Strange Clocks

Decimal Time

Ten hours to a day

How to read it

  1. The day has 10 decimal hours.

  2. Each hour has 100 minutes; each minute, 100 seconds.

  3. Decimal noon (5:00) is regular noon.

  4. One decimal second lasts 0.864 normal seconds.

The story

Revolutionary France decimalized everything — meters, grams, and in 1793, the clock itself: 10 hours of 100 minutes of 100 seconds. Mandatory use lasted barely seven months.

Year
1793
Place
Paris, France
Creator
The National Convention

Fun fact

A decimal minute is 86.4 seconds — the same length as one Internet Time beat, invented 205 years later.

Learn to read time again.

iPhone and iPad only.

Download on the App Store