Clock Watching vs Needless Clock
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Clock Watching
This app displays the current time using a four-digit digital format for hours and minutes. An optional in-app purchase adds animated seconds with pendulums that fall or explode to mark the completion of each minute.
- Four-digit time display
- Hour and minute tracking
- Animated seconds option
- Minute completion animations
- In-app purchase for advanced features
Read full descriptionHide full description
It is a digital clock that shows the time, using four digits to display both hours and minutes. You can watch a multitude of minutes and hours progress through time. Add animated seconds to your flanks with an In-App Purchase. Pendulums will move into place with each second until the minute is complete. The pink pendulums will then fall or explode offscreen to allow the sequence to repeat itself. Minute after minute.
Needless Clock
This app offers a collection of living, animated clocks that display time through unique visual narratives. Interact with the scenes to alter elements and enjoy a calming visual experience that goes beyond simple timekeeping.
- Living, animated clock designs
- Interactive visual elements
- Customizable clock scenes
- Scheduled display dimming
- Short clock film creation
- No ads or third-party tracking
Read full descriptionHide full description
People do not open Needless Clock merely to find out the time. More often, they want the glowing screen beside them to grow quiet without becoming empty: something to glance at between tasks, a little light at night, time passing without hurrying anyone along. Needless Clock is a collection of living, animated clocks. They all keep the same real time, but each inhabits a world of its own. Fish turn through water, birds arrive from far away, ants hurry under the weight of a treat, cars follow the painted lines of a car park, and a brush writes numerals in water. At the turn of a minute the picture wakes; once everything has found its place, only small movements, wings, shadows and breathing remain. TIME HAS THIRTEEN PLACES TO GO Fish gather into figures. Touch the water and those nearby scatter, then swim home along their own curved paths. Birds perch on five wires. Some leave at the next minute, others find a new place, and now and then a distant bird crosses the clouds. Tap once and the sky sinks beneath the sea, the flock becoming fish of different forms. Ants carry biscuits, rock sugar, dried fish, winter-melon candy and leaves. Cars pull into bays. Metal blocks fall one by one. These digits are not displayed; they are made. Lotus Pond, Starry Night and Auspicious Cranes share one frame: brushstrokes paint the time across the water, and cranes fly out of the painting to form the figures. White sand crabs climb out of their burrows and line up as figures, while a few red crabs wander the beach, slipping into a burrow or strolling past. Water runs from a brush onto stone and disappears first from the finest ends of the strokes. Oracle bone, bronze, seal and clerical scripts sit beside the hands of Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing and Huang Tingjian, letting one numeral travel through centuries. A gnomon casts its shadow among the twelve Earthly Branches, its length changing through the twenty-four solar terms. There is also a wall of cooperating clock faces, a luminous word clock, figures revealed by paper and shadow, and mechanical flaps that fall like those once heard in stations and airports. GOOD JUST LEFT THERE Swipe to move between clocks. Tap to change a material, colour or world. Or choose a few favourites and let them rotate by themselves, from every minute to every hour. At night the display can dim on your schedule. Keep the screen awake, or hide the title, date and time zone until only time remains. It belongs on an iPhone stand, across an iPad, beside a Mac workspace, or spread quietly over the television in a living room. A MOMENT YOU CAN TAKE WITH YOU On supported devices, Share waits for the next minute. It keeps the stillness before the change and stops after the movement has come to rest, making a short clock film to save or send. No account, no advertising and no third-party tracking. The clocks and their calculations stay on the device. Location is off by default and, if enabled, is used only to let the car park grow dark near your own sunset. Supports Reduce Motion and VoiceOver. Made for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. All clocks now support portrait and landscape on iPhone and iPad, including upside-down portrait. May it do more than tell the time. May it keep the time with you for a while.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Needless Clock at none against Clock Watching's 1. Needless Clock also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Clock Watching sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Needless Clock asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Clock Watching against 5.0 for Needless Clock. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Clock Watching ships an update every 3 weeks, Needless Clock every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.
| Parameter | Clock Watching | Needless Clock |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Thorpe | 路 林 |
Customer experience
Clock Watching
Needless Clock
In-app purchases
Clock Watching
- Add Animated Seconds$1.99
Needless Clock
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Clock Watching free?
Is Needless Clock free?
Which has better reviews, Clock Watching or Needless Clock?
Do Clock Watching or Needless Clock have ads?
Which is updated more often, Clock Watching or Needless Clock?
Other comparisons















