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In 2014, the Clock Museum commemorated its 30-years anniversary. This publication presents the history of the museum through all these years. In 1978, the first exhibition displaying the historical clocks was opened in Klaipėda. Curators of this exhibition together with the heads from Lithuanian Art Museum and other cultural figures decided to join Potential and establish the clock museum. The origins of the museum Were Lithuanian Art Museum’s Clocks Department, established in 1979. The head of department became young artist designer R. Martinkus. This department evolved putting much effort and consistent work and eventually developed into an autonomous so far the only clock museum in Lithuania. On the 27th of July 1984, the Clock Museum was opened for the visitors. The publication discusses the Clock Museum establishing origins, accumulation of exhibits, and development of classification systems. It was then a real challenge to the founders of the museum; they had neither experience nor historical resources explaining where to begin and how to develop this kind of museum. Museum professionals, historians, librarians, ethnologists, physicists, astronomers, art historians, conservationists, architects, artists, restorers, builders, carpenters, stonemasons, plumbers, electricians all together worked to implement the project. In 2014, after three decades of museum opening, exhibition ‘The Time Spiral’ summarized the path of the museum. Fragments of perennial scientific, cultural, educational achievements and prospective plans, ideas for a future were represented in the exhibition.

In 2012 the LAM Department Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS started to develop audio guide text for Lithuanian Clock Museum. It contains 30 selected most valuable clocks on display at the museum, which reflect the mechanism development history and represent different artistic styles. This article, prepared according to the audio guide mentioned, aims to present a detailed presentation of the exhibits selected for the audio guide and to highlight their uniqueness. Throughout history humans tried to answer the question what is time. Developed civilizations tried to know, learn to count and master time since the very old days. Visiting Lithuanian Clock Museum exposition reassures that it is not so simple to count time and that various nations understood it differently. Moreover, the visitors can find out that common time counting system that we know today was created only in the 19th century. The exposition of the Clock Museum provides the visitors with an opportunity to see more than 400 original and rare clocks and to see a clockmaker’s workshop during the Renaissance. The exposition consists of two parts. The first floor presents time counting principles and the development of clock construction from the ancient times until today. The visitors are introduced to calendars, ancient sun, water, fire, sand, mechanical and other clocks. The second floor introduces the changes in the form and design of mechanic clocks from 16th to 20th century. The exposition displays the works of the famous European and Lithuanian clock makers – Theodor Tarasovig, Abraham-Louis Breguet, Theodore Perret and others. The remaining part of the 19th century park near the building of the museum was turned into a courtyard with working sundials. After taking a look at the exposition of the clocks, the visitors are invited to take a walk in the Sundial Park. [...]