Piet Hein Eek Leff Alarm Clock: Black

The Tube Alarm Clock is a small cylindrical bedside alarm clock designed by Piet Hein Eek, in matte black. Eek designs from a deliberately plain premise — keep things normal and down-to-earth, but still extraordinary — and he finds his forms in ordinary industrial processes. Here he started with an extrusion ring: the profiled ring that gives material its shape as it is forced through a mold. He made that ring the clock face, so the finely toothed dial you read the time against is factory tooling turned ornament. A good idea can be surprisingly simple, and often the simplest solutions have not yet been invented.

The alarm and snooze sit around the back of the tube, where they leave the face uninterrupted. Made by LEFF amsterdam in stainless steel with a glass lens, it is very small — it disappears onto a nightstand and holds its own on a desk. A piece of Dutch design that could have been drawn a century ago and reads as entirely current. Quartz movement, three hands, one LR44 battery. Analog, and glad of it.

Piet Hein Eek graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has dedicated exhibitions to his work, which is shown in museums and galleries worldwide.

Part of our Modern & Minimalist Clocks and Dutch Design collections.