Chiisana Tokei Clock: Orange

A small Japanese clock with big, bold retro numerals, cream on cream inside a bright orange 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 warm, saturated orange case rings the cream dial, and the cream numerals rise in relief inside it. Seventies color for a 1970 design, cheerful on a white wall, 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.