Rubik's Clock is a

mechanical puzzle A mechanical puzzle is a puzzle presented as a set of mechanically interlinked pieces in which the solution is to manipulate the whole object or parts of it. While puzzles of this type have been in use by humanity as early as the 3rd century BC ...

invented and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

ed by Christopher C. Wiggs and Christopher J. Taylor. The Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture

Ernő Rubik Ernő Rubik (; born 13 July 1944) commonly known by his nickname, "Little Man", is a Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including the Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubi ...

bought the patent from them to market the product under his name. It was first marketed in 1988. Rubik's Clock is a two-sided

puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...

, each side presenting nine clocks to the puzzler. There are four wheels, one at each corner of the puzzle, each allowing the corresponding corner clock to be rotated directly. (The corner clocks, unlike the other clocks, rotate on both sides of the puzzle simultaneously and can never be operated independently. Thus the puzzle contains only 14 independent clocks.) There are also four buttons which span both sides of the puzzle; each button arranged such that if it is "in" on one side it is "out" on the other. The state of each button (in or out) determines whether the adjacent corner clock is mechanically connected to the three other adjacent clocks on the front side or on the back side: thus the configuration of the buttons determines which sets of clocks can be turned simultaneously by rotating a suitable wheel. The aim of the puzzle is to set all nine clocks to 12 o'clock (straight up) on both sides of the puzzle simultaneously. The method to do so is by starting by constructing a cross on both sides (at 12 o’clock) and then solving the corner clocks. The Rubik’s clock is listed as one of the 17

WCA WCA may refer to: Schools * Waterbury Career Academy, public high school in Waterbury, Connecticut * Wake Christian Academy, private Christian school in Raleigh, North Carolina * Washington Christian Academy, private Christian school in Silver Spr ...

events, with records for fastest time to solve one puzzle, and the fastest average time to solve 5 puzzles (discarding the slowest and fastest times).

Combinations

Since there are 14 independent clocks, with 12 settings each, there are a total of

12^

=1,283,918,464,548,864 possible combinations for the clock faces. This does not count for the number of pin positions.

Records

The world record for a single solve is 2.87 seconds, set by Yunhao Lou (娄云皓) of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

on May 1 2021 at Guangdong Open 2021 in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

World Cube Association The World Cube Association (WCA) is the worldwide non-profit organization that regulates and holds competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as '' twisty puzzles'' (a subcategory of combina ...

br>Official Results - Rubiks Clock
/ref> The world record average of 5 (excluding fastest and slowest) is 3.56 seconds, set by Jacob Chambers of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

on 29 July 2022 at the Droitwich Spa Autumn 2022 in

Droitwich Spa Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester, Engl ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

with the times of 3.39, (4.21), 3.46, 3.83, and (3.16) seconds.

br>Official Results - Rubiks Clock
/ref>

Top 5 solvers by single solve:

Top 5 solvers by an average of 5 solves:
World Cube Association The World Cube Association (WCA) is the worldwide non-profit organization that regulates and holds competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as '' twisty puzzles'' (a subcategory of combina ...
br>Official Clock Ranking Average
/ref>

References

External links

An illustrated description of the solution.
Unofficial Records
Speedsolving.com's page of unofficial records for many puzzles including Rubik's Clock
Real Genius
Computer game implementation of Rubik's Clock for the Commodore Amiga, released in 1989 * https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/rankings/clock/average * https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/rankings/clock/single?show=100+persons {{Rubik's Cube Mechanical puzzles Combination puzzles 1988 works 1988 introductions 1980s toys