Hourglass Clock
A glass tied to the clock
This is not a countdown you set. The glass is tied to the clock: the sand in the top bulb is the part of the current hour still ahead of you, and the sand below is the part already spent. It empties on the hour, every hour, and fills again.
Two other settings change what is being measured. The day stretches one filling across all twenty-four hours, so the glass empties at midnight. The minute compresses it into sixty seconds, which is oddly hypnotic and useful for pacing.
Why proportion reads differently from precision
Digits are precise but they are not proportional. 14:47 tells you exactly where you are and nothing about how much is left; a bulb that is nearly empty tells you the opposite. Watching a shape drain is closer to how people actually experience an afternoon.
That makes it a reasonable ambient clock for a second monitor, a shop display or a lock screen — glanceable rather than readable, and quietly insistent about the hour running out in a way a number is not.
Related clocks
The clock underneath keeps your own local time, taken from your browser, and the line below it counts what is left in whichever span you have chosen. If you want a glass you set yourself and turn by hand, that is the sand timer. For the plain dial version of the same idea, see the 24 hour clock, where a single hand turns once a day.
Questions people ask
What is this showing me?
The sand above the neck is the part of the current hour still to come; the sand below is what has already gone. It empties on the hour and refills.
Can it measure something other than an hour?
Yes. The day setting spreads one filling across twenty-four hours and empties at midnight, and the minute setting runs the same cycle in sixty seconds.
Is it a timer I can set?
No. It follows the clock rather than a duration you choose. For that, use the sand timer.
Which time zone does it use?
Your own, taken from your browser, so it matches the clock in the header.
Why watch a shape instead of reading digits?
Digits give precision; proportion gives a sense of how much is left. They answer different questions, and the second is often the one you actually have.
Does it keep running in a background tab?
It recalculates from the real clock each second, so whatever the browser does in the background, it is correct the moment you look at it.
Will it make a sound on the hour?
No. It is an ambient display, not an alarm. For a chime on the hour, set an alarm.
Is it accurate?
To the second, because it reads your system clock rather than counting frames.
Can I put it on a second screen?
That is what it is best at. Use the full screen control in the corner of the glass.
Why does the day setting look almost still?
Because one twenty-fourth of the glass drains per hour. The movement is real but slow, which is the point.
Does the sand fall at a constant rate?
Here, yes. A physical hourglass is close to constant because the flow through the neck depends on the aperture rather than the weight above it.
What is the difference from the 24 hour clock page?
The 24 hour clock shows position in the day on a dial. This shows how much of a span is left as a quantity.
Where to go next
This page is hourglass clock. The rest of the site starts from world clock time, where you can read the time in any country, territory or US state.
- 24 hour clock — a dial that turns once a day, and how to read 24-hour time
- Sand timer — turn the glass and watch the interval run
- Water clock — a clepsydra you can watch drain
- Countdown timer — count down from any length you set
- world clock time — the current time in every country, territory and US state