I've always been intrigued by clocks and must've caught the fascination quite young; my Dad had a dozen antique clocks in the living room, a few of which chimed on the quarter hour, though never quite in synch, which I'm sure got in the way of me watching Blue Peter and Doctor Who. The black and white clocks I picked below are, imo, all a bit on the cool side and, in a lucky twist, none cost a gazillion dollars.

The first is from Seiko and, strangely, I stumbled across it at a watch repair booth at Sears and not on the shelves of a posh design store. This 8" diameter clock has a modern feel, a hefty chrome frame and can either sit on a surface (it has a stand) or wall mount. If you fancy hunting it down the code is QXG124K, and expect to shell out $55. The second was first manufactured back in the 1930's - the Kit-Cat Clock, who's comical expression, swinging tail and hilariously googly eyes that roll back and forth have made it quite the iconic timepiece. Touch base with Ergo Industries for a Canadian retailer (this little black and white kitty sells for around $73), or check out Kit-Cat in the US for all the other available colours. Finally, in another odd discovery, I found the classic wind-up Big Ben alarm clock - designed by Ellworth Danz for Westclox in the mid-sixties - on the shelves at Wal-Mart for a smidge under $20.