If you’re the type of person who’s always forgetting to strap on a watch, then Anthony Duffeleer’s Oclock is just the thing for you. No more digging in your pants pockets or purse to retrieve your iphone in order to check the time; simply invest in one Oclock, and your search will be over-forever.

Oclock. Designed by Anthony Duffeleer.

This massive clock, with its 120-centimeter face, looms in rooms, a sort of Brobdingnagian specter. Designer Duffeleer admits such: “It is an object that has an almost obtrusive presence in the room. And that’s the idea. Even if the room is otherwise empty, with this clock it is nonetheless full.” It all sounds a bit philosophical, to be sure. The Oclock reminds us of our true size in the world. It’s a reality check, a perpetual warning to rein in our egos, so we can’t exactly go outgrowing our hats. Those hats that our egos might have swollen are surely bowler hats in Duffeleer’s world-topping Margritte-esque characters walking about too purposefully. Eerily present when illuminated, the Oclock can cast a white or green glow, depending on its plastic cover. And, like an apparition, the Oclock is phantom-like in weight due to its production process: rotation casting takes plastic powder in a mold and heats it in an oven while rotating, making the plastic stick to the wall as it takes on its final shape. The unexpected lightness adds to the clock’s strangeness. While we might expect to struggle with its weight, we could find ourselves unbalanced; it’s sort of the same feeling when descending stairs in the dark and expecting to drop one more step only to unexpectedly meet with the ground.

Image courtesy of DesignBoom.

The Oclock is as fantastic a notion as an eighteenth-century balloon. If we grab onto it, we just might fly. As an ironic commentary, use the Oclock in office suites, where it might seem an eye. At home, place the Oclock in foyers, where it can double as a nightlight. The Oclock might sound a bit frightening, like an object out of a futuristic distopia, but therein lies its charm. An Oclock is a tacit symbol of time’s power; to own an Oclock is to harness some of that power. It’s like the proverbial elephant in the room. Should you fail to acknolwedge it, it will overpower you. But should you accept it, you might just give it some grazing room.