Clock of Flowing Time, Water clock in Europa-Center, Berlin, Germany

The Clock of Flowing Time is a water clock in Europa-Center that spans three floors and uses glowing liquid inside glass spheres and tubes to mark the hours. The mechanism relies on the gradual filling and emptying of connected vessels, creating a moving pattern that changes throughout the day.

The Clock of Flowing Time was designed by French artist Bernard Gitton and installed in 1982 in the Europa-Center in Berlin. It is a 13-metre-high water clock extending over three floors, using coloured water in glass spheres and communicating tubes to show time in a twelve-hour cycle. At 1 a.m. and 1 p.m. the system empties and restarts.

The liquid is dyed with fluorescein, so under UV lamps it appears to glow on its own. Every hour at 1:00 and 13:00 the whole system empties, leaving only the hour sphere for 1:00 visible before the 12-hour cycle restarts. The smallest spheres fill every 144 seconds, a rhythm marked by glass notches on the minute column.

The clock rises through three floors of the Europa-Center on Tauentzienstraße in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, so it can be viewed from more than one level of the shopping center. The liquid is dyed with fluorescein and glows under UV lamps, so the display reads clearly regardless of daylight. The whole system empties and restarts at 1:00 and 13:00, a moment worth timing a visit around.

A pendulum at the lower section swings once every six seconds and helps regulate the time intervals with precision. The siphon principle ensures that liquid moves from one vessel to the next in controlled cycles.