United States, 1980s
Created (and patented) in 1981 by Jerome Simon, the extraordinary "Design in Time and Light" is a light-beam projection clock. The arched chrome and glass base magnifies a single beam of light, periscoping it through the underside of the central acrylic tube. Motorized mirrors in the back refract the light and send beams onto the round frosted glass clock face: A large circular beam marks the hour and two thin beams mark the minute and second. A short chrome tube behind the small mirrors houses the motor itself. A switch at the back of the base controls the light output.

The design, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, was produced in a limited edition by the Beamo Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts. This iteration was customized for a client in Britain but never picked up. Thus it is both like-new and wired for use in the U.K. Hand-numbered 203 and signed on the label underneath.