The Present Clock

The annual timepiece that tells time in seasons, not seconds.

Part One

What is The Present clock?

The Present clock is a wall-mounted annual timepiece.

Instead of racing through hours and minutes, its single hand takes one full year to complete a revolution, slowly moving through a spectrum of color that maps to the seasons.

At a glance, you see:

Where you are in the year right now
How far you’ve come
How much of the year still lies ahead
The present moment itself in a calming, big-picture context

At first glance, people often call it “The Present clock” because it looks like a clock.

Over time, it becomes apparent that it’s "less like a clock than a slow moving piece of conceptual art", so we simply call it, The Present.

Its single hand always points to the present moment, shown within the context of the entire year at a glance.

Part Two

How it works.

One hand
One moment
One revolution per year

When you install The Present on your wall and start it, the hand is set to today’s place in the year. From that moment, it moves too slowly to see, but every time you look:

You are reminded that this moment is a part of bigger story of time.
You have physical awareness of a holistic new scale of time itself.
Today feels more connected to the year as a whole.
You see where we are in relation to the solstices and equinoxes at all of the right angles.
The colors of winter, spring, summer, and autumn gently blend into each other in a quiet symphony of life.

It behaves like a clock, but feels more like a philosophical instrument for renewing your appreciation for the nature of time.

Part Three

Why people live with it.

People who live with The Present clock describe:

A calmer, broader sense of time
A deeper connection to where they are in the year of their life
A new appreciation for change

It doesn’t buzz, notify, need to charge by USB-C, or track anything other than the pace of a year on Earth. You change the batteries once every twenty-years. It simply changes the context in which you experience time: from seconds to seasons.

Part Four

Where people live with it.

You’ll find The Present clock in:

Living rooms, as a conversation piece and unique wall clock
Studios and offices, to keep long projects and years in view
Classrooms, therapy rooms, and shared spaces, as a steady reference point for change over time

From across the room, it reads as a minimalist piece of wall art.
Up close, you realize it is quietly keeping time in a completely different way.

Part Five

Learn more / Next step

If you came here searching for “The Present clock”, you’re in the right place.

In time,

Scott Thrift