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High Time for a Wooden Clock?I’ve always liked clocks and as a young lad spent many happy hours taking them apart to find out how they worked. However, clocks have now crossed over from the simple mechanical to electronic wizardry and are no longer to be tinkered with.
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English chestnut, ebony inlay & hands
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I still produce a few dozen clocks a year and make them available to anyone interested—mostly family and friends. It’s a good way to use offcuts too short for anything else, especially rare and exotic woods such as ebony, zebrawood or teak.
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 Teak face with gold hour markers
Clock faces can be made with wooden plugs in a contrasting wood to mark the hours, (as above) or have shallow, tapered holes drilled through the face to display gold or other metal foil beneath. (left) Real gold leaf, although pricey, has the advantage of not tarnishing on exposure to air so it needs no lacquer to protect it. Other foils, such as silver or bronze must be well sealed which does tend to dim the luster of the metal. The combination of ebony or dark mahogany with silver or gold is quite striking. A curious feature of such reflective foils is that the clock appears to be looking back at you, especially when placed in a dim light. You may—or may not—find this feature attractive.
 Ebony & maple clock hands
The battery-powered movements, the works, come with a wide choice of metal hands. These are stamped out of aluminum sheet, anodized black and protected under a film of plastic. They are of such light gauge--they can be trimmed with scissors—that I prefer to make my own (left) using the same wood as the hour markers. 
I sometimes apply gold leaf to the hands (right) after giving them a couple of coats of red basecoat—it’s an awkward, fiddly job but worth the trouble. |
Ebony clock face gold markers
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I drill tapered holes for hour markers using a step-drill which frames and high-lights the gold leaf beneath. The square pattern of smaller holes are also tapered but can be drilled with an ordinary fuller bit.
Detail showing tapered holes
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The battery movement is 2-1/2 inches square and fits into a recess in the back of the clock body. It has a keyhole-shaped slot so the clock can be hung on a wall or stand on its own feet. A removable wooden back secured with four screws so the battery can be replaced is an available option. You can then place the clock anywhere indoors whether the back is showing or not.
If you prefer to make your own clock you’ll find step-by-step instructions for the various configurations on Collection One (furniture). I’ve included detailed plans, dimensions plus sources for materials, electric clock movements as well as for gold leaf and other metallic foils. 
A. Round clock made in English chestnut with a diameter of 10 inches. Hands and the square pattern of inlay is ebony or dark walnut. These clocks look best when made of a single piece of wood with prominent grain. Black cherry would be a good choice, also maple or mahogany. 
B. Clock in rock maple with ebony hour markers, inlay and hands. This clock needs no feet as it is thick enough to be stood on a shelf. I find wooden clocks look best when the grain running vertically: perhaps because it’s a reminder of the growing tree. 
C. Teak clock with inset gold leaf hour markers and ebony feet. The wooden hands are gilded and the square pattern of inlay filled with gold leaf. The teak back is secured with four oval-headed bronze screws. 
D. Ebony clock with inset gold-leaf hour markers and wooden hands, gilded. Framed by gold-leafed perimeter trim supported on thin ebony feet. 
E. Zebrawood clock with ebony hour markers. The hands, supplied with the clock movement are black, anodized aluminum. They can be shortened and trimmed with scissors if needed. 
Clock designed for the Glasgow School of Art by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1898
Original Simon Watts Wooden Clock- original, one of a kind, signed by the artist clock
- choose any of the styles from above - designed to order |