

The Digital Sundial goes centuries beyond the basic single function of the traditional sundial. Instead of a face with numbers and hands pointing to those numbers, the clock displays a plain face and projects bright red laser beams onto the flat wall around it to show time, temperature, date and a slew of other data. The Digital Sundial is a wall clock that strays from the expected hands-inside-the-frame configuration of a clock. Although it probably won’t help you keep track of time in any precise kind of way, it is a lovely rethinking of the ancient design, recasting it into a different type of role in the home. It is a lamp that starts out lit on the top half and the light “trickles” to the bottom. The Hourglass Lantern is a rather abstract version of the 21st century hourglass idea. The next time you’re baking cookies and the bottoms get a little blackened, you won’t be able to blame it on not hearing the timer. For that, you need these digital hourglass timers, all of which combine the aesthetic of an hourglass with the convenience (and sound capabilities) of a digital timer. Using a small hourglass to tell you how much time is left until that pot roast can come out of the roasting pan is cute and everything, but it won’t exactly shake you from your TV-induced reverie. (images via: Amazon, Amazon, Yanko Design) The brilliant designs are sold in both northern and southern hemisphere varieties to give accurate time readings no matter where you are in the world. These elegant digital sundials display the time by letting the sun shine through two specially-designed filters which result in numbers being displayed on the sundials’ faces. Old-fashioned sundials display the time by casting a shadow on a number. (images via: Digital Sundials International)
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falling sand) and including the option to view the time in number format as well, the watch teaches kids how to tell time on their own. By giving a graphic representation of time passing (i.e. The same concept is at work in the KWID watch, but this one is aimed at keeping kids aware of the passage of time. And unlike strapping an actual hourglass to your wrist, this option actually looks quite cool. The hourglass goes digital in the SandTime wristwatch, a very stylish timepiece that displays either numbers or a digital representation of falling sand on its face. But some designers are bringing back the old standbys in unusual and impressive ways – these are hourglasses and sundials with a 21st century twist.

As better technology has emerged, we’ve all but dropped these reliable gadgets in favor of fancier, more accurate timepieces.

Sundials and hourglasses were two of the earliest ways humans developed to mark the passage of time.
