Top 10 biggest clocks in the world

When it comes to big clocks, most people think of Big Ben in London or the clock on the Spasskaya Tower, although they are far from being the biggest. The latter are not even in the top 10.

Today we will talk about record holders, but we will consider only full-fledged designs, so we will not include flower exhibits in Kentucky and the like in the rating. Introducing the top 10 largest clocks in the world.

10 Sunagoyomi. Japan

The hourglass built at the Nîmes Sand Museum in Aude is 5,2 meters high and 1 meter in diameter. They started on January 1, 1991, using quartz sand from Yamagata Prefecture. One ton of sand is designed to fall through a glass container for a year.

Hourglass named Sunagoyomi (sand calendar in translation) are placed inside a pyramid-shaped glass structure and serve as the central exhibit of the museum. The device is turned over once a year to start counting again.

9. Moscow State University. Moscow

This clock, which adorns one of the main universities in the country, has a diameter of 9 meters and is made of stainless steel. They also have some of the heaviest components, with one second hand weighing 39 kg. Associated barometer and thermometer placed with hours of Moscow State University, are also huge (few places in the world have such), and they were built in 1953.

8. Big Ben. London

Big Ben rose from the ashes. Like a Phoenix, well, or almost: a terrible fire destroyed the headquarters of the British Parliament, located in the Palace of Westminster, in October 1834.

When restoration began, the architect decided to include a giant clock in the project, which was to be installed on the 97,5-meter-high St. Stephen’s Tower. It was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 in honor of the Queen’s 50th birthday.

The clock can be used to call parliament to order and make important decisions. They rang for the first time on May 31, 1859.

Few people know that Big Ben is the name of a bell, not a clock. The nickname Big Ben was originally applied to the bell that sounds in the tower, but over time it has come to be used to refer to the clock itself.

There are two different stories to explain this nickname. According to one of them, he was named after Benjamin Hall, a London sir and commissioner in the mid-XNUMXth century. Another version says that the bell was named after the popular heavyweight boxer Benjamin Count because, like the bell, it was the largest of its kind.

Now these watches are no longer the largest, but in terms of popularity they have greatly overtaken both the commissar and the boxer, thanks to whom they got their name.

7. Allen-Bradley Clock Tower. США

The Rockwell Automation plant in South Milwaukee houses the world’s largest four-sided clock. Although they are better known as Allen Bradley clock tower, which was acquired by Rockwell Automation and then by Rockwell International in 1985.

The clock tower was turned on on October 31, 1962. The minute hands are 6 meters long and 8 meters wide at the base. The hour hands are 4,8 meters long and the hour markers are 1,2 meters long and almost 1 meter wide at the base.

6. Saw. Switzerland

This is one of the largest working clocks, made in the same way as Swiss railway clocks. This structure is a modern dial mounted on the glass of the station Aura.

With a diameter of 9 meters, this clock now has the largest dial in Europe, surpassing its 8,7-meter predecessor in Zurich, housed in a 13th-century church tower.

5. Colgate. USA

Now Colgate Clock with a diameter of 15,24 meters are located on the banks of the Hudson River on an empty lot. The original Colgate clock was built by The Seth Thomas Clock Company in 1906 and was replaced by a new octagonal design in 1924.

Until 1976, John Winters worked hard to maintain the new watch. Today, they are backed by well-known financial giant Goldman Sachs, whose headquarters are a short drive from the clock.

These aren’t the brand’s only big watches, by the way: Colgate was once known for having two of the biggest watches in the world. The second clock is in Clarksville, Indiana, and has now slowly moved down the list, but is still enormous: its octagonal “face” measures 12,19 meters in diameter.

Designed by Warren Day, this was the original Colgate clock built in 1906 by the Seth Thomas Clock Company for a factory in New Jersey. As mentioned earlier, the clock was replaced in 1924. This watch was moved to the company’s new location in Indiana and first introduced there in 1924.

4. Duquesne Brewing Company watch in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

In 1933, at the time of their creation, they were the largest single-sided clock in the world. The octagonal design is at the top of the brewery, however the dial has not always been there.

Designed by John Franklin, founder of Audichron, this 0,93kW Janett motor clock was originally located in the Mount Washington area of ​​Pittsburgh and used to advertise for companies such as Schlitz Beer and Coca-Cola. Duquesne purchased them in 1960, but AT&T currently leases their facade as advertising space.

3. Prague chimes. Czechia

The astronomical clock is the main feature of Prague’s famous Old Town Square. Many tourists come to the square and wait for an hour just to look at the famous moving figures of beautiful clocks.

Prague chimes were first installed in 1410, making them one of the oldest astronomical clocks in the world and the oldest still in use today.

2. Cevahir Mall. Turkey

This clock was built to break the flower clock record in Tehran. Watch Cevahir Mall, built in 2005, have a diameter of 36 meters and are located on the large glass roof of the shopping center. The figures on the surface of this structure are 3 meters in size.

The mentioned clock in Tehran, combining nature and science, is made of greenery and flower plants, with an automatically adjusted computer system to work with a motor driving three hands.

Smaller than the Colgate clock by just a fraction, the Flower Clock has a diameter of 15 meters. This huge dial weighs 750 kg. When it was built in June 2005, it was the third largest clock in the world.

Built with funds from the Tehran municipality over 2 years, they cost 600 million rials: in US dollars, this would be just over $65.

1. The clock on the tower of Abraj al-Beit. Saudi Arabia

This clock is not only the largest in the world, but also the newest huge clock. This gigantic structure was completed in August 2010.

On the first day of the holy month of Ramadan were launched and tested mecca clock, which replaced GMT for Muslims.

Mecca The clock is located on the 601-meter tower of Abraj Albayt, which is the second highest in the world, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Each of the dials with a diameter of 43 meters easily exceeds the dimensions of Big Ben.