Five bells, one desk
Which chime is best depends on the room you're putting it in — and Horologe gives you five to choose between, at $5.99, paid once. Here's what each one is for.
The specification, in prose: four faces — Mantel, Station, Chronometer, Nocturne — and five bells; quarters on or off and the hour counted out either way; quiet hours silent from 10pm to 8am; a right-click on the menu-bar bell to mute. About three and a half megabytes, macOS 15 or later, on the Mac App Store.
The five, in turn
Westminster. The full ceremony. Four notes at a quarter past, eight at half past, twelve at a quarter to, sixteen on the hour — and then the hour counted out. It's the tune from Big Ben and a thousand tower clocks, and it's the one most people mean when they say a clock chimes. Where the tune came from has the long version.
Whittington. Westminster's rounder English cousin. It plays the same phrase on every quarter rather than changing it, and it's the other bell that plays the quarters at all. If Westminster feels busy, Whittington is the calmer sibling.
Ship's Bell. The nautical watch, counted one to eight — one strike for the first half hour of a watch, up to eight bells at its end. It doesn't do quarters and it doesn't do tunes. It counts.
Temple Bowl. One struck note, and a long time leaving. No tune, no count, no rhythm: a single tone that takes its seconds to fade out of the room. It's the quietest presence of the five.
Grandfather. A deep tolling strike, one for each hour, no tune on top. It's the sound of a longcase clock without the cabinet — the easiest voice to live with, and the one we recommend first.
How to choose
For a first week, Grandfather, hour only, volume low. One strike per hour is the gentlest way to find out whether you want a clock that speaks at all. When the answer's yes, switch the quarters on and try Westminster or Whittington; between them, pick Westminster if you want the tune everyone knows, Whittington if you want the same voice to stay level all hour.
And if what you want is the hour marked, not scored, take Temple Bowl or Ship's Bell. None of the five is a recording — each strike is computed the moment it sounds, so it decays the way metal does. That's also why no two strikes are quite alike.
Every part of it comes off, too. Quarters off, hour only, volume down, quiet hours from ten at night, and a right-click on the menu-bar bell to silence the whole thing. The limits, in the same size type: no alarms, no timers, no world clocks, no ticking, and it can ring during a call.
Hear all five — Horologe is $5.99 once. For the bell itself, read the grandfather clock at your grandmother's house.
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