The Glashütte Trash Clock: A 30-Minute Pendulum Piece Crafted from Refuse

Created by Niklas Roy in Glashütte, Saxony (2026), the “Glashütte Trash Clock” is a fully operational mechanical timepiece constructed entirely from discarded materials and found objects.

Because the mechanism is designed to run for only approximately half an hour, it focuses on displaying seconds and minutes. To mark the passage of time, it strikes a gong every time the minute hand hits the 12 o'clock mark. As a final flourish, the clock activates an external randomizer just before its energy reserves are depleted.

The GTC Time Scale

During the creation of this piece, Roy introduced a novel temporal measurement: GTC.

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🕰️ Background & Heritage

The project is deeply rooted in family history. Niklas Roy's ancestors were skilled Swiss watchmakers:

• Henri Roy (1833–1910): Great-great-grandfather.
• Eduard Roy (1860–1942): Great-grandfather.

Originally based in the watchmaking hub of La Chaux-de-Fonds, they eventually migrated to Herrnhut, a small town in Saxony, Germany, where they continued their craft.

"A pocket watch made by my great-great-grandfather Henri Roy"

Glashütte is similarly prestigious in the horological world, producing some of the finest mechanical watches globally. The region's reputation is so guarded that the designation “Glashütte/SA” is legally protected; only timepieces actually manufactured there can use the name on their dials.

Close-up of the Trash Clock's dial.

🛠️ The Artist Residency

In 2026, the manufacturer NOMOS invited Roy for an artist residency in Glashütte. Seeing this as a chance to honor his lineage, he decided to build his own clock. He arrived equipped with a specific toolkit:

• Cutters & Pliers
• Compass & Rulers
• Cutting mats
• Several kilograms of hot glue
• Zip ties & various adhesive tapes
• Horology literature

The toolkit: including a GDR-era textbook on mechanical clocks.

📏 The Pendulum

Roy utilized a vintage textbook, “Mechanische Uhren” by Zdeněk Martínek and Jaroslav Řehoř, to guide his build. He learned that a pendulum's oscillation frequency is dictated solely by its length and the local gravity, meaning the weight of the bob (the mass at the end) is irrelevant.

A seconds pendulum—which takes one second to swing each way—requires a length of roughly one meter.

Experimental Setup

Working out of an old church, Roy improvised his materials:

1. Support: A step ladder.
2. Bob: A plastic water bottle.
3. Rod: A wooden folding ruler (allowing for easy length adjustment).

The workspace: an old little church.

The Mathematics of Motion

The behavior of the pendulum was first mathematically described by Christiaan Huygens in 1656. In his work “Horologium Oscillatorium”, he provided the formula for the period $T$:

$T = 2\pi \sqrt{\frac{l}{g}}$

Where:

• T = The period (time for one full back-and-forth swing).
• l = The length of the pendulum.
• g = Gravitational acceleration.

Because $g$ is a variable, a clock calibrated for Earth would fail on another planet. Furthermore, this formula describes an ideal pendulum. The accuracy drops as the swing amplitude increases.

In a strictly pedantic sense, a pendulum is only "ideal" when it isn't moving at all. But a non-swinging pendulum makes for a very poor clock!

Huygens’ “Horologium Oscillatorium”

⚙️ The Escapement

To prevent the pendulum from stopping and to track the swings, Roy implemented an escapement, consisting of an escapement wheel and an anchor.

How it works: The anchor's pallets alternately block the wheel, allowing it to advance by only half a tooth per swing. Simultaneously, the wheel gives the pendulum a tiny push to maintain its momentum.

For a seconds pendulum, a wheel with 30 teeth is ideal: $\text{1 swing/sec} \times \text{0.5 tooth/swing} = \text{1 full rotation per minute}$. This allows the axle to serve directly as the seconds hand.

Construction from Trash

Building a precise escapement from garbage was difficult. Roy used:

• Anchor: A meticulously bent metal rod.
• Wheel Teeth: Sturdy paperclips.

While some might see the paperclips as a nod to Nick Bostrom's paperclip maximizer (the AI doomsday scenario), Roy insists their use was purely practical.

Building a paperclip escapement wheel.

⚡ Energy

Up to this point, the clock required manual intervention to keep the pendulum moving. To achieve autonomy, Roy needed a method to store and release energy.

def clock_status(energy_level):
    if energy_level > 0:
        return "Ticking..."
    else:
        return "Triggering external randomizer!"

The mechanism in progress.