Brass Desk Calendar

Overview

A small desktop calendar made of brass. A row of rings turns on a shared axle, and each ring is engraved: months on one, digits for the day on others, and the year on the last. Rotate each ring until the engraved line lines up and the date reads off the front. It sits on a wooden base on a desk.

It grew out of the calendar mechanisms I worked on for the Clock of the Long Now, scaled down to something small enough to hold in one hand. In one photo, a single ring is held between two fingers to show how small the parts are.