This clock features New Old Stock, Russian made, IN-8 nixie tubes. These are stylish, high quality, military grade, long life tubes with large 19mm (0.8") digits. Unlike some Russian nixie tubes these feature a proper number 5 and not a back to front / upside down number 2!

The slim case was professionally manufactured from gloss black acrylic (Plexi, Perspex with all edges polished), which beautifully mirrors the nixies glow. Switches on the back select 12 or 24 hour modes and set the time.

Manufactured in Europe and the USA in the 1960's and 70's and in Russia up to the early 90's nixie tube displays predate LED and LCD displays and have a real "space age" look about them. Inside a glass tube, ten solid metal cathodes are shaped to form the digits 0 - 9 which, when lit, give off a warm orange / violet glow that can be read from quite a distance.
With modern displays we have become used to straight lines forming the digit segments - a zero is displayed as a rectangle - but as each nixie tube digit has its own individually formed number, curves can be used, so the figure "8" is a figure of eight shape... not represented by a square on top of a square!

The numbers in the tubes are stacked in front of each other, so as the seconds increase the digits seem to jump from front to back increasing the animation of the display.