Union Square Clock is 52 Minutes Early

I noticed the confusing Union Square clock (‘The Metronome’) was 52 minutes early yesterday. Yes, many clocks are off from last Sunday’s time change – but what’s the excuse for that lost 8 minutes?

How to read the clock: The 15 numbers of the digital clock display time going and coming relative to midnight. Read time going left to right and time coming in the opposite direction. So, if the clock reads 180746***135205 it means that it is 6:07 P.M. (18 hours/07 minutes/46 seconds since midnight) and that there are 5 hours/52 minutes/13 seconds remaining until midnight. The three numbers in between are a blur of moving numbers.  It is like a digital hourglass.

Here’s the artists’ description of the 1999 project.  Did you know it spews steam at noon & midnight everyday?