London design duo Studio Ayaskan has created a clock, which rakes sand in hypnotic, concentric circles to mark the passage of time.
The Sand project is a nod to Japanese rock gardens, called karesansui, in which sand is shaped into patterns to mimic the appearance of water rippling.

It consists of a circular, sand-filled platform and a single hour hand. In the daytime, from midnight to midday, it draws ripples in the sand.
Then, for the second half of the day, the hand flattens them out again in order to begin another cycle at midnight.
"In nature everything is cyclical," explains Begum Ayaskan, one of the twins behind the self-titled studio. "It's a way of timekeeping, through day and night, seasons and tides. We like to reflect on these subtle changes."
The circular pattern and its subsequent levelling is created through having the hour hand rotate, not just around the face of the clock but also around its own axis.
"It has grooves on one side and is smooth on the other to flatten the pattern out," Begum told Dezeen. "The hand is constantly rotating on its own axis, with a full rotation taking 24 hours to complete. During the 24 hours, the hand also makes two rotations around the clock face ? one to draw the lines and one to erase them."

For the hour hand, the studio opted for wood and brass to match the brass bowl which holds the sand.
The clock is powered by customised electronics, plugged into an outlet.
"The central colu...