Every clock follows rules

A clock packs time into something you can see, and you unpack it. The classic clock face is only one way of doing this – and we are so used to it that we no longer notice its rules: all hands turn around one centre; the dial stands still and the hands move; each unit has its own hand.

Circles & Dials starts from these unnoticed rules. Each clock here keeps most of them, so you can still read it, and breaks a few on purpose. On every clock's page you can see which rules it breaks, and how.

Behind this is a way of describing any timepiece – a sundial, an hourglass, a wall calendar, the astronomical clock in Prague – by what it shows, the logic of how it shows it, what it is made of, and how well it reads. More about that soon.