Nearly everyone had one of those black and fake wood grain alarm flip clocks when I was a kid. They were surprisingly abundant.

I’m more impressed by how modern the whole thing looks rather than the mechanical digital mechanism. It looks fantastic!

They have a mechanical 7 segment decoder. Which decodes rotation into digits. That is awesome.

Even in the 1980s, washing machines still had mechanical "microcontrollers". The slip ring contact program didn't just run program steps for predetermined times, the motor could also be stopped until a condition was met, like a certain water level was reached or a certain temperature was met.

6:40 your hand moving over the clock perfectly covered the time change and looked like magic.

The guts on that one... beautifully engineered.  I can see why they are prized.

Always amazes me how engineers designed all of this stuff without CAD and rapid prototyping facilities available to them. Amazing!

I remember seeing a Lumitime style clock as a kid.  It was magically futuristic.  In those days, everybody (even us kids) had some kind of alarm clock, but having a "digital" one meant you were on a whole different level.

My older sister had a flip style clock.  I spent a lot of time lying on her waterbed (oh yeah!) watching it, waiting for it to flip over.

Personally, I had a tiny GE analog clock, about 2x3x4", with a cool blue/green backlight. I got it by cashing in my Mom's S&H Green Stamps.   It had the snooze button on top so you could smack it over and over again and not get out of bed until someone came to force the issue.

The solid state transition to digital logic left some cool stuff behind.

I get a strong 'Space 1999'-vibe from this clock 😊

You could have traveled back in time if you left the motor installed backwards.

that clock deserved a clear back to see it working, what a masterpiece system

Cant believe it looks so much like the later digital clocks, whether vfd or today’s backlit lcd clocks . Incredible futuristic design.

I had this clock in the 1990s.  It worked, but eventually the motor became noisy, and then failed. I liked the muted light of the display.

I remember my grandparents had a mechanical red LED-like clock in 1974. You could actually hear the mechanism change the digits.

21:47 Gave me a good chuckle lmao, just the crassness out of nowhere while relaxingly watching a clock teardown.

My grandma and grandpa had one of these in the guest bedroom!
I remember staring at it for hours:)

What caused this craze two words, Apollo times.
Once the astronauts went up People only wanted to upgrade to space age household appliances.

This is bloody amazing. I love opening up these old appliances and be amazed by the brilliance contained in their simplicity, because simplicity was the actual design goal.

My parents got our first 'digital' clock with flipping numbers in about '71 and put it on the wall in the kitchen. I can still remember how cool and futuristic it was. I didn't know anybody else who had one.