The Space-Time Continuum

Inventor’s clocks fill the wall (and the conversation)

There aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with the inventive mind of Lindsay Morris, owner of Linear Clockworks.
Photo by Jack Robert

Lindsay Morris isn’t quite sure what the inspiration was for his unusual linear clocks — a form of functional wall art that combines practicality and beauty. “I think I was at dinner with a woman I was trying to impress,” Morris, a retired software developer, speculates, “and that put my creative side into a higher gear than normal. I get a lot of ideas, all the time.”

The clocks’ simplicity is a big part of their beauty. They’re fashioned from a variety of woods — local walnut and maple, along with more esoteric species like Chechen, Padauk, and bloodwood — and mounted with a line of numbers for the hours of the day. A pointer travels the length of the wood, from 6am on the left end to 12 midnight on the right end. At midnight, the pointer reverses to journey back through the wee hours of the morning. 

Linear Clockworks’ production manager/artist Szilvia Csatlos is involved in every aspect of clockmaking: from lumber selection to assembly to lettering and other signature embellishments. 
Photo by Jack Robert

Each clock’s movement is driven by a digital clock and electronics hidden inside a lightweight enclosure, called the sled, mounted on the back. Battery-powered and rechargeable, the sled glides noiselessly along a track, moving the attached pointer on the clock face. 

As wall installations, the clocks make an impact with sheer size, varying between three and seven feet long. And yet no divisions mark the 60 minutes between each hour. 

Photo by Jack Robert

“Do you really need to know if it’s 10:22 or 10:23?” Morris quips. Still, the internal circuitry is accurate to within eight seconds over a year. The sled’s circuit board is the only component of the clocks not made in-house, but even so, the boards are assembled locally by an Asheville electronics company before Morris’s small team of five employees integrates them into the sled. 

Photo by Jack Robert

When Morris set up his workshop in January of last year, an early issue was coming up with a method to easily mount the clock on a wall. “I spent weeks wondering how to let customers mount these devices, and then one day the angle hanger idea waved its hand and got my attention,” Morris says. The hangers are shaped and attach to the wall in such a way that just a slight adjustment right or left levels the clock, even if the hanger’s screws aren’t exactly level. “It takes two seconds,” Morris declares.

Morris maintains the balance between rusticity and ultra-modernity.
Photo by Jack Robert

The cost of in-stock clocks hovers just north and south of a thousand dollars, depending on the wood used. Custom orders include one from a client who had been forced to cut down an ailing maple tree he’d planted 50 years ago with his then-eight-year-old son. “He’s slabbed it, dried it, and given us nine beautiful ambrosia maple boards,” Morris says. “He’s having us make clocks for his nine children and grandchildren for Christmas presents.

“These will be clocks made of a tree they grew up climbing on and playing around. It’s just so heartwarming. It brings tears to my eyes.”

Lindsay Morris, Linear Clockworks, 54 Fairview St., Asheville, 828-690-0048, linearclockworks.com. The clocks are sold locally at New Morning Gallery (7 Boston Way, Biltmore Village, newmorninggallerync.com); Artisans on Main (14 North Main St., Weaverville, “Artisans on Main” on Facebook); Seven Sisters Gallery (119 Broadway Ave., Black Mountain, sevensistersgallery.com); Brevard Marketplace (40 North Caldwell St., Brevard, brevardmarketplace.com); Marquee (36 Foundy St., Asheville, marqueeasheville.com); and at The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts (323 Franklin Road, Highlands, thebascom.org). 

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