The Swiss Railways Clock That Still Keeps Travelers on Time

For 80 years, this minimalist design with a distinctive red second hand has been a fixture in the country’s train stations.

A Design Icon

· Created in the 1940s by Hans Hilfiker, the SBB clock features:

o A minimalist white dial with black minute markers

o A distinctive red second hand modeled after train dispatch batons

· These clocks are found in 800+ Swiss stations and are famed for clarity and precision.

Timing the Nation

· Hilfiker designed the clocks to sync perfectly using central signals for minutes and electric motors for seconds.

· To counter electrical timing drift, the red second hand completes a lap in under 60 seconds, then pauses before the minute hand jumps—bringing calm before train departures.

Symbol of Swiss Reliability

· SBB’s reputation for punctuality (93.2% on-time rate) is closely tied to these clocks.

· Museums, like the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, display them as icons of Swiss design and public utility.

Mondaine's Wristwatch Legacy

· In the 1980s, Ronnie Bernheim of Mondaine turned the SBB clock design into wristwatches.

· These watches became hits in museum stores worldwide—simple, bold, and collectible.

· Modern Mondaine models include quartz, automatic, and solar-powered options—with prices ranging from $825 to $880.

[ABS News Service/28.07.2025]

In the 1940s, Hans Hilfiker, a mechanic and engineer, created an electric clock that has become a symbol of Swiss rail reliability as well as a design icon still seen today in homes and on wrists around the world.

As an employee of Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Mr. Hilfiker was tasked with unifying station clock designs and synchronizing timekeeping across the rail network. He stripped the clock face of Roman numerals and other ornaments, keeping a plain, black marker for each minute on a white dial. Its most recognizable element was a slender, bright-red second hand with a disc at its tip, much like the dispatch baton that station officials were using at the time to signal a train to leave a station.

That red second hand swept the dial continually, driven by an electric motor, while the minute hand relied on signals from a central control.

“That was truly a quantum leap in clock design,” said Isabelle Bitterli of SBB Historic, a foundation organized to preserve and showcase Swiss railroad history. “This design, which is so simple and precise in its function, naturally symbolizes the entire SBB. It represents accuracy, precision, simplicity and a focus on the essentials.”

Minimalist clocks, inspired by Bauhaus principles, are visible in many public places around the world. But experts say the Hilfiker clock’s reliability and its presence in about 800 rail stations today has ensured its position as an icon of timekeeping.

Time Differences

In the late 1800s, each town had its own local time standard, based on the sun. A train that left Paris might well arrive in Geneva on time, but the slight time difference between the two cities had the potential to confuse travelers. (For much of that century, the rail station in Geneva had three clocks: one for Paris, one for Geneva and one for Bern, Switzerland, which kept what was called Bernese Time. Today, all three cities are on Central European Time.)

“In the 1850s and ’60s, as the railways developed and people began to travel, time had to be synchronized because it was too complicated, very cumbersome for travelers and it was simply impossible to create a good timetable,” Ms. Bitterli said.

By the time Mr. Hilfiker’s clocks were being hung in station halls and over platforms, most of Europe had agreed to a standard time structure. But the variations of the 50-hertz alternating current that powered the second hand in Mr. Hilfiker’s system actually compromised its timekeeping precision.

His solution was unusual: He sped up the second hand so that it would complete its cycle in less than a minute and then wait for the jump of the minute hand. The method ensured that the thousands of station clocks were always in sync, unaffected by the second hand’s slight volatility. And that lag became so identified with the Swiss rail service that SBB kept it even as clocks were modernized.

In a short 1955 essay for the Swiss tourism board originally published in French and German, Mr. Hilfiker explained the need for the second hand: “Anyone on the platform who didn’t witness the jump of the minute hand, shooting forward to the train’s departure time, cannot know whether the train will leave in five or 55 seconds — not even the dispatcher.

“Yet, so much could be done more precisely, more efficiently and more calmly in that final minute if we had a clearer idea of the number of seconds we had left,” he added, before concluding that the second hand “brings calm to the final minute and helps ensure trains depart right on time.”

A Strict Condition

“The clocks are extremely present when you’re traveling around Switzerland,” said Renate Menzi, the curator of the design collection at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. “Every station has at least one of them. For us, it’s a very functional, well-designed and widely recognized everyday object and that’s what makes it interesting to us. A great example of Swiss design.”

The museum has one of the clocks on display in its permanent exhibition of Swiss design elements, which reopened in April after an update. According to Ms. Menzi, SBB donated a clock with the strict condition that it should always be kept on time.

This level of attention to accuracy — and 80 years of precision timekeeping — has made SBB one of the most reliable rail carriers in Europe. Last year, for example, it reported that 93.2 percent of its trains arrived on time.

“We are a nation of clockmakers, yet even here, clocks are disappearing,” said Ms. Menzi, describing the presence of the SBB clocks as a public service much like the free spring water offered by municipalities across the country. “Many associate it with reliability. When I look at the SBB clock, I know I can trust it.”

On the Wrist

The iconic potential of the clock attracted Ronnie Bernheim, who was the manager of the family-owned watch brand Mondaine in the mid-1980s.

Mr. Bernheim, searching for a new product, set out to combine the black-and-white dial and red second hand, well known throughout Switzerland by that time, with a simple quartz movement.

“At the very beginning — there is no secret — it was during several years, very difficult to find someone who was interested because people were still going for crazy watches,” said Mr. Bernheim, now the co-owner of the Mondaine Group. But the watches took off as premium products in museum gift shops, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as well as retailers such as the Conran Shop in London.

In the 1990s, Mondaine began offering an iteration of the design in clocks for the office and the home, returning it closer to its original function.

Then, in the new millennium, Mondaine decided to replicate Mr. Hilfiker’s second hand pause. It had suppliers develop a custom integrated circuit chip, although that also nearly doubled the price of the watch, which today sells for $825 to $880, depending on the choice of strap.

And now Mondaine continues to innovate around the Swiss Railways design. In March, it introduced Numeri, a sporty model with a 12-side bezel with numerals for better readability. In April, it added an automatic watch to its stainless steel Cushion collection. And this month, it released Doppio, with a red second hand inspired by the SBB clocks. All these models have quartz movements, the latest with a solar-powered option.

Maintaining the SBB design has proved to be a good decision, Mr. Bernheim said: “This is a classic, which will remain a classic, I think, for a long time to go.”