The Iconic Swiss Train Clock

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My family just returned from two weeks of hiking, swimming, and relaxing in the glorious Toggenburg valley in Switzerland. Wow—I am always in awe of the beauty of this country! I'm also always in awe, while travelling on the Swiss train system, of the amazing Swiss Federal Railway (SBB) Train Clock.

Designed in 1944 by Hans Hilfiker (1901-1993), a Swiss engineer and Federal Railway employee, the now famous clock was his answer to a design brief for a new clock that would be easy to read at a distance, would synchronize all 3000 SBB clocks across Switzerland’s train stations, and would become a national symbol. 

Hilfiker’s resulting clock design was a radical break from the ornate clock faces that were typical for the era. Numbers were dispensed with, leaving simple graphic lines that were easy to read at a distance. 

But the most distinctive feature of the clock, the red seconds hand, was added nine years later—in 1953. The hand echoes the traditional signaling baton used by conductors to message the train engineer that the train was ready to depart. This feature is what elevates the clock from an object with a modern, clean design to an object that meaningfully shapes the way we experience time as it relates to the departure of a train.

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SBB trains are scheduled to leave at the top of the minute and no longer would riders have to guess how long they had within the minute before their train left. Now they knew whether they had 55, 34, or 5 seconds to casually walk or madly dash to the train door. This clarity gave travelers a different relationship with time. Time in a train station was no longer just an endless rotation but was now broken down into clearly delineated sixty-second chunks that were not so much marking time as they were marking SBB time—the minute before the departure of your train. It’s a big difference.

The new seconds hand had another feature that was equally important. When it reached the top of the minute it paused for 1.5 seconds, then started another rotation around the clock face. The original reason for this pause was technical. It allowed a brief moment for the SBB master clock in Zurich to send an electronic signal to all station clocks across the country telling them that they could—now, all together!—begin another revolution. That synchronization kept all SBB clocks at precisely the same time. This was not simply an abstract obsession with punctuality but a means of keeping trains arriving and departing as planned— an essential ingredient in a nationwide schedule that is required not just for the safety of the trains, but for ensuring that all connecting trains, buses, cable cars, boats, and funiculars were met. A rider on the SBB knows that all the connections they need to make will be timed precisely, with 3-5 minutes to get from one ride to the next.

But the aspect of the pause that really gets me is what Hilfiker referred to when he said it “brings calm at the last moment.” Having reached your destination at the top of the minute, having gotten on your train and claimed your seat, your urgent minute has passed. The pause in time becomes your own pause. The new minute following the pause, with the minute hand released forward a minute and the seconds hand beginning another rotation around the clock face, is the next train’s—someone else’s—urgent minute. You are no longer on that one minute of SBB time, but back to regular time. You can breathe and relax.

SBB Station Clock in Aarau. By Kecko from eastern Switzerland. From www.commons.wikimedia.org.

2023 marks the 70th year that the SBB clock, with it’s seconds hand, has been in production and yet it still feels modern. The clock, considered “one of the most iconic examples of 20th-century design,” is included in both the London Design Museum and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The design is licensed to the watch-maker Mondaine, which has built a massive business producing both wall clocks and wrist-watches. Even so, I recently read that the SBB was planning on doing away with the seconds hand. Technically it’s no longer necessary and apparently the independent motor for the seconds hand is no longer manufactured and costs several thousand dollars to fix. With thousands of clocks around the country, the cost of maintenance is steep. But the clock is at this point so iconic, has so fulfilled its original goal of becoming a national symbol, that I would be really surprised if the SBB actually does away with the amazing red seconds hand. It’s an extraordinary—and timeless—example of what we refer to today as user experience.