As time goes by...

By : JAMES HIPKISS

2008/05/22












Classic styles, modern interpretation.








Photo frame clock.

JAMES HIPKISS discovers how the face of wall clocks have changed.

AS the human race continues to develop, it seems that our daily lives are becoming more and more ruled by time.

Modern man and woman too are hardly ever out and about without a wristwatch.

Wall clocks are prominent everywhere — at airports, railway stations and inside or outside many public buildings — as people rush from one appointment to the next.

They are also quite popular in the home, though it’s something I have never really understood.

Wearing a wristwatch daily from the age of nine, I never found the need for wall clocks.

However, I can see that they are popular in many homes. The vast majority of home wall clocks though have been a triumph of function over aesthetics and beauty.

They are inevitably round, with a white face and little else, not the height of artistic creativity, and they could hardly be called decorative.

But recently the wall clock scene in KL seems to have suffered an infusion of creativity and originality, giving the buyer a huge new choice of styles and designs.

Two new shops at the Pavilion, for example, have a great selection of wall clocks to suit all rooms and styles of decor.

There are colourful clocks for children’s rooms, those with modern classic styles, others ranging from Roman mosaic to Gothic, some looking Mediterranean Spanish and those sporting pop art, movie heroes or just Salvador Dali-inspired and surreal. All sorts, actually.

Some are sophisticated, some humourous. Some you have to look at twice to see that you are actually looking at a clock.

Most of the clocks shown here are larger than they may appear too, measuring almost a metre across.

A choice as broad as this gives one the widest options in matching a clock with one’s interior decor style.

For example, some clocks do not even have a face as such, but a set of hands, relying on the wall upon which the clock is hung to become the de facto clock face. Many of the styles have also done away with numerals and conventional round faces.

Most of these clocks come from six manufacturers — Arti & Mestieri of Italy, Karlsson and Nextime from Holland, and Arte & Cose, Tonin and Diamatini — all from Italy.

The clocks are battery operated, so they do not require a power point on the wall or trailing cables as was once common with larger wall clocks.

Prices vary from around RM260 up to RM2,000, though the majority are in the RM500 to RM650 price bracket.

See them at Molecule or XZQT which are at Level 6, Pavilion KL and also at 1 Utama.

Even if you were not considering a wall clock, the artistic, colourful and sheer fun offerings in these outlets could change your mind.