Frank Buchwald’s Nixie Machine Clock Is A Retro-Futuristic Marvel

The beguiling Nixie Machine isn’t your ordinary desk clock. In fact, the device looks like it slipped through time and space from some bygone era. Created by famed German artist Frank Buchwald for M.A.D. Gallery and based on an idea by Alberto Schileo, the Nixie machine is nothing short of eye-poping.

The six glowing Nixie tubes, the structure’s most striking feature, were made a half century ago by RFT in East Germany and were recently rediscovered in a Bulgarian army depot. The tubes are among the largest (standing at 90 mm tall) and rarest ever produced.

Artist Frank Buchwald crafted each one of the device’s 350 components by hand from raw metal. The six tubes that sit atop the device display hours, minutes, and seconds in an alluring red glow. Further adding to the sculptural clock’s cyberpunk aesthetic is the base structure, built in Buchwald’s distinct style, and detailed with brushed brass and burnished steel.

If you want to get your hands on what is certainly a unique piece, you’ll have to act fast. The Nixie Machine is only available in a limited run of 12.