This article was taken from the May 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Miki Eleta is a self-taught clockmaker who builds seemingly impossibly complex, otherworldly timekeeping sculptures. It is an effort, he says, to question the meaning of time by representing it in unique ways. His latest design, "Horologium Tres Caracoles" (pictured), stands half-a-metre tall and during its elaborate operation tells the Moon phase, astrological period, day and time for over 100 cities on separated dials, and features minute dancers and musicians that whirl into life every hour.
Eleta, 63, was born in Yugoslavia and moved to Switzerland in 1973, where he has lived ever since, making artistic kinetic sculptures, before turning to watchmaking in pursuit of more precise works. He is a prolific creator, which means up to two designs a year - this one is his 28th, and took six months to create. "The biggest challenge was to place the desired functions in their destined places," says Eleta. Rather than plan things out in detail, he works directly from the ideas in his head. "I start from rough sketches and then place my ideas in the piece as it unfolds."
The clock runs by Eleta's unique escapement -- the part connecting the gears to the pendulum, determining its timekeeping accuracy -- beating at 1.13Hz. "I was able to optimise the needed energy to 20 times less than that of conventional escapements," he says.
As a self-taught clockmaker, there is some trial and error involved. "I've made mistakes," says Eleta. "I always will." Now it's built, he says it is up to others to interpret what it means. "I only provoke," he says.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
