Show HN: Clocksimulator.com – A minimalist, distraction-free analog clock

alcazar | 8 hours ago

Kudos. It really is clean. And the domain name is easy to remember.

If I use any analog clock simulator in the future, it will be yours.

[OP] user_timo | 8 hours ago

Thank you :)

[OP] user_timo | 8 hours ago

It takes current time from client browser and shows it. No adjustments or alarms.

jdauriemma | 7 hours ago

Better than 90% of the slop that gets ladled into the front page, bravo. The world needs more Clock Simulator-like projects.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Thank you very much!

Faaak | 7 hours ago

Somehow related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_railway_clock

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Clock took some inspiration of our kitchen clock.

bayindirh | 7 hours ago

Want to carry that on your wrist, or hang to your wall?

You're covered (down to the stalling second in some models): https://mondaine.com/

Daviey | 6 hours ago

Something related to cultural appropriation, but it reminded me of Canary Wharf (London) clocks, https://canarywharf.com/artwork/konstantin-grcic-six-public-...

bayindirh | 7 hours ago

Looks really neat. I used to use a very similar screensaver back in the day.

Kudos.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Thank you! Yes back in the day we used to have all kind a clocks as timesavers.

natpalmer1776 | 7 hours ago

This looks really clean, excellent job!

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Thank you for the nice words :)

elteto | 7 hours ago

Very clean and polished! I love how smooth the seconds hand move.

I work in an environment where we look at the time across many different timezones around the world. A couple of feature requests if you are ever in the mood:

  1. Make it possible to specify the timezone.
  2. Make it possible to create a grid of clocks, each with different timezones.
  3. Persist the grid/timezone state in the URL so links can be easily shared.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Thank you! Very good idea, I look forward to implement URL timezone parameters to get it on different zones without it affecting to UI in any way.

AustinDev | 7 hours ago

Great feedback for the OP. I would also add, Can you make the text not selectable?

[OP] user_timo | 2 hours ago

Thanks for the feedback, its done.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

You can now select timezone with URL parameters in IANA timezones: ?tz=America/New_York ?tz=Europe/London ?tz=Asia/Tokyo

elteto | 6 hours ago

Wonderful! Thanks for the quick turnaround.

[OP] user_timo | 6 hours ago

Clock now also moves very slowly in screen, in dark mode it can reduce screen burn.

[OP] user_timo | 4 hours ago

There is also iFrame support, you can easily now make own local html file with multiple clock on different timezones. Quick also to reload after reboot, since static local file to open. If you end up using this in work, I would love to hear more about it, because then my project would have someone using it:)

noman-land | 7 hours ago

Very smooth. Is the code open source?

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Thank you. Code can be viewed at https://github.com/timoheimonen/clocksimulator

noman-land | 6 hours ago

Thanks! I was keen to find out how you prevented screen sleep and was interested to find out about wakeLock.

Julien_r2 | 7 hours ago

Seems to be simple enough (just plain JS not minimified, and CSS), that you can just look at the source view-source:https://www.clocksimulator.com/

Good ol' days spirit

lioeters | 7 hours ago

I like it. Simple, well-designed, smooth. It's nice everything fits in a single HTML page with no external dependencies. The inline style and script is human readable, which is becoming rare these days.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

I wanted this to be small and clean, open source and nothing to hide.

qwertfisch | 7 hours ago

Can you set it to ticks instead of continuous running of the seconds clockhand That would be great. The vast majority of analog clocks have a ticking clockhand for the seconds, if any at all (can you make the seconds optional?).

The only clocks I know of with such a motor are station clocks, like the Swiss one mentioned already, or the German variant (same manufacturer). But these have a twist: the minute clockhand does not run continuously, but also ticks. The seconds are running a little bit faster until the clockhand is in the upper position, then waits for a signal from the main clock. Only then the minute clockhand jumps one minute and the seconds are starting again.

An example can be seen here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnhofsuhr#Technik

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Thank you for the feedback. I see if I add toggle to select tick/sliding.

frutiger | 7 hours ago

Most mechanical watches unwind smoothly, ticks are typically due to a powered quartz crystal.

swader999 | 7 hours ago

I'm more of a fan of the smooth motion. Its mesmerizing.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

there is now toggle button to select either way.

swills | 6 hours ago

Same and also I consider it more accurate to sweep, but that's just me I guess, you hardly see it these days.

sirbranedamuj | 7 hours ago

I appreciate the straightforwardness of this. If I could make one request, it would be to support more of a "tick" mode instead of the continuous second hand motion. It doesn't even have to actually make noises, I just like the visuals of the clock hand starting and stopping every second. I don't know if there's a more formal name for this in Clock World

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Added ticking and liked it so much its default mode :)

cbm-vic-20 | 7 hours ago

If you're looking for more to add: ticking second hands have momentum. How about having the ticking hand go beyond the proper place by a degree, then snap back into proper position?

maratc | 7 hours ago

You're literally describing the worst thing about the quartz watches. The best of them (aka most expensive) go to really great lengths to not have any momentum. Why would you want to have it when not needed?

nekooooo | 2 hours ago

because it's fun

maratc | 7 hours ago

Here's a request to not have ticking :) Time is flowing constantly and seconds are a human invention.

[OP] user_timo | 4 hours ago

There is toggle on top left to choose between tick / sliding seconds.

qwertfisch | 7 hours ago

The PTB (national metrology institute of Germany) provides a similar clock for decades. It is one of the few displaying the real time, not your computer’s time. The difference (if any) can be shown.

There is also a time announcement if needed.

https://uhr.ptb.de/

[OP] user_timo | 6 hours ago

That looks nice!

nikolas_sapa | 7 hours ago

wow bro. how did you even come up with the idea. I also like the fact that there is a toggle that you can switch if you want screen on. pretty smart

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Listened my wife talk about her job, she works as preschool teacher and she has talked about clocks etc. Well then I thought that I could do minimal web page with analog lock, SURE clocksimulator.com domain cannot be free....

jannniii | 7 hours ago

Very nice!!

[OP] user_timo | 6 hours ago

Thank you :)

signalmasse | 7 hours ago

Love the correct time in the favicon. Nice touch.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

You found it!

kipdotcom | 7 hours ago

May I suggest that we keep it as clean as it now, and maybe have something like the domain `/advanced` for those who want more features? (If OP has time to implement them)

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Few toggles I approve on front page because of auto-hide. Good idea of /advanced for future things.

andai | 7 hours ago

I built a digital clock for my neighbor with Alzheimer a few years ago. It was a web app with an analog clock and it would show Morning / Afternoon / Evening / Night on the side.

I felt quite proud of myself, since she often got confused about whether it was 6am or 6pm on her analog clocks at home. (Alzheimer's can bring a loss of the sense of time.)

But while she thought it was a great idea, every time I came back, she had turned off the dedicated tablet we set up for the purpose

I ended up just buying her an Alzheimer's clock — a 24 hour clock with pictures indicating the time of day, for $15 or so. That one stayed where we put it!

jzellis | 7 hours ago

That was very kind of you - both to want to solve her problem and to admit that your solution you put effort into wasn't the best one for her.

[OP] user_timo | 6 hours ago

Thank you for sharing this.

dbacar | 7 hours ago

Excellent, maybe an addition for protection from display burn-in would be nice. I dont know. Congrats.

[OP] user_timo | 7 hours ago

Burn-in is sure possible, I will look possibilities maybe move clock little bit etc. Thank you for you comment!

matthova | 6 hours ago

Love how clean it looks.

Related, I made a clock with a moire pattern (10 years ago now) and still love coming back to it.

The hands all spin with css transitions and I remember there was a Safari bug where if I zoomed in, the rotation would reset itself

https://psychedelic-clock.surge.sh

[OP] user_timo | 6 hours ago

Wow that was a trip for my eyes, nice! Thank you for sharing.

xeor | 6 hours ago

This is something I vibecoded to learn my kid the clock. I think this is a very good use of ai coding, stuff that is for visualization and temporary learning.

https://utforsk.github.io/clockeroo/

[OP] user_timo | 6 hours ago

That was nice thing to do, did it help your kid to learn?

Implement7347 | 6 hours ago

Pretty cool idea, i wish it had that nostalgic ticking sound of seconds.

lowlevel | 5 hours ago

I laughed, but then I saw the l. Nice job though...

[OP] user_timo | 5 hours ago

Im happy if I got you smiling :)

o_enix_o | 5 hours ago

Beautiful! One small thing on the iPhone using Safari; it would be nice to have the clock vertically centered. Now it’s near the bottom half of the screen. Looking great otherwise!

[OP] user_timo | 5 hours ago

Thank you! Good catch, I will look to fix it.

vunderba | 5 hours ago

Nice job. Consider adding a option to turn on a "tick sound" as the second hand moves.

Also maybe see if you can get yours linked to clockfaceonline.co.uk

They have a bunch of analog clock visualizations. I particularly like the magical themed one:

https://www.clockfaceonline.co.uk/clocks/magical

https://www.clockfaceonline.co.uk/analogue-clocks.php

[OP] user_timo | 5 hours ago

There is so many nice clocks. I didn't even know analog clocks are so popular!

vunderba | 5 hours ago

Right? If you want to see something pretty amusing, there was a fairly popular HN post a while back where a bunch of LLM models were continuously (every minute) asked to one-shot an analog clock.

https://clocks.brianmoore.com

[OP] user_timo | 5 hours ago

iframe support added, can be found under Info button.

insane_dreamer | 3 hours ago

Very nice. My only suggestion would be to slightly differentiate more the hour and minute hands (so that at a quick glance, someone, perhaps even a child) can immediately distinguish between them. (i.e., hour hand slightly shorter/fatter)

agentifysh | an hour ago

This is actually pretty cool. It's just a clock, nothing more, nothing less. Animations are smooth. I actually prefer these analogue clocks over digital as I seem to be able to plan ahead better with it.