Daniel Weil is a partner of Pentagram and a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art. Weil has been working as an architect and designer since 1977 and his projects have included products, packaging, interiors and art direction for such companies as Swatch, Lego, and United Airlines. Recently, Weil was privately commissioned to create a new clock that explores parallels in the way time moves in space and an acrobat moves along a wire. “Just as gravity is the medium of the acrobat, so it is the medium of ‘Clock for an Acrobat,’” says Weil. Second in a series to his “Clock for an Architect,” Weil’s latest design revisits themes that have interested him for over 25 years.
The materials are ash and nickel-plated brass and silver. For the movement, Weil sought parallels between the way time moves in circles and in space, and the way an acrobat moves along a wire: both precarious, both precise, both balanced. As the wheel turns on its track, gravity steers the glass bearing to six o’clock. This prompts the user to reset the dial, acting as an active re-arranger of time.
