See more objects with the tag shapes, timekeeping, cylinder, round, simple, elegant, elemental, pure.

Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2014

  • Work on this object began.

2016

2024

  • You found it!

World Clock

This is a World Clock. It was designed by Yeongkyu Yoo. It is dated 2014. Its medium is abs plastic, polycarbonate.

The World Clock introduces a playful interaction between the user and object to enhance the function of an analogue clock. Designer Yeongkyu Yoo and manufacturer 11+ created a clean clock face contained within a cylindrical body, which allows the clock to display the time in twenty-four different cities using a clever rolling mechanism. The gray clock face features embossed numbers with gray hour and minute hands. The second hand is orange for ease of legibility. The clock sits on the rounded edge of its cylindrical body.

Twenty-four city names are debossed along the cylindrical body. A user sets their local time via their city, which is displayed in the top position on the clock (and internally held by a set of counterweights). Rolling the clock on a flat surface causes the clock face to rotate while the hands remain stationary, revealing a new city and its corresponding time. When the clock is released, it automatically rolls back to its local time. The World Clock is a simple and gesturally intuitive expression of the fluidity of time and place.

It is credited Courtesy of Cloudandco / Yeongkyu Yoo.

Our curators have highlighted 5 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

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  • abs plastic, polycarbonate.
  • Courtesy of Cloudandco / Yeongkyu Yoo.
  • s-e-1819

Its dimensions are

H x diam.: 5.9 × 8.5 cm (2 5/16 × 3 3/8 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/69155261/ |title=World Clock |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=17 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>