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Death Clock: shows the seconds you have left to live

17.7.2025

Translation: machine translated

With the Death Clock, you can display the remaining seconds until your death at the touch of a button. The table clock with a retro wooden look is not intended to scare you, but to make you think.

The YouTube channel Vsauce has produced a video on the question of how we continue to exist after our death. Presenter Michael Stevens looks at the metaphorical ghosts we leave behind. In other words, the continued existence of memories, influences and other traces that we generate in our physical bodies during life. It's about identity, time and legacy.

Nach 2:30 Minuten im Video stellt Michael die Death Clock vor.

The video is part of the Mox Nox project (Latin for «soon night» or «it's about time»), which has recently included non-digital content: the Death Clock.

How does the Death Clock work?

Before you start the Death Clock, you fill out a questionnaire. You enter data on your age, weight, habits and more, which ultimately results in a forecast of how long you are expected to live. You then transfer the seconds to the clock - for example, 1 262 278 080 for 40 years. If you then press the red button at the top, the LED time hand turns into a death watch.

There it disappears. But what is time anyway?
Source: Inq Factory

Back it goes with the grey button next to it.

Don't cheat when posting. Otherwise you will find out at the end whether the clock simply stops at 0.
Source: Inq Factory

A rotary control and two other buttons on the right-hand side also help you make settings. On the left, you can change the brightness of the display.

Not only the dwindling seconds can be thought-provoking, but also the slogans on the front.
Source: Inq Factory

Although the Death Clock is designed for mains operation, it won't forget your settings thanks to a battery. Otherwise, there's not much else going on with the clock with its retro 80s-style wooden look. There's no Bluetooth, no digital networking - just purely mechanical-electronic components. In addition to the Mox-Nox lettering at the bottom left of the front, there is a second one above the display. It reads: «Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat». So: «All (hours or seconds) wounded, the last one kills».

The table clock is the result of a collaboration between Michael Stevens and the online shop Inq Factory. However, the product is modelled on the Death Clock app of the same name (for iOS and Android) by Brent Franson. The founder and CEO of Most Days Inc. wants to use his software to help improve habits and increase quality of life by incorporating AI, behavioural psychology and personalised routines. You can answer the questions in the app and see how much time you have left according to the forecast, but you have to take out a subscription to use it afterwards.

The physical version of the Death Clock, on the other hand, works independently of apps and plans. Instead, it costs a one-off 79.90 US dollars (excl. VAT and shipping). You can pre-order it here. Delivery is scheduled for early 2026.

Header image: Inq Factory

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