Sometimes the messages are literal. For a few days, I had one of my other projects sitting in my office for a few days. It was a literal broken clock.

Built in 1966 by Solari of Udine, Italy, this is a Dator 10 transit clock. We picked it up at a mid-century modern show in Cincinnati, but I don’t have much provenance past that.

These clocks were made by Solari (inventors of the split-flap display) for railway stations, airports, and other public sites. It’s a fantastic piece of engineering. There’s a single motor that drives the minutes counter, and the remainder of the displays are all driven by gears and linkages:

With a bit of cleaning, and some research on how to organize and set the time, the broken clock is now keeping accurate time once again. It’s another fun piece of mid-century modern design we’ve installed in our house.

Retro Fun Fact:

Solari Udine was the manufacturer of the giant display used in the Eero Saarinen designed JFK’s TWA Flight Center. It was restored as part of the conversion into the TWA Hotel in 2019.