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 vast train network, and would become a national symbol. Hilfiker’s 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.
The most distinctive feature of the clock, the red second hand, was added in 1953. The hand echoed 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 to a design object that meaningfully shapes the way we experience time.
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SBB trains are scheduled to leave at the top of the minute. 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 or 5 seconds to walk or dash to the train. Time in a train station was now broken down into clearly delineated sixty-second chunks that were not so much marking time as they were marking SBB time—the time before the departure of your train. It’s a big difference.
The new second hand had another feature that was equally important. It rotated slightly faster around the clock face and then, when it reached the top of the minute, it paused for 1.5 seconds before starting another rotation. 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 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 scheduled, an essential element 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.
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 brief pause in time becomes your own pause, letting you know you can now 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 surprised if the SBB actually did away with the amazing red seconds hand. It’s an extraordinary—and timeless—example of what we refer to today as user experience.