Hasta La Ideas

Lisbon-based studio Cabracega recently collaborated with designer André Gonçalves on USMA, “a clock without a visual interface,” which is intended to “bring the countryside into the city.”

In Portugal, the urban population keeps growing year after year, in accordance to the world tendency for desertification of the rural space. In the urban space, the pace is increasingly fast because time is money and every second counts.

USMA is a clock without a visual interface, resorting only to sound to mark the passage of time. The sound of the church bell is the clock hand, which intends to bring home the rural experience with the definite goal of giving a new rhythm to city life.

That’s right, the clock has no display: instead, it simply indicates the time by chiming the number on the hour—as well as a single chime every half hour—in the manner of a traditional clocktower.

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