Project Description

This monumental clock with automatons made of bronze, gilded and oxidised, features a man climbing a fault between two rock faces on which five spheres of decreasing diameter are attached to and display months, days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Each time the clock strikes the hour, the animated character goes up and moves the sphere of the hours. Its body, its arms and its legs are animated in such a way that make you feel it is alive. The other spheres also move vertically but independently of one another and continuously. It sounds on the hour as the character goes up.


  • Height : 5.5 meters (18.05 feet)
  • Width : 3 meters (9.84 feet)
  • Weight : 3 tons
  • Clock made of brass and bronze oxidised and gilded with gold leaf.
  • The clock is animated with electric actuators and stepper motors.
  • It is computer-programmed and the master clock is radio-controlled.

Read also (in french) on patrimoine-horloge.fr the story by Gérard Guilbaud on the Great Climber.