Rohde’s modernist affinity for simplicity of form and efficiency of detail is apparent in the line of products he designed for Herman Miller.

Produced with a modicum of materials, this clock is a device for telling time whose exterior form aptly expresses its interior workings. With a single diagonal chrome bar instead of a traditional heavy casement, the fragile glass face becomes the main body of the clock. Suspended in midair, the translucent circular form appears as if it might float away were it not held down by the force of its powerful metal arm.

The use of highly reflective chrome, then a relatively new material, perfectly embodied an era consumed with speed, strength, and modernization. Rohde’s lasting mark on sleek clock design is also evident in the replacement of the numerals with identical lines, decipherable solely by their relative location on the timepiece.