Though probably best suited for an airport terminal or international headquarters, this fanciful clock would also look good on an office wall or as a wristwatch. Its central clock face has two hands to show the minutes and seconds.
Encircling it are twelve smaller clock faces to display the hour, around the world. The hour faces are joined to spokes radiating from behind the large face and they orbit it like cabins on a Ferris wheel. The end of each spoke acts as an hour hand pointing to the correct local time on its clock face.
As the ring of clocks slowly turns clockwise, the hour hands display the march of time across the hour discs that are weighted to stay vertical. An alternating text display on each face shows the name of a major city, weekday and ‘AM’ or ‘PM’. Cities such as Adelaide and Katmandu with local times that differ by 30 and 15 minutes respectively from the time zone norm would not be included.-- FarmerJohn, Feb 03 2005 sketch http://www.geocitie...ie/worldclock.html? [FarmerJohn, Feb 03 2005] Roman Numerals http://home.att.net...na/answer/roman.htm [FarmerJohn, Feb 03 2005] The Nerd Watch Museum http://pocketcalcul...show.com/nerdwatch/Whoa. [bristolz, Feb 03 2005] World City Clock http://www.IIIxII.com/items/view/10924 zones, 1 face, 12 hands telling time. [Nicotronics, Mar 16 2009] I don't really know anything about Roman numerals but is XLV really 45? shouldn't it just be LV (50 -5)?-- Jinbish, Feb 03 2005 From the link: 'However, proper Roman numbers are subject to the following restrictions about the applicability of the subtractive principle. ...
The subtractive principle (a subtrahend preceding a minuend) may apply:
Only to a numeral (the subtrahend) which is a power of ten (I, X or C). For example, "VL" is not a valid representation of 45 (XLV is correct).'-- FarmerJohn, Feb 03 2005 If the spokes moved round at twice the right speed for this idea to work, then the clock faces on the ends of the spokes could be replaced by real clocks and the idea would still work.-- hippo, Feb 03 2005 I agree (clockworks instead of gravity can keep the faces vertical) except for the speed, otherwise in six hours the Sydney clock would be back at the top upside down.-- FarmerJohn, Feb 03 2005 (Thanks [FJ] )-- Jinbish, Feb 03 2005 I was expecting a view from space, with the continents moving around to show which millenium we're in.-- normzone, Feb 03 2005 [normzone] Baked, I'm afraid. Tectonic plates, continental drift, etc.-- hippo, Feb 03 2005 Half World Watch?-- FarmerJohn, Feb 03 2005 random, halfbakery