Renaissance Time Machine

This large, one-of-a-kind clock is handcrafted from antique parts including an 18th century French iron rotisserie device, a toy wooden carriage circa 1880s, a late 19th Century clock dial from Rotterdam, antique tower clock hour hand, early 20th Century French mainspring winder, and vintage wooden bookbinder’s board.

As a child, San Francisco Bay Area artist Stephen Kowalski loved to take took his toys apart to see how they worked; oftentimes reassembling them into something completely different. As an award-winning graphic designer and industrial designer, Kowalski had the opportunity to create items both big and small—from the huge scoreboard clock at San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park, to smaller useful items of imagination. Today, he works with antique and vintage mechanical, aircraft, nautical, and other decorative parts to create extraordinary clocks, lamps, and furniture. Each item is expertly crafted by hand so no two pieces are the same. As much as possible, vintage screws, nuts, and other hardware are used in assembly as an homage to a bygone era of creative wonder.