The day, drawn as a line.

Meet the Linear Clock — A minimal design piece that introduces a unique way to display the time.

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Your time: --:--

Why a line?

A round clock has no beginning and no end. The hands just go round, and the second hand keeps pulling your eye along with them. That’s useful for catching a train. It’s not much help when you’re trying to slow down.

A line has a start and a finish. You can see how much of the day has gone and how much is still ahead, the way you’d glance at a progress bar. Nothing on it moves quickly.

The Linear Clock 1
The Linear Clock 2

Made to be glanced at, not watched.

The face is kept as plain as possible: twelve numbers, a line of dots, AM or PM in the middle. Nothing blinks, nothing counts seconds, there’s nothing to read into.

Time doesn’t have to be exact. Most of us say “about half four” rather than “4:27” — the Linear Clock is built for that kind of answer.

How to read it.

  1. 2:55am
  2. 5:30pm
  3. 10:10am
  4. 7:45pm
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Each number is an hour, the same as any clock. The current hour is the one filled in.

The dots underneath are the minutes — one every five. AM or PM sits in the middle, so a glance covers the whole day.

Watch the day fill in.

As the hours pass, the line fills from the left. A glance shows roughly where the day is — just started, halfway, nearly done — without putting a number on it.

It won’t say you’re behind. It just shows the day going by, which is most of what a clock needs to do.

The Linear Clock 3
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The Linear Clock 5

The object.


A paper-like e-ink screen, black on white or white on black. Sharp in daylight, no glare, no backlight.


About three months on a charge — e-ink only draws power when the minute changes. Top up over USB-C.


A matte, almost seamless casing, sized to stand on a desk and sit quietly next to everything else.


It only tells the time. No app, no Wi-Fi, no account — set it once and leave it be.

What it’s for.

It’s made for the parts of the day that aren’t scheduled — reading, morning coffee, the hour before bed. It sits on a shelf and keeps time without asking anything of you.

Your phone is already precise. The Linear Clock is the other thing: a way to know roughly where you are in the day, and get on with it.

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The Linear Clock 7
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