A watch or clock that bongs out 1 of the 12 chromatic scale tones at the top of each appropriate hour.

12:00 C
1:00 C#
2:00 D
3:00 D#
etc.

Easiest done with a digital or electronic watch, of course.

But, we're going to use either tines, strings or pipes - twelve of fixed pitch, or one of variable working length.

If it doesn't drive you nuts, you'll develop perfect (absolute) pitch recognition after awhile.
-- FlyingToaster, Oct 29 2017

Visually chromatic clock Visually_20Chromatic_20Clock
As mentioned in an annotation. [Vernon, Oct 31 2017]

Related Resonance_20Time
I had a similar idea (but didn't articulate it very well) [mitxela, Oct 31 2017]

Eventually you’ll just communicate time by tonality. ‘It’s <bong> thirty, I’m late!’
-- RayfordSteele, Oct 29 2017


I'd actually quite like this. I spend an awful lot of my life with headphones plugging my ears, it would be great if I could have the time updated in a completely auditory way. Even better, you could overlay notes according to the position of the minute hand. So a C+F power chord would be 12:20. How to deal with the back side of the clock needs working out though.
-- bs0u0155, Oct 29 2017


AM and PM could be different by an octave. I like the "chord" enhancement. 5-minute precision is good enough for daily life.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Oct 29 2017


Except on a piano.
-- pertinax, Oct 30 2017


You can start wherever you like. Mix and match the pipes; reorder the digital tonebank.
-- FlyingToaster, Oct 30 2017


Could the chords used for the 'quarter' chimes (12:15, 12:30, 12:45) be chords which somehow transition from C to C#? I don't know enough about music to know if this is possible.
-- hippo, Oct 30 2017


I thought the definition of "chromatic" had to do with colors not tones. However, my dictionary assures me that it can refer to tones, also. Therefore, logically, another Idea using that word should be posted.
-- Vernon, Oct 30 2017


// Could the chords used for the 'quarter' chimes (12:15, 12:30, 12:45) be chords which somehow transition from C to C#?

12:15 could be a major third, 12:30 a perfect 5th. 12:45, you could choose between a 6th interval or a dominant 7th.

Using Shepard tones would remove the octave jump every 12 hours.
-- tatterdemalion, Oct 31 2017


How would you communicate meeting times to cultures where they use different tonal scales? And equal temperament or just temperament?
-- RayfordSteele, Oct 31 2017


A440 equal temperament - vanilla piano - as default : standard for most basic accompanied singing. I'm not sure anything else would be useful enough to bother with, in context.
-- FlyingToaster, Oct 31 2017


Pretty sure Liberace had one.
-- RayfordSteele, Oct 31 2017


// never seen a vanilla piano // vanilla (ie: bog standard, the usual) piano tuning: modern pianos are usually tuned as equal temperament (the exponential distance between any two adjacent notes is the same), pitched at A=440hz.

This system ingrains the sound of the notes on the memory, making it a bit easier for beginners to hit a note a bit more in tune than usual.
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 01 2017


Do growing vanilla plants smell of vanilla ?
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 01 2017


Maybe a little, in the same way that mint leaves mildly taste minty.
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 01 2017



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