SWISSWATCH(1)

📦
version 0.7.1 · 2 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 swisswatch(1) — the manual, but make it cute ✨

okay bestie, sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, because this is the swisswatch page from User Commands and it's about to be your new favourite thing. it's giving iconic clock, no cap.

🌸 NAME 🌸

swisswatch — Swiss Railway analog clock 🚂🕐

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

swisswatch [OPTION...]

that's it. that's the whole vibe.

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

swisswatch renders the iconic Swiss Railway (SBB/CFF/FFS) clock face, designed by Hans Hilfiker back in the 1940s. periodt. 🕰️✨

The second hand sweeps around in 57.5 seconds, pauses at 12 o'clock until it receives the minute signal, and then begins the next sweep. the minute hand jumps to the next minute position at each minute boundary. the way that little pause is literally the whole personality of this clock 😭👑

By default the clock is displayed as an undecorated, transparent circular window (that's shaped mode) that floats on your desktop with no title bar. main character energy fr fr. 💅 and you can move the window by clicking and dragging anywhere on the clock face — anywhere! no grabby bars needed.

Usage: 🫶

swisswatch [OPTION...]

Help Options: 🙋‍♀️

  • -h, --help — show help options
  • --help-all — show all help options
  • --help-gapplication — show GApplication options

GApplication Options: 🔌

  • --gapplication-service — enter GApplication service mode (use from D-Bus service files)

Application Options: 👑

  • --name=NAME — clock face (default: swisswatch)
  • --railroad — Swiss Railway Clock second-hand mode
  • --norailroad — smooth, continuous second-hand motion
  • --circular — keep face circular when window is non-square
  • --nocircular — allow elliptical face when window is non-square
  • --shape — undecorated transparent circular window
  • --noshape — standard decorated rectangular window
  • --fullscreen — start in fullscreen mode
  • --nofullscreen — start in normal (non-fullscreen) mode (default)
  • --tick=SECONDS — update interval in seconds
  • -V, --version — show version information and exit

Available clock faces: 💖

  • swisswatch — authentic SBB/CFF/FFS Swiss Railway clock (default)
  • botta — Mario Botta's SF MoMA design
  • fancy — stylised outlined hands on black
  • swissclock — arrow hands, railroad mode
  • oclock — MIT oclock emulation, no second hand

🌈 NOTES 🌈

The available clock faces and their brief descriptions are listed in the --name option's help text (see --help-all). Each face sets its own defaults for background colour, window shape, railroad mode, and update rate; individual flags such as --noshape and --norailroad override the face's defaults. so yes bestie, you can remix your fave 💅

The --tick option controls how often the display is redrawn. The default of 0.06 seconds (approximately 17 frames per second) is fast enough for the smooth second-hand sweep in railroad mode. In --norailroad mode the default is 1 second since no sub-second motion occurs. lowkey efficient of it.

⚠️ transparency in shaped mode requires a compositing window manager. on desktops without compositing the transparent regions appear black. not the vibe, so check your setup first 🙈

⌨️ KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ⌨️

The following keys are active while the clock window has focus:

  • Escape, q, Q — close the clock window and exit.
  • +, =, KP_Add — increase the window size by 50 pixels.
  • -, KP_Subtract — decrease the window size by 50 pixels.
  • f, F, F11 — toggle fullscreen mode (equivalent to --fullscreen/--nofullscreen).
  • r, R — toggle railroad (Swiss Railway) second-hand mode (equivalent to --railroad/--norailroad).
  • n, N — cycle to the next clock face (equivalent to --name), restarting the timer if the face's update rate differs.
  • s, S — toggle shaped (undecorated, transparent) mode (equivalent to --shape/--noshape).
  • c, C — toggle circular mode (equivalent to --circular/--nocircular).

slay, you can do everything from the keyboard 🧚✨

👑 AUTHORS 👑

  • Simon Leinen (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) wrote the original Xt/X11 version.
  • Der Mouse wrote the mclock program that inspired the original; portions of the documentation are adapted from mclock.doc.
  • GTK4/Cairo port by Barak A. Pearlmutter.

legends only, honestly 🫶

💜 EXAMPLES 💜

Normal Swiss Railway clock (shaped, no title bar):

swisswatch

Plain decorated rectangular window:

swisswatch --noshape

Smooth second hand (non-railroad mode) in a decorated window:

swisswatch --norailroad --noshape

Elliptical face (stretches to fill the window aspect ratio):

swisswatch --nocircular --noshape

copy, paste, obsess 💅

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

Report bugs at: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/swisswatch

found a bug? tell the tracker, not the void 🌸

Copyright © 1992 Simon Leinen License GPLv2+: GNU General Public License v2 or later.

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

xclock(1)

okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate it 💖 this was swisswatch 0.7, dated May 2026 — mwah, go stare at a clock that pauses at 12 like it's the main character. periodt 🕐🚂✨

📦 where this page comes from