You Don’t Watch “The Clock”. You Fall Into It.

Christian Marclay’s The Clock is one of the greatest works of art produced in my lifetime. It’s a 24-hour video collage composed of roughly 12,000 clips from more than 1,200 films and television shows.

It begins at midnight, with Orson Welles impaled on a clock tower in The Stranger and Big Ben exploding in V for Vendetta.

Marclay conceived the piece in 2005 and debuted it in 2010 after three years of painstaking editing. He worked with a team who scoured archives to find the perfect clips. The result is a seamless, hypnotic meditation on time, stitched together minute by minute.

Every kind of timekeeping device imaginable makes an appearance.

At 12:20 a.m., James Bond checks his Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M, the blue-dial model with the wave pattern that became his signature during Pierce Brosnan’s era, in a clip from Casino Royale (2006). In the same film, Daniel Craig’s Bond confirms the brand when Vesper Lynd asks, “Rolex?” and he replies, “Omega.”

At 11:53 a.m., a pocket watch ticks away as the Titanic departs. At 7:54 a.m., an Omega clock appears above a watchmaker’s shop in Amélie (2001). At 6:30 a.m., Meryl Streep turns off an alarm clock in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

Other films woven into the montage include Donnie Darko, Pulp Fiction, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, One Hour Photo, and The Stranger.

I first encountered The Clock in 2012 at New York’s Lincoln Center. A line snaked around the block with people eager to get in.

From the moment I sat down, I was transfixed. I felt a rush of nostalgia whenever I recognized a clip, and a curiosity about what might appear next.

I didn’t want to leave my seat. If I’d had the time, I would have stayed for the full 24 hours.

I wasn’t alone. Since its debut, The Clock has garnered major accolades, including the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 2011 Venice Biennale and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Editing. Marclay even earned a spot on the 2012 TIME 100 list.

The Clock is a masterpiece. It resonates with art lovers, cinephiles, and anyone who finds joy in spotting the familiar.

Major museums like MoMA, Tate, and LACMA have all exhibited it.

If you’re in Berlin between November 29, 2025, and January 18, 2026, you can experience it at the Neue Nationalgalerie, presented inside a specially constructed cinema within Mies van der Rohe’s Glass Hall.

I’ll be there, watching time pass beautifully.