The Kōdō Clock

Gift for my father, who has opinions about clocks. He inspected it for a while, said 'this is a proper one', and put it up that afternoon. Highest praise available.

I bought this for the least glamorous reason imaginable: I was checking my phone about forty times a day to see the time, and every single time I'd end up in my email instead. Our kitchen and living room are one long room and the old clock faced the sofa, which meant standing at the hob I could not see it. This one hangs off the wall at the join, one dial pointing each way. Two weeks in and the phone thing has mostly stopped. I did not buy a clock expecting it to change a habit, but that is what it did.

It projects out about four inches on a proper steel bracket. Feels like something off a platform rather than something from a homeware aisle. Heavier than I expected in a good way.

Silent. Genuinely silent. Our last 'silent' clock had a faint tick you only noticed at 2am, which is the worst possible time to notice a tick. This one has a sweep hand and no sound at all.

The dial is the part people underrate. Big block numerals, ivory face, and little red markers on the minutes. I can read it from about twenty feet without glasses, which no other clock in this house manages.

We put one in the shop. Staff behind the counter and customers in the queue both read the same clock now, which sounds trivial until you have had the 'what time do you close' conversation four hundred times.

Ordered two. Hallway and workshop. The pair price made it an easy decision and the second one went up the same evening.

Works exactly as described. One note: read the instructions about the bracket. It needs a stud or a proper anchor — this is not a nail-in-the-plasterboard clock. Once it is in, it does not move.

Bought it for the landing at the top of the stairs. You can see it from the bedroom door and from the stairs coming up. Obvious in hindsight, but no normal clock does that.

Matte black steel, no branding shouting at you, glass over the dial. It looks considerably more expensive than it was.

Batteries are one AA per face and they were in the box. Took about ten minutes total including finding the drill.

Open-plan flat, one clock, readable from the desk and the kitchen. That is the entire review.