Tide Clocks Powder coated steel 'classic' and tide clocks
(with time remaining until high and low water indication)
From sailing to sand castles, we all need to know what the tide is doing!

Synchronised to the moon's daily cycle, the combination time and tide clocks gives you an innovative and convenient guide to tides, whilst also providing conventional clock for time keeping.

The quartz driven tide clock hand will rotate every 12 hours and 25 minutes around the solid stainless steel tide clock fascia, giving you the state of the tide at a glance. This tide clock design also provides an idication of how many hours remain until high or low water.

The black conventional clock hands work quite independently from the tide clocks hand and can be adjusted using the small fly wheel on the back of the movement. The clocks tide hand can be adjusted using the larger wheel, again found on the back of the clock movement.Designed to complement most homes the tide clocks simple, clean, quality appearance appeals to all tide time users not just one specific sport or pastime.

How do tide clocks work?

Tides are caused mainly by the moons gravitational pull on the ocean. The time it takes the moon to reappear at the same place in the sky each day is 24 hours and 50 minutes.

The quartz tide clock will always stay synchronized with the moon.There are other influences on sea levels that effect exact tide times and the user should take these into account:Strong on / off shore windsChanging volume of river flowsAtmospheric pressure The suns own gravitational pull, when lined up with the moon

Designed to complement most homes the tide clocks simple, robust, quality appearance appeals to all tide time users not just one specific sport or pastime.
The hand of the tide clock will point upwards at high tide and then as the tide goes out the hand on the tide clock will move clock wise down towards the bottom of the face.

A tide clock is a novelty clock that keeps track of the moon's apparent motion around the earth. Along many coastlines the lunar part of the combined lunar and solar tides is the major component (67%).

Tidal clocks keep the average rate between high lunar tides, which occur 12 hours 24 minutes apart. The bottom of the tide clocks dial is marked "low" (for "low tide") and the top of the tide clocks dial is marked "high" (for "high tide"). The left side of the dial is marked "flow" or "flood" or "rising" and has a count-down of hours from 5 to 1. There is one hand on the clocks face, and along the left side it points to the number of hours until the (lunar) high tide. The right hand side of the clock is marked "ebb" or "falling" and has a count of hours from 1 to 5. The number pointed to by the hand gives the time since the last (lunar) high tide.

Tides have an inherent lead or lag that is different at every location, so tidal clocks are set for the time when the local lunar high tide occurs. This is often complicated because the lead or lag varies during the course of the lunar month, as the lunar and solar tides fall into and out of synchronization.

The lunar tide and solar tide are synchronized (ebb and flow at the same time) near the full moon and the new moon. The two tides are unsynchronized near the first and last quarter moon (or "half moon"). The best time to set the clock is at the new moon or the full moon, which is also when the clock can most reliably indicate the actual combined tide. Along shorelines where both components are important, a simple tide clock will always be least reliable near the quarter moon.

Tide range is the vertical distance between the highest high tide and lowest low tide. The size of the lunar tide compared to the solar tide (which comes once every 12 hours) is generally about 2 to 1, but the actual proportion along any particular shore depends on the location, orientation, and shape of the local bay or estuary. Along some shorelines, the solar tide is the only important tide, and ordinary 12 hour clocks suffice since the high and low tides come at nearly the same time every day. Because ordinary tidal clocks only track a part of the tidal effect, and because the relative size of the combined effects is different in different places, they are in general only partially accurate for tracking the tides. All navigators use tide tables either in a booklet or on a computer.

Tides are caused mainly by the gravitational pull of the Moon on the waters of the ocean.

The time taken for the Moon to reappear in the sky in the same place is called a "Lunar Day".
Your Tide clock is based on this time scale, and rotates twice each Lunar Day. This is because most places in the world have two high tides and two low tides each day.
The Sun also plays an active role although it has less than half the influence of the Moon, because it is so much further away.
Every other week (i.e. New Moon and Full Moon) the Sun and Moon are lined up and their combined gravitational pull creates higher and lower tides.
In the intervening weeks they are at 90 degrees to each other and the Sun cancels out part of the Moon's gravitational effect. Also, at these times the Sun will make the tides somewhat earlier or later than average.
Of course there are other factors involved which have an influence on exact tide times and it is the user's responsibility to bear these in mind. Examples which would affect a temporary increase in sea level and also change the times of high and low tides are ~ * Strong on / off shore winds * Atmospheric pressure (One inch difference in barometric pressure equals approximately one foot difference in sea level.) * Changing volume of river flows