 12 o'clock, then it moves in increments pausing at each hour, followed by a slow crawl to the approximate minutes between the hours. After holding there for five seconds, it reverts back to the 6 o'clock position. If you touch and hold the button on the top the whole clock face does a complete clockwise rotation which reveals an air bubble moving through the glass tube as it rises up in the liquid inside and also the small ball drops down at a certain point in the rotation. This special feature also occurs every 12 hours at noon and midnight to give Dave something fun to look forward to at those times. To see the clock in action - look at the last video at the bottom of this page. A button on the back allows you to advance or back up by one hour to correct for daylight savings time - this simplifies the time setting issue so you can only make time adjustments on the hour. A real-time clock chip with battery backup maintains accurate time.
The original inspiration for this clock is an inclinometer which is used in boats and earth moving equipment to indicate the tilt angle. The Lev-O-Gage Sr. that we used contains a glass tube filled with clear liquid and a black ball that always settles to the bottom of the curve.
Once we decided on this as the primary element for displaying time, Dave did a number of renderings exploring various design options a few of which are shown below.

The final rendering resembles the completed clock very closely. This is partly because Dave would adjust the rendering to the clock as I built it and came up with minor improvements or changes to proportions etc.
The process of creating this clock is documented in a series of six videos linked below. And here is a link to Dave's webpage for this clock.