Borduhr 8 DAYS Chronograph

Preface

I am coding this clock just out of fun and because I admire beautiful clocks. Instead of buying a vintage dashboard clock, I decided to rather create my own one. The clock face design is fictive as I did not intended to copy an existing clock. However, I was well inspired by some famous aircraft clock models mostly from the (pre-, post- and) Second World War.

Description

Measured on several platforms, the CPU-Load of Borduhr should remain below 2% – but mostly even below 1%. Another goal is to keep it scalable (resizing the window). This gave me a big headache but the result was worth it in my opinion. Why did I name this clock «BORDUHR – 8 DAYS»? Because I just could not think of a better, short name yet. «Borduhr» is the german term for «aircraft dashboard clock». «8 DAYS» is shown just for nostalgic reason and for fun.

Note that the label «SWISS MADE» of my «Borduhr» is correct indeed – I am living in the «clock-country» Switzerland and try to continue the art of designing clocks. It is just that this one is made out of pure software instead of gear wheels.

Borduhr 8 DAYS

Installation

Pre-Requirements

Kindly note that there is no installation as such needed of running “Borduhr”. As it is coded in Tcl/Tk, of course one has to install the interpreter first.

Unzip and execute Borduhr

Then, unzip borduhr into your chosen destination.

Settings

Kindly note, that there is no such thing as a full fledged settings window wizzard or whatever. You have to edit the settings.conf manually. However, the benefit is that it is highly configurable without big difficulties. Nevertheless, to take a backup of this file might be a good idea.

To configure the night mode, you have to edit settings-uv.conf manually.

I don’t want to go into much detail but enlighten a few important details.

Syntax

As you may have noticed, the syntax of the settingsfile is simply TCL. Typos like missing quotes or braces will most probable result in a error.

Windowmanager

Font Size

Why is this fontFactor needed at all?

Short answer is: To be flexible enough to handle the fonts of your configuration.

Long answer: It was a bitter experience that prompted me to take this path. Still, I am not fully satisfied as it is kind of a workaround.

To show you an overview, why this is fontFactor is used… The real font size you see on the clockface is depending on:

After all, no matter how much effort I put into automatically determining the optimum font size, the font size was not displayed satisfactorily on one or other test platform. The only consolation for me is that toolkits other than Tcl/Tk struggle with this behaviour as well.

Colors

The menu images are in fact PNG images of 16x16 pixels converted into a big base64 format string. These strings can be used directly in Tcl/Tk. I think that this is a very neat way to include many small icons in the sourcecode! Under Linux, execute base64 <image.png> to convert images into base64.

Functions

The red pushbutton (red pusher) on bottom right is used for triggering the stopwatch and works as follows:

The black pushbutton button on bottom left is used as follows:

Features

Specialties

I have never liked the fact that the big second hand is part of the chronograph function instead of the smaller one (on my wristwatch) – so please forgive me but I’ve exchanged those functions. In my opinion, this design makes it easy to distinguish the main watch from the stopwatch.

I thought that it would be a cool function to add not only a long day-hand but also a smaller month hand. You will get used to it soon. Still, I don’t know how to display the year in a cooler analog way. Maybe I can find a solution while having a look at the perpetual watches that are around.

Note that the numbers containing a 1 on the clockface is in fact a (sans-serif) I as lots of clock of that time. Due to the fact that I could not find such a font and fonts in general cannot be loaded into Tcl/Tk without installing it, I decided to handle it in this way. Hope that this is pleasing you anyways as vintage dashboard clocks mostly use this type of 1.

Precision

Please note that this application is as precise as your system is. Under Linux, as long as NTP synchronisation is activated, the precision is in other words as accurate as it could be with this technology. See also: timesyncd service. Don’t care too much if you are using a modern distribution as Debian or Ubuntu. All is setup perfectly and by default already in most cases.

Limitations and trade-offs

Thanks

My thanks goes to:

Feature requests?

For any kind of feature you would like to see or bug reporting or thank you’s:

Email me

History and Research

(Skip this chapter if you think history is useless!)

Just for fun again, I did a little research on analog dashboard clocks for airplanes. The following list of manufacturers and clock models does not claim to be exhaustive or perfect. It is intended to provide interested reader with small bits of information on historical aircraft dashboard clocks and its makers. My additional comments are reflecting just some oppinions about the clocks.

There are still countless connections that I don’t understand yet: Which caliber was originally designed in which watch manufactory and used by which other companies in their own housings really? The more I research on the internet, the more I get confused… Please send me a correction of all errors as well as missed clock brands and models. I should buy and read a good book about these dashboard clocks!

All those clocks are masterpieces in engineering and design on its own. Some of them are still ticking today without having been revised since then. The readability of the clocks with the mostly deep black dial and the snow white numerals is unsurpassed. Allmost all of them are labeled 8 DAYS, indicating that they could run for 8 days after winding it fully up.

Allion a Versailles

The model type of the Allion a Versailles dashboard clock is unknown to me. It was built at the end of world war one. Not much is known of theses watches, but it is marked that the caliber is imported from Switzerland. Installed in the airplane Voisin VIII.

Borletti

I do not know much of this clock either except it was built in 1939 in Italy and the model is 2354

Breguet

I know only two models of the manufacturere Breguet. It is a beautifully designed watch with a 15 minutes stopwatch.

Breitling Wakmann

In 1947, Breitling entered into a joint venture with Wakmann. Wakmann was importing and co-branding the cockpit clocks for military and civilian aircrafts. To name a few: Beechcraft, KLM, Cessna, Piper, Lockheed, USAF, Vickers.

Carley & Clemence

Seems to be a british company, producing a clock that looks the same as the Jaeger LeCoultre Chronoflite but is using a completely different Swiss movement. The MK IIIA was installed in aircrafts such as the Spitfire.

Dodane

It is stated that Dodane used the caliber 5 of Valjoux for the model Type 11

Elgin

Elgin was a National US watch company from 1864 to 1968. See also at Hamilton for more information about the joint venture for the model 37500

Hamilton

The watch company Hamilton and Elgin entered a joint venture to produce the E-37500.

Jaeger LeCoultre

Jaeger LeCoultre created a clock called Chronoflite that is apparently the origin of the Russian AChS1 (АЧС-1). The tiny and long descriptions on the clock face are not to my taste. However it might be useful to read the instructions directly on the clock face.

Junghans and Kienzle

Obviously, Junghans and Kienzle made the same dashboard clocks for the german army. Speciality: A small, moveable red arrow behind the glass serves as a marker, e.g. for the start time. What a nice and useful feature. Those clocks are resembling the Breguet models. Are the calibers related to Valjoux 551 and 555 somehow?

Leonidas

Originally, the manufactory Leonidas is from St. Imier but merged with Heuer in 1964. Beautiful designed dashboard clocks!

LIP

Lip is a french watch and clock company. Too large numerals for my taste used on their model Typ 14 and a rather bold complication for the stopwatch.

Longines

Longines is also a Swiss manufacturer founded in Imier. Albert Wittnauer introduced these clocks to America. Apart from that, he also sold altimeters, turn and bank indicators and compasses.

Mathey Tissot

Mathey Tissot is a swiss watch maker of Neuchâtel. He is not associated with Tissot, another Swiss watchmaking firm, as I assumed first.

Molnija

The AChS1 (АЧС-1) from Molnija is also known as the Russian MIG watch, although it was installed on many different aircrafts. Its caliber and design is based on the Jaeger LeCoultre clocks. What a cool design this is!

Lemania

Lemania is another swiss manufacturer that produced watches and clocks (including the movements) for or the British military and other armed forces from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Omega

The well known Swiss company Omega has built clocks for the German Company Askania SA (Berlin) during the 1930s.

Revue Thommen

Revue Thommen is another well known company that is still producing watches and clocks. The following models are fully analog:

Sinn

The German Company Sinn created also clocks for use in aviation.

Smith

The English company Smith was producing dashboard clocks using calibers that are made by Jaeger Lecoultre. Beautiful design of the dial!

Seikosha (精工舎)

The company Seikosha, now known as Seiko created watches for airplanes too. Those are very rare nowadays.

Waltham

The American company Waltham had buildt several clocks for airplanes.

Zenith

The well known Swiss company Zenith built wonderful dashboard clocks