When I first created this page back in 1999, it was quite cool to have a little widget on the screen displaying the current time with the image of some old nixie tubes. Today, every OS has plenty of cool widgets and this page is somehow outdated. Still, I like watching at vintage displays, and I like having a little clock on my computer that looks like my old vintage laboratory instrument. So this page is more a nostalgic excuse to think about great components of the past than a useful clock.
All digits are real pictures of the original displays. Only the decimal points have been retouched a little bit to allow more space between the digits and make the clock easier to read. It has to be pointed out that not all displays have a decimal points at all, like the ST12C nixie tube. Some others have two, before and after the digit, like the ITT5870S or the LT303, so I had to cheat a little bit with these dots. Than, the HC1331C is a 3½ digit LCD display: it wouldn't be possible to display 6 digits as done here, but still I like the result.
You can select the display you prefer and your favorite 12h or 24h mode by clicking the corresponding option: they are saved in a cookie for the next time you open this page. The year reported for every display is either the year the component was manufactured or the year I used it in some instrument. In 12h hours mode, the decimal point between hours and minutes indicates PM.
You can also choose to hide all this comments and keep only the clock. This is useful to have the clock in a small browser (pop-up) window. Click here to open this page in a popup without title and menus (but this only works if your browser is configured to allow it), than hide the text in the main window and hit the reload button on the popup.
The time displayed is the system time of your computer, as configured in your OS in terms of timezone and daylight savings. Needless to say that you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser to run this clock.
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