We love it when folks get creative with a Raspberry Pi, and Maker Monday is a great time to showcase this. While there are definitely many Raspberry Pi devices out there doing important jobs in factories and industrial settings, it’s nice to see when people do something artistic — or just plain funny — with a Raspberry Pi at home. A great example of this is the many ways people have taken the ancient concept of telling the time and given it a twist. Here are just some of our favourites from the latest issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.

01. Counter-rotating clock

Shifted perspective

This is the project that sparked the idea for this list: the hour hand remains stationary while the entire face rotates instead. Editor Lucy does not enjoy it.

02. Falling clock

Manufactured error

When Burke McCabe decided to fix his clock, which was making a screeching noise, he added a camera so that it would know when it was being looked at and then launch itself off the wall.

03. Colourful word clock

Say the time

Word clocks use a word-search-style mixture of words and letters to tell you the time, any time, in the 12-hour format. There are word clocks available in other languages too.

04. Smart Nixie tubes

Retro tech

A striking bit of retro technology updated with a Raspberry Pi 3 to accurately tell the time. The perfect prop for your steampunk movie.

05. Moon and tide clock

Alternate time-telling

Less weird and more ‘cool and classy’, this modified vintage carriage clock uses e-ink displays to show the current moon phase and the tide timings. It looks really lovely.

06. Robot arm clock

Automated manual progression

When your clock breaks, how do you fix it? Well, if you’re anything like Hendrik Ohrens, you program a robot arm to manually move the minute hand. Obviously!

07. Pico solar system display

The cosmic ballet

This early but memorable Raspberry Pi Pico project simulates the positions of the planets in our solar system depending on what time it’s set to. You could set it to the future (or past) if you wish to miss work.

08. Flip clock

Got you babe

Flip clocks are retro chic and were memorably featured in Groundhog Day. With modern 3D printing and Raspberry Pi know-how, it’s dead easy to make one yourself. Every day.

09. Self-snoozing alarm

Get more rest

A bit like that box that closes itself, this lovely retro-style alarm clock art piece will go off as usual — only for the robot arm to snooze it for you.

10. Dual-spiral marble clock

Time rolls on

Very simply, the spirals slowly turn, changing the position of each marble so that they accurately line up with the hour on one spiral and the minute on the other. Why? Why not!

Issue 164 of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine is out now!

This article appeared in issue 164 of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, which you can grab from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, WHSmith, and other newsagents, as well as the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge. It’s also available from our online store, which ships around the world. And you can get a digital version via our app on Android or iOS.

You can also subscribe to the print version of our magazine. Not only do we deliver worldwide, but people who sign up to the six- or twelve-month print subscription get a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W!