Going to marketplace to buy a fancy wall clock and you are caught up with this dilemma of choosing the best one out of limitless available choices. Clocks come in variety of shapes, designs and sizes, sometimes it consumes a lot of time until you find one which tick in your mind to raise your eyebrow. ‘Story’ clock by a Swedish start-up Flyte is one of the few designs that will force you to set your eyes at.
Flyte Company is famous for levitating its products in the mid-air by means of magnetism. Story Clock uses Flyte’s signature magnetic levitating technology to function. Small metallic ball hovering around in the air in front of a large wooden disk makes it look pretty cool. It can move horizontally, vertically, at an angle of 450 or pretty much in any direction you want. The ball just cruises around the circumference of the clock and its speed can be programmed as per your requirement via smartphone application to complete a single revolution regardless of the time, as it can be a minute or even a full year.
Image: Story
Story changes our perspective of time. It reminds us that time is a physical experience. The small magnetic ball mimicking earth’s movement doesn’t necessarily follow general clock’s second hand rather as its revolution has 3 modes to follow. It has journey mode, clock mode and timer mode. In journey mode you can set the clock to certain special occasion; it can be a nine month period in anticipation of your child birth or a special date reflecting your wedding anniversary or your special one’s birthday. In clock mode, it works as a simple clock hitting the 12 ‘O’ clock position every single hour. Timer mode as vivid from the name, serves the purpose of stopwatch.
IMAGE: STORY
In addition to its suspended rotating ball it also shows real digital time in the center the wooden disk by means of an LED display. Its backlight has some extended features; upon connecting it to mobile app, it can mimic different phenomena like, moon’s phases, sunset & sunrise or even atmospheric temperature. Cool huh!
Image: Story
Image: Story
Probably most exciting feature of this clock is levitating rotation. Had it been sitting flat on a table, it would’ve been easy to guess about the phenomena behind its movement. Most of the DIYs use gravity as an integral part of their functioning. Suspended coil above the levitated object is placed while Hall Effect sensors tune the magnetic field to produce levitation effect. But Story doesn’t work that way, given the fact that, ball remains suspended even while clock is vertically hanged against the wall, put different necessities on the coil to fulfill for successful levitation. May be multiple coils produce their own levitation effect utilizing their own Hall Effect sensors. Anyhow, what do think about this, let us know in comments.
Flyte’s ‘Story’ is available on Kickstarter for an early bird price of $349, with an expected full price of $499. Right now, it’s available in two varieties of ash and walnut colors. It is anticipated to be shipped later this year in November.
References: Flyte, Kickstarter, The Verge