In 1978 or perhaps 1979, a package arrived at my friends home with the incorrect address. We were 12 at the time and our curiosity got the best of us. We opened it.
Inside was an orb. Maybe 6” in diameter made of brushed aluminum. It may have had a white strip around the circumference. When you touched the Orb, it would tell the time by blinking/flashing a white light along the white strip and playing a note. Maybe it had a different note for hours, minutes and seconds. His Dad scolded us a bit, put the orb back in the box and sent it back to where it came from.
So: does this ring a memory with anyone? I’ve never seen this art piece clock again. I bring it up here because I suppose it could be an item to emulate if we could find one. Maybe it was a gift item from a Museum of Modern Art? It was cool and we were young and impressed with it.
For the younger generations that have never heard of nor seen the movie Phantasm before of what the ball/orbs can do (depends on model design since some are different).
The moment where the teenager utters: "Uhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm! Oh Shit" from the movie...
....... This could have been a classic tv scene episode on "That 70's" tv show in which Eric Foreman (actor Topher Grace) says the exact same line while encountering his dad Red Foreman (Kurtwood Smith) as "The Tall Man (aka mortician) in some nightmare dream like sequence as a tribute to Phantasm and then Red Foreman as dressed as "The Tall Man" character replies "You watch your language mister. Don't be a potty mouth."
ie: what you mean is the clock is more user friendly compared to what is shown in the movie (Phantasm).
>Closer to missle command trackball size.
I did a couple search phrases such as "1970s orb clock" or "chrome sphere time piece" but nothing anywhere yet that somewhat matches the description. Stiletto has this down better than most users and would probably find something similar within minutes.