Lego Clock Art Deco Balance and Fulcrum Sculpture

[Fabulous Fox]

After becoming obsessed with unique vintage Seiko desk clocks from the 1980s or so, I decided to make a Lego after one of them! This is sort of an "art deco" vibe, mixed in with modern. 

This particular one uses a rolling low-friction pivot point, which creates a very unique movement when touched, and can move on it's own for at least a minute. The clock side of the balance acts as a sort of "gimbal" as well. Both sides have to be exactly balanced in order to work, and I mean EXACTLY. A single stud will completely throw the balance off.

The clock is simply a quartz "insert" that I found, which perfectly fits into the round black piece with friction just like a Lego (the only one I found which would fit that exact piece). Otherwise, the sculpture would have to be significantly bigger to accommodate a fully made Lego clock and ruin the intended desk proportions (which, may be a good idea for another creation). In the future, I would like to swap out the clock face for one that matches the art deco vibe of the whole thing better.

Some of the unique Seiko clock sculptures had hidden magnets powered by battery, which would make the clock move in different ways, but this one simply moves when touched with no hidden magnets.

More images, a video, and instructions can be found on its Rebrickable listing:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-253210/FabulousFox/balance-and-fulcrum-table-clock/#details

Edited February 26 by Fabulous Fox

[Davidz90]

That's pretty unique. In the video, the pivot seems to have a pretty high friction;  have you considered using a knife edge suspension? Rolling bar doesn't seem to work well for high amplitudes.

[Fabulous Fox]

On 2/26/2026 at 10:36 AM, Davidz90 said:

That's pretty unique. In the video, the pivot seems to have a pretty high friction;  have you considered using a knife edge suspension? Rolling bar doesn't seem to work well for high amplitudes.

Yes, I was originally going to use the latest @KEvron style knife-edge, but wanted to keep the looks a certain way. The original Seiko clock had a rolling pivot "bar" and I wanted this one to look just the same. The Seiko clock will move on its own (just a little) for about a minute then stop.

I may try it though, just for curiosity's sake.

If it had some hidden magnetic function then perhaps I would use a better suspension.