timhunkin/southwold warterclock

SOUTHWOLD PIER WATERCLOCK
2001
Built in collaboration with Will Jackson and Jack Trevellian.

This was originally built as a temporary water feature, funded by Thames water, on the theme of recycling. We made it in three weeks to an impossibly tight budget and it was very unreliable. In its original form, the water swung the pendulum to keep the hands turning. This has been done successfully in the past and I’m sure it’s the best way to make a waterclock accurate, but in retrospect we probably should have separated the power to turn the hands from the power to keep the pendulum swinging.

The figures in the bath sit up and squirt water at each other		The boys drop their trousers and pee, missing the toilet.

tim, Will and Jack.jpg (39120 bytes)
Will Jackson, Jack Trevellian and me when we had just finished making the clock

pier.jpg (11088 bytes)
The clock was scrapped, but the owner of Southwold Pier saw the pile of bits and commissioned us to start from scratch, reusing some of the original parts. Most people seemed much more interested in watching the water powered chiming performance than the clock mechanism, so we decided to cheat. The hands and pendulum are now powered electrically.