Two batteries form the hands of this clock by designers Giha Woo and Shingoeun.
Called The Front & Back, the clock face has an inner and outer disk, each with a battery housing, which rotate to indicate the time.
The product is part of a series of work by the duo entitled The Wrong Objects, which they presented at DMY Berlin last month.
See all our stories about DMY Berlin in our special category.
Here’s some more information from the designers:
The Front & Back
Reinterpretation of the relationship between battery and clock. Behind the clocks, batteries always provide the power that allows clocks to work. Batteries summon up courage to demand more active relationship, willing to play the role of hands of a clock.
The wrong objects
In The Ugly Duckling, the children’s story of H.C. Andersen, the reason for that an elegant cygnet among the ducklings was seemed to be more ugly than other ducklings is to estimate the appearance of cygnet under the formal standard of ducklings.
When seeing some object, we see it with the existed concept of the object’s form. If the image all people recall commonly when reminding of some special product category was ‘archetype’, the reason that a cygnet seemed too ugly in the group of ducklings may be beside the duckling’s archetype.
Archetype is started from the natural properties and functions of object and familiar to us because it has been exposed to us for a long time. But people feel unfamiliar to the strange things so when they see the objects which are against the order they have known, they may be under stress that the existing concepts arranged well are complicated.
And these objects may be the ugly ducklings who cannot gain people’s affections.
But, if there was some reason for the different appearance, if the design known by thr ugly duckling was the product of other archetype on acquaintance, and if it was the entirely new concept created, it will be more dramatic than the recovery of cygnet.
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| Watches by Denis Guidone |
More stories about clocks and watches |
More about DMY Berlin 2010 |
July 25th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Nice…. btw what brand of batteries are those :)
July 25th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I'm only wondering how long will these tiny batteries last to constantly rotate something this heavy around. When will those so called designers learn to deliver something that really works?
July 25th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Wonderful, really like it.
July 25th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Don’t care how unsexy the hours are, I still want them.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:07 am
Very clever as a design exercise. I wonder how useful it actually is.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:29 am
I think it’s just a concept. Looks nice though!
July 26th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Very nice and minimalistic.
About the function: I´m sure there is a counter-weight opposite the battery, so it´s always in balance.
July 26th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Wouldn't the outer battery (the minutes) die before the inner one ? shouldn't they die in the same time ?
July 26th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Lovely concept. What kills it for me is either a) the ugly batteries I'd have to stick in there, or 2) the hassle of finding pretty clean batteries. (2) probably isn't that bad, actually.
July 26th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Most batteries look like that if you peel the label off.
July 27th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Actually, I think batteries have a sort of funky 80’s look that wouldn’t look bad on this clock. But my local department store has some in opaque yellow too, with just a little + on it.
July 27th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Hi, no one said one battery per disk (even though it looks like it).
July 27th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
That’s real minimalism!
July 27th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
I think the concept is similar to Tokujin Yoshioka's "TO" watch designed for Issey Miyake and I don't find it original at all.
http://www.isseymiyake-watch.com/eg/to/
July 27th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
You can make a circuit which both batteries contiribute the same amount of energy
July 28th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
You can’t completly understand this concept… you just find it in shape!
August 4th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Simply smart!
August 5th, 2010 at 4:55 am
This is a bit too similar to Teruhiro Yanagihara's Put-it clock : http://teruhiroyanagihara.jp/#/111