D'ni Clock 3

This has been something I've been working on for over a decade: a clock that ticks in D'ni time, the time system of one of the groups of people from the Myst series.

D'ni time is completely different to regular time - we have three main divisions per day (hours/minutes/seconds) whereas they have four plus an extra colloquial division split in between two, we divide things based on 24 & 60 whereas theirs is divided on 5 & 25, a D'ni "day" lasts roughly 30 hours and 14 minutes and a D'ni "second" lasts roughly 1.4 seconds. Basically nothing matches up.

Like the Death Star, this D'ni clock is fully armed and operational - it's not just decoration, it works! Everything was meticulously figured out & calculated by myself, right from the basics, with no prior knowledge or training in horology or mechanical engineering. I started this when I was thirteen, back in 2000, and the finishing touches were added last weekend... in terms of the time spent on this project, I estimate somewhere around 9,000-10,000 hours. Yes, really. Some people call me crazy.

I did a presentation on their time system & presented a not-quite-finished version of my clock at Mysterium 2009; you can view the presentation here if you're so inclined. Fair warning - it may not be interesting to the average person.


Photography, painting, texturing & styling by the awesome Kate O'Brien.

Be sure to check out the others in this set!