Eclipse

red dot
red dot award: design concept 2008

design:
Qian Yiran
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Designed as a clock without a face, Eclipse uses only its hands to tell the time. In so doing, it vastly reduces the amount of material required to make a clock.

The face of a clock usually indicates the units of time, while also serving as the backdrop for the hour and minute hands. Time is usually read as a relationship between the clock’s face and its hands. Eclipse reverses this relationship by eliminating the clock face. It uses only the hands of the clock to tell the time. Besides enabling the user to tell the time from the positions of the hour and minute hands, Eclipse also displays time’s units digitally. In addition, Eclipse eliminates material wastage, as the clock face is not required. The designers drew inspiration and dialectic analyses from ancient Chinese cosmological concepts, especially bagua or “the eight diagrams”.