Someone clearly didn’t read the nursery rhyme properly. There was an old woman who lived in a shoe; not an old man who lived in a clock. But we can’t fault the creativity, that’s for sure. And catching a glimpse of this guy diligently telling us the time brings a smile to our faces every time. You too might’ve spotted him outside Paddington station, quite literally putting in the hours of hard work. But how does the Paddington Station clock man do it? Is the clock man real? It’s finally time for you to have your questions answered, folks.
Credit: Adrian Barker via YouTube
You might have been wondering how he can carry out this never-ending task of moving the hands to tell the right time. Thanks to the handy explainer video above, we’ve got our answer. Spoiler: it’s not an animation.
YouTube user Bark and Jack takes us through the process of the Paddington clock man scraping out each time and drawing on a new hand. It was captured as a twelve-hour film, with the actual man in the lead role tirelessly moving the time for every single minute. Talk about a gruelling twelve-hour shift. And all in the name of making the act of checking the time a little more entertaining. If that isn’t commitment to the cause, we don’t know what is.
It’s actually called the Marten Baas Real Time Clock, named after the artist himself who created the concept as part of a series. Marten Baas unveiled his first clock in Milan back in 2009, and since then, you might have spotted his work at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
Baas’s clock has been cheering up commuters for a few years now, arriving at Paddington 2021. You’ll find the clock man at 50 Eastbourne Terrace on the entrance to the office building. The man inside is dressed in a 19th-century style three-piece suit referencing the Brunel era, and the clock’s brightness even changes depending on the surrounding light conditions.
Read more about Marten Baas’ creation here.