Chiisana Tokei Clock: Navy

A small Japanese clock with big, bold retro numerals, cream on cream inside a deep navy case.

Chiisana Tokei means tiny clock in Japanese. Riki Watanabe designed it for Lemnos in 1970, when personal clocks ran large and ornate, and answered with something compact, round, and full of opinion. The opinion is in the numerals: fat serif figures raised in relief around the dial, each one a small sculpture. It is a retro clock with a real sense of humor, and a landmark of postwar Japanese design.

A deep navy case draws a crisp, dark line around the cream dial, and the cream numerals rise in relief inside it. Graphic as a pen-and-ink drawing, with a lot of character inside the outline, as good on a white wall as on a bookshelf or a minimalist desk.

No second hand and no ticking: a silent clock for a quiet room. A stand is included, so it works as a small wall clock or a desk clock. The Chiisana Tokei comes in four colors: white, orange, red, and navy.

Riki Watanabe, a celebrated postwar industrial designer, established Japan's first design studio in 1949. Lemnos has made clocks since 1947, and the Chiisana Tokei is in the permanent collection of the JIDA Design Museum.

Part of our Well Designed Workspace, Japanese Minimalism and Modern & Minimalist Clocks collections.