ZEN GARDEN – Sand Clock

ZEN GARDEN is a watch face that is a small Japanese rock garden seen from above. There are no hands: the garden itself tells the time.

HOW TO READ IT
• Hour – a dark stone circled by raked rings moves slowly around the edge, like an hour hand. Twelve small stones at the rim mark the hours, so at 1:50 the hour stone sits between 1 and 2.
• Minutes – a clump of moss travels once an hour around the middle of the garden, raking a fresh furrow behind it from 12 o'clock. The longer the arc, the later in the hour.
• Seconds – a small white pebble circles the central rock, pushing a little ridge of sand that fills back in behind it.

SAND THAT FEELS REAL
The sand has fine grains and raked furrows with shadowed troughs and lit ridges. Freshly raked furrows look darker, as if still damp, and settle as the hour goes on. A small heap of sand is pushed in front of the moss. On the hour, the old arc is smoothed away by a quick sweep and the garden starts a new hour.

THROUGH THE DAY
The sand takes on a pink dawn, the warm light of day, an orange dusk and a cool blue night, and the shadow of the central rock follows the sun.

WHAT YOU GET
• Hour stone, moss minutes and pebble seconds – no hands, no numbers
• Raked sand with fresh furrows that settle and are smoothed every hour
• Sand colour and rock shadow that follow the time of day
• Always-on display – a few grey dots and lines for the hour and minute on pure black, about 2% of pixels lit

BUILT FOR YOUR BATTERY
ZEN GARDEN is written in Google's Watch Face Format. No app code runs on your watch, nothing connects to the internet, and there is no companion phone app to install. The movement runs only while the screen is on.

PRIVACY
The watch face collects no data and asks for no permissions.

COMPATIBILITY
Galaxy Watch4 and later, and other round Wear OS watches running Wear OS 5 or newer (Android 14, API 34 and above).

Support: mkideabox@gmail.com