A Giant Kinetic Clock… with Footballs? Of Course

So, there was a bit of a football competition this year. Something called the World Cup? Nope, never heard of it either. But Brent Cross Shopping Centre was all in and wanted a way for shoppers to get in on the action.

Their brief? An installation where the public could watch the matches, soak up the atmosphere, and celebrate the noble tradition of grown men chasing a ball around a field while thousands of fans blast away on primitive trumpets.

We teamed up with Xcite Campaign Management to create something special. The plan started as a life-sized house structure, designed to match the My Brent Cross branding. Then Xcite casually suggested, “Hey, maybe add a clock that does something every hour?”

Plunge, being Plunge, took that idea, cranked it up to eleven, and went full mad scientist.

Enter: The Giant Kinetic Football Clock

Inspired by a mesmerising ball-bearing clock from the 1980s, we built a giant kinetic clock — but with footballs instead of traditional timepieces. Because why settle for a regular clock when you can have one that’s a full-blown engineering spectacle?

Using bent steel tubes, we welded together an enormous ball race, complete with balances and chain drives, all mounted on a heavy-duty aluminium truss frame from Noble Ox. It took three long nights to install and filled the entire central atrium at Brent Cross.

How Does It Work?

Strap in—this is where the magic happens.

• Every minute, a football is lifted to the top of the structure and dropped into the ball race.
• It rolls down into the minute balance. When the fifth ball arrives, the balance tips! Four balls return to the start, while the fifth moves into the five-minute balance.
• The five-minute balance fills up: 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins… Until—boom—it tips, and one ball moves into the hour balance.
• The process continues, balls dropping, tipping, and cascading through the system.
• When the final ball rolls in at 12:59, everything is full.
• At 1:00, the last ball triggers a chain reaction—the minute balance tips, then the five-minute balance, then the hour balance… and suddenly, a spectacular avalanche of footballs races around the system. Time resets. And just like that, it’s 1 o’clock.

If that sounds complicated, well… it is! But watching the giant kinetic football clock in action? Pure theatre.

Want to see it in all its football-rolling, time-telling glory? Head to Brent Cross and witness the most exciting way to check the time ever invented. ⚽⏳