Rubik's watch

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Rubik's Clock Matchbox 1988

Rubik's watch is a mechanical puzzle that was invented and patented by Christopher C. Wiggs and Christopher J. Taylor in 1988 . The Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor Ernő Rubik acquired the patent to market the product under his name; however, it was not nearly as successful as he invented Rubik's Cube ( Rubik's Cube ). The watch was manufactured by Matchbox .

The game, also known as Rubik's Clock , consists of a two-centimeter-thick case behind which the mechanics are hidden. On the front and back of the game (one side is dark blue, one side is light blue) there are nine clocks each with an hour hand that can be set to full hours. Four push buttons are paired around the central clock (clock 5), which either protrude or can be pressed into the case. If a button is pressed in on one side of the housing, it protrudes from the other side of the housing. The corner clocks (1, 3, 7 and 9) can be adjusted using dials on the side of the housing.

The corner clocks each have a direct mechanical connection between the front and back, so there are not 18, but only 14 independent clocks: 5 on the front, 5 on the back and the 4 corner clocks, which are therefore available twice.

Goal of the game

The aim of the game is to set the 3 × 3 clocks on both sides all to 12 o'clock. However, there are other target variants as well.

Depending on the buttons pressed, a different number and combination of clocks turn when one of the setting wheels is adjusted. All clocks as well as the push buttons are gear wheels that mesh with one another. If there is a push button protruding from the front, the gear wheel behind it connects the four adjacent clocks on this side. So connected clocks turn together. For example, if all four buttons protrude towards the front, all the clocks on the front side also turn. At the same time, however, all buttons are depressed on the back of the watch; therefore only the four corner clocks turn there.

There are 12 14 ≈ 1.28 quadrillion possible combinations, since the game has 14 independent clocks.

The current world record for loosening Rubik's watch is 3.29 seconds and was set by Suen Ming Chi at GDSY Open 2019 .

Yunhao Lou holds the world record for the average time when solving the Rubiks Clock five times (the best and worst of the five times are not included in the average, so three solutions are counted) with 4.38 seconds, set up at Hangzhou Autumn 2019 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patents: EP0322085 (1989-06-28), JP1171588 (1989-07-06), GB2213739 (1989-08-23), US4869506 (1989-09-26)
  2. ↑ How each watch can be manipulated individually, which guarantees the independence of the watches by Christian Eggermont
  3. ↑ World Cubing Association: Official Rubik's Clock Single Results. Retrieved February 27, 2018 .
  4. ↑ World Cubing Association: Official Rubik's Clock Average Results. Retrieved February 27, 2018 .