10,000 Year Clock
The 10,000 Year Clock, also called the Clock of the Long Now, is a mechanical clock designed by Danny Hillis to keep time for ten thousand years as a symbol of long-term thinking. Jeff BezosJeff BezosJeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur and investor who founded Amazon in 1994, led it as chief executive for many years, and became its executive chair in 2021. He also founded the spaceflight company Blue Origin, bought The Washington Post in 2013, and set up philanthropic funds including the Bezos Earth Fund.Open the full entry provided its site and primary funding, and it is being assembled inside a mountain in West Texas.
Contents6 sections
Key facts
1996The Long Now Foundation Is Formed
In 1996 Stewart Brand and Danny Hillis formed the Long Now Foundation; Brian Eno suggested the name “The Long Now.”[1]
December 31, 1999The First Prototype Starts Ticking
A San Francisco team led by Alexander Rose built the first prototype starting in 1997; it first ticked in San Francisco moments before the end of New Year’s Eve 1999 and then moved to London’s Science Museum, where it became the final exhibit in the Making the Modern World gallery, opened in 2000.[1]
February 2018Installation Begins
In February 2018 Jeff Bezos posted that installation had begun: “500 ft tall, all mechanical, powered by day/night thermal cycles.” Gizmodo said he had put up $42 million to build the clock.[2]
As of October 2026: Still Being Assembled in West Texas
The Long Now Foundation says the first monument-scale clock, deep inside a mountain in West Texas, is still being assembled; the project is now in the hands of Jeff Bezos, who provided its location and primary funding and will add his own anniversary displays before it opens to visitors.[3]
As designed, the clock is hundreds of feet tall, in a 500-foot shaft; sunlight entering the mountain heats a chamber of air that moves a graphite cylinder to wind the clock, keeping the pendulum running for 500 years without human intervention, and sunlight focused through a cupola into a solar synchronizer sets the clock to solar noon. Visitors who wind it ring the chimes and update the displays.[4]
Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts
10,000 Year Clock: Official website: https://www.10000yearclock.net/ (opens in a new window)[5]
Long Now Foundation: Official website: https://longnow.org/ (opens in a new window)[3]
Sources
- The Clock of the Long Now (opens in a new window)
- Jeff Bezos Begins Installation of His Bonkers 10,000-Year Clock (opens in a new window)
- The 10,000 Year Clock (opens in a new window)
- The 10,000 Year Clock — Background (opens in a new window)
- Welcome to the 10,000 Year Clock website (opens in a new window)