A Luxury Timepiece Beyond Compare - By: Shaun Parker

There are many items out on the open market billed as luxury goods, from food to clothing to luxury watches. However, what could be luxury to one person could well be an everyday purchase for another. For those with barely enough money to get by then a slap up meal constitutes a luxury but for the rich and famous, it may take a luxury watch that costs tens of thousands of pounds before they feel as though they have truly been treated.

When it comes to timepieces, a truly luxurious one has been designed by inventor, John Taylor. The Corpus Clock cost 1 pounds million and was unveiled recently by Professor Steven Hawking. It consists of a large gold disc that has sixty slits cut into the face, six degrees apart from each other. These slits light up as a way of showing the time. Seconds are counted off by a mechanical insect that crawls around the edge of the disc.

The motion of the insect triggers blue flashing lights that flit across the clock face to mark the passing of time and pause at the correct hour and minute. Just a pity then that it was actually nearly fifteen minutes late at the unveiling! The exact time is told once every five minutes but this is fairly accurate given that it is meant to signify the passing of time and to act as a design piece rather than a precise time keeper.

The clock has been designed in honour of master clockmaker John Harrison, famed as the world's greatest clockmaker. It was he who came up with the grasshopper movement which activates a clocks gears from inside. The designer of the Corpus Clock wanted to turn the design inside out by bringing the grasshopper to the outside and signify it's eating up of time.

Dr Taylor says the inside out version of the grasshopper workings are called Chronophage, meaning time eater. The whole look of the timepiece is pretty fearsome but that was the way it was intended. It is supposed to show how time is eaten up and can never be regained once lost. It shows we should all make the most of every minute that we have. The tongue of the creature lolls out during his journey around the sphere and opens in a gulping motion on the last second of every minute.

Another feature of how fiercely time disappears is that every hour the sound of a chain dropping into a wooden coffin sounds out - a reminder of human mortality. So, time disappears all the time, there's nothing we can do about it and then we die - cheery stuff!

The electric motor of the Corpus Clock is expected to last twenty five years and takes the same power as a 60 watt light bulb for the face.

The clock face is made of stainless steel and plated with 24-carat gold. A total of five years workmanship was put into the clock by eight craftsmen and engineers. If you think about the amount of time and money invested in the Corpus Clock then it surely has to come under the realms of luxury timepieces but just goes to show that not all luxury goods are attractive.

About the Author

Shaun Parker is a leading horological expert with many years of experience in the timekeeping industry. Find out more about luxury watches at http://www.chronolux.com/catalog/

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Shaun-Parker/28721

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