Analog clocks have been around for over a 100 years. This is the "old school" chess clock with an ingenious design. Academic Chess prefers these to the digital designs. Check out the best analog clocks available today at the Academic Chess store.

At the completion of a move, you push the button on top of the clock on your side. This stops the clock and begins your opponent's turn, raising the button on his side.

Look at the clock above and you will see two red contraptions on each side of the clock. The one on the 10 is a ticker that goes around and around. This lets both players know the clock is working.

The flag on the 12 is very imortant. When the big hand gets close to the 12,the red flag starts to raise on the edge of the big hand. As the red flag raises and gets close to being horizontal, then you know you are getting close to running out of time. When the big hand gets to 12, the flag drops at the split second the hand passes the 12. This lets everyone know clearly that it is at the hour and that time is up. This is where the chess saying "Your flag is down" comes from. It means you run out of time and you lose..;

Sometimes, the time control of a chess game allows over an hour to play. In an hour and a half game per side for example, the clock might be set for 4:30 with the understanding that when one clock gets to 6 the game is over. When the flag falls, and the small hand is on 6, time is up for whatever side has fallen.

Click here to price an analog clock.

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