Maker SHED

Build your own beautiful Double-foliot, Edo-Period Japanese Mechanical Clock. You can even hack it with a microcontroller! 6" x 3" x 3" assembled. Easy to build -- Included instructions are in Japanese but feature highly detailed assembly pictures. (English instructions are available for download under the "How To" tab.)
MAKE is proud to be the exclusive distributor in North America for these brilliant kits from Gakken.

Build a Gakken Edo-Style Clock

• Illustrated instructions in English (PDF)
• Troubleshooting Tips
  
  

Edo-period Japan employed a "system of unequal hours" which used the light of the sun. Based on nightfall and daybreak, the length of a single hour changed from day to day and even varied between day and night, with the Japanese clock being the only mechanical clock in the world that used this unusual system.