Have I ever mentioned my fetish for timekeeping devices? Clocks, calenders, hourglasses, timers, you name it. It actually extends to measuring devices in general. Scales, thermometers, barometers, calipers, voltmeters. I have a fascination with them all. But today, I'm talking about clocks.

Just the plain old digital alarm clock doesn't really excite me. My favorite clocks go tick-tick-tick. I like listening to the passage of time. I like big clocks, clocks that have doors and pendulums, clocks that embody the weight of time. I like delicate clocks with chimes and porcelain faces. I like quirky little alarm clocks with bells like ears and little legs, clocks that look like they could spring into animated action at any moment. You probably wouldn't know this about me, because I don't actually have any clocks like that any more. But I really love them.

Right now, I'm enamored with the Ora ilLegale clock. It seems so simple and elegant and why haven't clocks like this been available for years?

Mattias looked at it for approximately half a second before he solved the problem of having numbers on the face. "Why not use an overlay on bearings," he said, "And weight it at six o'clock?"

He's pretty smart.