Timeline of
the application of 3D to clocks

The table below summarizes the main milestones of the application of 3D to clocks, mainly to tower clocks (excluding watches or special mechanisms such as escapements, and therefore the excellent work of John Redfern). Since the people involved in the Chronospédia project claim to have originated the idea of using 3D for tower clocks, its was my aim here to tell the truth. I have in particular included my first (unpublished) work on 3D, including simulations that I made around 1984-1987.

This table does however not claim to be complete and I thank all those who will help me to complete it.

A cursory examination of the table immediately shows that the first 3D experiments for clocks go back to the 1990s and are therefore earlier than those of Mr. Simon-Fustier (Chronospedia), but even than my own. Although I have certainly not been the first to make a 3D model of an entire clock, I may have been the first to put online a 3D model of a tower clock in an open format in 2020, the first to use Unity to make an interactive clock visualization, the first to make an interactive mobile (Android) application for a tower clock (2021), the first to print a tower clock in 3D (2021), the first to use augmented reality for a tower clock (2022) and the first to put online a 3D version of a clock with teeth counts metadata (2025). I'm not particularly looking to be the first, and I'm not chasing awards, but I think others shouldn't claim to have been the first to do something if they clearly weren't.

For more information on Chronospédia and its false rhetoric, please go to this page. Also, this page has an evaluation of Chronospédia through the lens of horological know-how preservation and research.

Denis Roegel, January 21, 2025 (first version).