A lot of folks won’t quite get the import of this piece but let me tell you it’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen in years. Remember The Difference Engine? Well, imagine if the mechanical computers and Gibson and Sterling were talking about were miniaturized into something the size of one of my nipples. You’d have this Di Grisogono Meccanica DG. It is limited to 177 pieces and comes in titanium and red gold.
The mechanically operated digital display of the second timezone shows tens of hours, single hours, tens of minutes and single minutes, all displayed by mobile microsegments driven by an assemblage of 23 cams connected to a set of gears and a triggering and synchronization system. The time information is displayed by an array of 23 horizontally and vertically positioned microsegments. Vertical segments are 9 mm high and weigh at most 25 milligrams while the horizontal segments measure 2.90 mm in length and weigh only 10 milligrams. The segments have four faces: two opposing visible faces fitted with colored strips and two opposing unmarked faces. Time changes are effected by 90° rotations of the required segment or segments. Involving one to twelve segments, time changes are lightning fast.
None of us can afford it. Not even you, Scrooge McDuck.
This reminds me of the *first* “digital clocks” of the 1970’s. NOT the flip-clocks; these had a seven segment display built with neon bulbs (!) and a mechanical shutter system that somehow worked through a rotary cam powered by a regular clock motor.
Needless to say, these were none too reliable. The one I had expired very soon after I got it for my birthday in 1977 or so.
In the unlikely event that these clocks survived for eBay, you can tell them from regular LED clocks by their color (not too many orange LED displays from that era) and from the circular “spinner” display that was in clocks so you could tell that it was running.
Couldn’t you have used a more appropriate and aesthetically pleasing comparative than “one of my nipples” like size of a hockey puck.
Interesting clock - got a vid?
I have seen the top of the mountain. And it is good