Randy from instructables has been fooling about with some analogue clocks and his Arduino, with the final result being a clock that "gives" you more time for lunch. In his own words:
Thanks to great in advances in clock technology, I present to you a clock that speeds up 20% every day at 11:00 and slows down 20% every day at 11:48, giving you an extra twelve minutes of lunch to enjoy. Twelve minutes may not seem like a lot but, to put it into perspective, this is a full additional hour of lunchtime gained every week.
This has been accomplished with a simple Arduino-style board, real-time clock IC and some basic components - with the following results:
Even if you aren't interested in creating a wacky clock, his instructions on how to work with an inexpensive clock mechanism are useful and could help when making other analogue clock projects.
When building your own, consider using a board from our range of Arduino-compatible hardware, and let the new Freetronics real-time clock module take care of the timing:
With a temperature-controlled oscillator you can be sure of accurate time-keeping for years to come. However to get started with this clock project, check out Randy's instructions.