Rubik's Clock

The front face of a solved original Rubik's clock

The Rubik's Clock is a mechanical puzzle invented and patented by Christopher C. Wiggs and Christopher J. Taylor. The Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik bought the patent from them to market the product under his name. It was first marketed in 1988.

The Rubik's Clock is a two-sided puzzle, each side presenting nine clocks to the puzzler. There are four dials, one at each corner of the puzzle, each allowing the corresponding corner clock to be rotated directly. (The corner clocks, unlike the other clocks, rotate on both sides of the puzzle simultaneously and can never be operated independently. Thus, the puzzle contains only 14 independent clocks.)

There are also four pins which span both sides of the puzzle; each pin arranged such that if it is "in" on one side, it is "out" on the other. The state of each pin (in or out) determines whether the adjacent corner clock is mechanically connected to the three other adjacent clocks on the front side or on the back side: thus the configuration of the pins determines which sets of clocks can be turned simultaneously by rotating a suitable dial.

The aim of the puzzle is to set all nine clocks to 12 o'clock (straight up) on both sides of the puzzle simultaneously. A method to do so is to start by constructing a cross on both sides (at 12 o’clock) and then solving the corner clocks individually.

The Rubik's Clock is listed as one of the 17 WCA events, with records for fastest time to solve one puzzle, and the fastest average time to solve 5 puzzles (discarding the slowest and fastest times). Viable speedsolving methods have been devised that always solve it in 14 moves or less. An example is "7-Simul", which involves performing seven pairs of moves on the front and back of the clock simultaneously and requires mental calculation from the puzzle's initial position to determine some moves. God's number for Clock is 12.

Combinations

Since there are 14 independent clocks, with 12 settings each, there are a total of $12^{14}$=1,283,918,464,548,864 possible combinations for the clock faces. This does not count for the number of pin positions.

Notation

The puzzle is oriented with 12 o'clock on top, and either side in front. The following moves can be made:

Pin movements

• UR (top-right): Move the top-right pin up.
• DR (bottom-right): Move the bottom-right pin up.
• DL (bottom-left): Move the bottom-left pin up.
• UL (top-left): Move the top-left pin up.
• U (both top): Move both top pins up.
• R (both right): Move both right pins up.
• D (both bottom): Move both bottom pins up.
• L (both left): Move both left pins up.
• ALL (all): Move all pins up.

Wheel movements

• X+ (X clockwise turns): Turn a dial next to an up-position pin clockwise X times, then move all pins down.
• X− (X counter-clockwise turns): Turn a dial next to an up-position pin counter-clockwise X times, then move all pins down.

Puzzle rotation

• y2: Flip the puzzle, then move all pins down.

Records

The world record for single solve is held by Volodymyr Kapustianskyi of the United States with a time of 1.64 seconds, set at Moorhead Madness 2025 in Moorhead, Minnesota.

The world record for Olympic average of five solves is held by Lachlan Gibson of New Zealand with an average of 2.28 seconds, set at Puzzling Papatoetoe 2025 in Auckland, New Zealand with times of (2.20), 2.22, 2.26, 2.36, and (2.65) seconds.

Top 10 solvers by single solve

Rank	Name	Result	Competition
1	Volodymyr Kapustianskyi	1.64s	Moorhead Madness 2025
2	Lachlan Gibson	1.82s	Puzzling Papatoetoe 2025
3	Brendyn Dunagan	1.90s	Agoura Side Events Day 2025
4	Kyle Jones	1.99s	Don't Inverloch Up 2025
5	Mick Boekema	2.00s	Lente in Lent 2025
6	Eryk Kasperek	2.11s	Energy Cube Tomaszów Mazowiecki 2025
7	Antoni Stojek	2.14s	Cube4fun Cubers Eve Żyrardów 2024
8	Niklas Aasen Eliasson	2.25s	Vännäs & Friends 2024
9	Drake Denton Richard	2.26s	Charlotte Winter 2025
10	Jaidon Poraminthara Lin	2.27s	UCSB Cubing 2024

Top 10 solvers by Olympic average of 5 solves

Rank	Name	Average	Competition	Times
1	Lachlan Gibson	2.28s	Puzzling Papatoetoe 2025	(2.20), 2.22, 2.26, 2.36, (2.65)
2	Volodymyr Kapustianskyi	2.31s	Moorhead Madness 2025	2.35, 2.40, 2.18, (3.71), (1.64)
3	Eryk Kasperek	2.52s	Cube4fun Lublin on WEII 2024	2.44, (3.36), 2.59, (2.40), 2.52
4	Brendyn Dunagan	2.64s	Nub Open Mission Viejo Spring 2025	(2.36), 2.46, (DNF), 2.86, 2.61
5	Carter Thomas	2.82s	Pyraminx in Pewaukee 2024	(4.77), (2.45), 3.52, 2.47, 2.46
6	Niklas Aasen Eliasson	2.83s	Kristiansand Open 2025	3.13, (2.59), 2.59, (3.36), 2.78
7	Fiona Bao	2.93s	American Dream NJ 2025	2.97, 2.85, (2.68), (5.26), 2.96
8	Kyle Jones	2.98s	QLD State Championship 2025	3.14, 2.86, (DNF), (2.64), 2.93
9	Filip Brokos	2.99s	Cube4fun Biała Rawska Spring 2025	(2.54), 2.83, (3.63), 3.02, 3.11
10	Caleb Wolf Dunn	3.00s	Rubik's UK Championship 2024	(2.70), 2.88, (4.18), 3.04, 3.07

Non-human solving

On Nov 21, 2024, a robot developed by Erez Borenshtein achieved a Guinness World Record by solving a Rubik's Clock in 0.443 seconds. This accomplishment was officially recognized by Guinness World Record as the fastest time for a robot to solve a Rubik's Clock. The record is documented on the Guinness World Records website.

External links

• Unofficial Records Speedsolving.com's page of unofficial records for many puzzles including Rubik's Clock
• Real Genius Computer game implementation of Rubik's Clock for the Commodore Amiga, released in 1989
• https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/rankings/clock/average
• https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/rankings/clock/single?show=100+persons
• https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/649381-fastest-robot-to-solve-a-rubiks-clock Non-Human Solving, By Erez Borenshtein