ScreenToolsScreen.tools

Flip Clock

Live wall clock with split-flap card animation.

Press F for fullscreen
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About Flip Clock

A live wall clock rendered as split-flap cards, the same mechanical display you see in old train stations and retro alarm clocks. Each digit is a pair of half-cards that flip down when the value changes, with a cubic-bezier easing that mimics the weight of real plastic leaves. The clock tracks your system time, so it is always accurate without any manual calibration.

The Mechanical Aesthetic

Split-flap displays were invented in the 1950s and became the standard for airport and train-station departure boards for fifty years. Each digit was a stack of printed plastic leaves that dropped one at a time under gravity, producing the characteristic 'clack-clack' sound as the time updated. Our version replaces the sound with a smooth 380ms CSS animation, but keeps the two-half-card geometry and the momentary misalignment that makes the effect feel physical.

Always Accurate

The flip clock reads your system clock on every frame and updates the digits on the natural minute boundary. There is no drift, no battery to change, and no timezone configuration — it inherits whatever your OS is set to. This makes it reliable as an actual clock, not just a decoration.

How to use it

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    Open the page

    The clock immediately shows your current local time in HH:MM format.

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    Fullscreen for wall-clock use

    Press F. Point the screen at the room and the clock becomes a wall clock readable from across the space.

  3. 03

    Leave it running

    The clock updates every minute. No interaction needed.

Frequently asked

The shortest path between you and the answer.

Does it show seconds?

No. Split-flap displays in the real world rarely show seconds because the mechanical leaves cannot flip fast enough. We match that convention.

Is it 12-hour or 24-hour?

24-hour. The HH:MM format avoids AM/PM ambiguity, which is the standard for public-facing clocks in most of the world.

Is this tool free?

Yes. Every ScreenTools.co tool is free, with no account, no paywall, and no install.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes. Layouts adapt to phone and tablet screens. Mobile Safari restricts true fullscreen, but the page fills the viewport and you can add the page to your Home Screen for an app-like experience.

Does it work offline?

Once a tool's page has loaded once, the runtime is local. A few tools that fetch fonts or icons need the first hit online; after that, refresh works offline.

Does this collect my data?

No personal data leaves your browser. The site has lightweight, privacy-respecting analytics for aggregate counts (which tool was opened) and nothing else.

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