The tower clock is crowned by a “glass jewel” that resembles a faceted diamond. Made of premium-quality wheels, pinions and arbors and weighing 21 tonnes, it is the heaviest clock movement in the world. Because the carbon fibre hands have a total weight of 12 tonnes, the clock movement has to be extremely strong and robust.

In some places, they consist of up to 150 layers of carbon fibre laminate.Ī concealed hatch in the clock face provides access to the hollow structures when the LEDs require maintenance. The hands alone are 22 metres long, and an outstanding example of self-supporting structures: like the hull of a boat, their stiffness comes entirely from the outer shell – there is no load-bearing interior structure at all. This involved major challenges: the faces of the clock are about 450 metres above the ground and 43 metres high. The clock itself was implemented by the renowned tower clock manufacturer Perrot from the town of Calw in southwest Germany. For the processing of high-strength glass and carbon fibre components, SL Rasch consulted with a boatbuilding company that specialises in racing yachts.

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