Wooden Clockworks: Backyard Genius Awards

The Celestial Mechanical Calendar and Orrery is an all-wood clockworks that earned its maker a place as a Backyard Genius, part of Popular Mechanics's yearly tribute to the world's greatest unsung engineers.

Divine Clockmaker

Clayton Boyer; Kauai, Hawaii

Clayton Boyer was inspired to build wooden clocks by plans he saw in Popular Mechanics 45 years ago. Since building his first clock, Boyer has designed more than 50 extraordinary timepieces. But his recent wooden creation, the majestic Celestial Mechanical Calendar and Orrery, doesn't tell time at all. "This is driven by clockworks," the retired chiropractor says. "But I've got other things that tell time." This 42 x 26–inch machine, however, is remarkable for its comprehensive attention to other details. Powered by 14 gears, a 5-pound drive weight and three counterweights, the Baltic birch device shows the day of the week; the day of the month; the month; the zodiac sun sign; the phase of the moon (represented by a ball that rotates to reflect the moon in the night sky); the equinox and solstice; cross-quarter holidays such as Groundhog Day; and the synodic rotations and retrograde cycles of Mercury, Venus and Mars. Boyer says it took only a week or two to build—but four months to plan. "This is like building two or three clocks at once," he says, "but it's just step by step. Start with the frame, then add this wheel, then that wheel, then the levers, then the weights. It just takes a little stick-to-it-iveness."

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