As much as any popular item that consumers buy, there’s a wide range of different choices in clocks. Size, shape, colour, theme, design – There’s a wall clock to suit everyone’s needs and personal preferences these days. That’s all well and good, but unfortunately the only time we ever find out just how much choice there is, is when we actually need to choose one to suit our home or office.

Antique wall clocks

Wall clocks with an antique style are still popular purchases, possibly because of the nostalgia-factor.  Antique styled clocks have very recognizable characteristics, such as the Roman numerals on the face of the clock and the curvy and sharply pointed hands. More elaborate versions have a long case underneath the clock with a pendulum swinging from side to side. Modern day antique wall clocks, however, aren’t built with the pins and gears of days gone by, and the pendulum swing is driven by battery power (as is the rest of the clock)

Contemporary wall clocks

The more contemporary models are the most commonly purchased versions and are pretty straightforward. Although still mostly analog clocks, some feature a digital display as an addition. Some contemporary clocks also feature Roman numerals, but with a more modern font face that give the clock an upgraded look.

Modern wall clocks

Although modern is the correct term for these models, with some designs the term that comes to mind is futuristic. Many modern wall clocks have been designed with the deliberate intention to step away from the perceptions we have of what a clock is supposed to look like. Whether it’s chaotic graphic designs or cutlery-styled arms, these clocks are the choice for people who look for alternative options. They’re also right for people who are pretty confident in their time reading abilities (since some designs make it hard to read the actual time).

Decorative wall clocks

The sole purpose of decorative clocks is to complement the existing array of decorations a room may already have. Functionality or specific styles don’t really matter. From brushed steel to stained wood, these clocks are built to please the eye and are a popular choice. Although on the high end price range, some decorative wall clocks feature elaborate designs on the face, with mechanisms visibly churning away and fancy melodies played on the hour.

Retro wall clocks

As if wall clocks were a fashion accessory, the retro designs represent some of the most famous clock designs, as featured in movies or scenes of a few decades ago. Clocks like the Black Kit Kat, styled to look like a cat with a pendulum tail and eyes moving from side to side as the seconds tick away.

Whatever your taste, whatever the purpose, there’s a wide choice in wall clocks and choosing the right model and style can be a tough decision to make.

It can be incredibly hard to come up with gift ideas for the right occasion and to suit a particular person’s preferences. A personalized wall clock may just be the perfect solution in that it can be customized to be a suitable gift for a lot of purposes.

Finding a gift idea that suits a particular theme or hobby is often so impossible it never crosses your mind to look for something seemingly so unique. But with a little creativity, you can personalize your clock to become that unique gift that anyone can appreciate. Does your friend or loved one have a collection of Coca Cola branded items? Why not customize a wall clock to display the famous logo on red background and perhaps even change the font of the numbers to match the logo’s font? Collectors will greatly appreciate such a custom gift, provided it’s a good quality product of course (Tip: Ask for samples or photos of samples before ordering!).

We don’t just give each other decorative gifts, sometimes it’s about remembering an event or a change in one’s life by buying a token for the memory. Personalizing a wall clock to commemorate, say, a child’s Christening can be a very original gift. You can have the design of the clock’s face customized with a few traditional pictures of such a religious event and also include a photo of the baby. You can be sure that such a personalized gift will be well received and enhance friendships and closer personal relationships.

Personalized wall clocks also make for a great business relations gift. It’s common for businesses to brand gifts with their company’s logo, both as a token of gratitude for business but also as a way to remember the company when a customer’s needs change. What better and more subtle advert can you imagine that’s always up on a customer’s wall and is seen every time someone looks to see what time it is? Choosing the right kind of wall clock to enhance a business relationship can be tricky, however. You definitely want to choose a design and type of wall clock that expresses the company’s core values. A cheap plastic clock that’s unlikely to survive six months’ worth of ticking will definitely not give the right impression of a company that wants to be seen as offering quality products, for example.

Wall clocks can be personalized by changing colors, fonts, messages and even pictures on a model you can choose to start off from. Most retailers that do personalized wall clocks will even let you include a photo. Besides the more widely known online retailers, you’ll also be able to find customizers that can do more exclusive work for you (at a higher cost obviously) and will allow you to change actual parts of the wall clock to fit your requirements.

Time is a concept that plays a very important role in our daily lives, and teaching children to read the time off a clock from an early age is an important milestone in the kid’s development. Nowadays, most rooms in a typical house have a wall clock and choosing the right clock for a particular room should be done with careful consideration. Choosing a wall clock for a kid’s room is no exception, and there’s more to it than just figuring out what looks good.

What’s most important is that a wall clock for kids is functional in that it makes it easier for a kid who’s learning to read the time, understand the concept behind it and learn why it matters.

The features you should be looking for in a wall clock for kids are the following:

• A clock for kids is not the same as a baby clock, which is purely intended as a decorative feature for the nursery. The face usually features beautiful designs, but simply isn’t suitable as a learning tool
• Make sure the clock has large numbers, which are easy to read. It’s hard enough for young kids to learn numbers, so why make it more difficult by getting a clock that displays small numbers? That reasoning applies more so if you plan on hanging the clock high up on the wall of course. A large font style will help a developing child recognize the numbers more easily and will help in understand numerals and the values they represent better.
• A clock with large numbers can help kids in better grasping units of time. Although it may be hard to imagine for adults, sometimes it’s not easy for kids to understand that one hourly unit does not contain 100 smaller units, as with other measurements.
• The hour and minute hands of the clock should be easy to distinguish, with a clear difference in length and ideally with different colours for each as well. Some clocks for kids incorporate small figurines on the clock’s hands, which will make it more difficult for a learning kid to read the time (and unnecessarily so).

To help kids learn how to read the time, there are specialised clocks that offer interactive learning through pre-recorded quizzes. The clock, once activated, will ask the child to find a certain time, say 4:05h, and will respond to how the child manipulates the clock’s arms. Such learning clocks often come with a small LCD display below the traditional clock face that helps to reinforce the time displayed by moving the hands.

With these simple tips it should be easier for you to make a well-informed choice about what wall clock would be a good purchase for your kid and give him/her an advantage by learning to read the time early on.

Pendulum clocks were the most common wall clocks for centuries, from its invention in 1656 by Christiaan Huygens well into the 20th century. This type of clock relies on a pendulum mechanism, by which the swinging motion of the pendulum (with its long maintained momentum) drives a set of gears that move the hands on the face of the clock.

Until the advance of the Quartz crystal clock in 1927, the pendulum clock maintained its popularity for almost three centuries thanks to its relative accuracy in measuring time. What was considered accurate in those days isn’t quit the same interpretation we have of this concept nowadays, which comes forward by the 15 seconds a day by which pendulum clocks would usually run late.

The first pendulum clocks only had a hand to indicate hours and had a long and relatively heavy pendulum arm. With shorter swings and the introduction of an anchor escapement mechanism (which helps the pendulum by providing precisely timed impulses to keep it swinging), accuracy was improved to such an extent that a minute hand could now be added to display time in more detail. This development accommodated the use of longer, slower pendulums which paved the way for grandfather clocks, with a pendulum that is encased within the extended frame of the clock.

The mechanism of a pendulum clock is built up of five parts:

• A power source, which is often a weight on a cord that turns a pulley through the force of gravity
• A gear train that increases the speed of the force applied by the weight, so it can be used by the pendulum
• An escapement that allows the pendulum to keep swinging through precisely timed impulses, and which also controls the gear train by allowing it to move forward a fixed amount at each swing of the pendulum
• The pendulum, which is usually a weight affixed to a rod and suspended from the clock’s internal mechanism
• An indicator that displays the amount of time the escapement has rotated, and in doing so shows how much time has passed (the face of the clock).

Pendulum clocks were very expensive up until the 19th century, since they were handmade by craftsman and were available mostly to the higher classes. The wealthy would often enrich the visual appeal of their clocks with rich ornamentation, which made the clock a showpiece of capital. The industrial evolution of the 1800s meant that factory production of clock parts was introduced, which made pendulum clocks much more affordable and thus available to middle class families.

Wall clocks with a similar style and appearance are mass produced at present day, with a fake pendulum and a simple battery-driven mechanism. Pendulum clocks are once again made by hand by specialists now. Although you pay more, the quality and craftsmanship are well worth the extra expense, which is affordable nevertheless.