Pillar Clock with Complication
12x9x80 in
Hard maple, CNC-cut birch plywood, 3D-printed mechanical components, BMX freewheel, bike chain, 7/16” deep-impact socket, 3 kg weight, reflex blue enamel paint
2025
The pillar clock, or shaku-dokei, is a timekeeping device originating in Edo-period Japan. These clocks indicate time using a vertical scale, along which a weight steadily falls. As a result, shaku-dokei only run for one day at a time. They are set at sunrise, and as the weight gradually descends, so too does the sun.
This is not a shaku-dokei. It is a modern pillar clock, built from 3D printed plastic, CNC-cut wood, spare bike parts, and the detritus of the workshop. It uses a pendulum and deadbeat escapement, not verge escapement, to regulate the falling of the weight.
Yet it is inspired by the shaku-dokei’s philosophy: that timekeeping is a daily ritual, in tune with the seasons and the movement of the sun, and not simply a sequence of numbers driving us inexorably into the future.
Also:
This clock had to accommodate Daylight Savings Time. Unfortunately.