Why this exists
A clock on a desktop has one job and most of them do it either too loudly or not at all. A tray digit is easy to miss; a busy widget is easy to resent. Neither is calm.
Fancy Clock is built around letting you choose how present it is. Fade it right down so it disappears into the wallpaper. Or give it a bold animated skin and let it be the brightest thing on the desktop. Either way it is dimmable so it never has to compete with your work and correct about the time and the timezone, so you can trust a glance instead of a double-check.
It is the clock I wanted on my own desktop: something pleasant to look at, honest about the time and happy to fade into the background until the moment I need it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fancy Clock free?
Yes. Fancy Clock is free and open source, released under the GNU LGPL-3.0 licence.
Does Fancy Clock work offline?
Yes. It is local-first and everything works offline. Its only network use is fetching accurate time from an NTP server at startup and an anonymous daily check of GitHub releases for a newer version; both stay silent when no network is available. Only a check you ask for from the Help menu tells you it could not reach GitHub.
Which platforms does Fancy Clock run on?
Windows, macOS and Linux, from a single PySide6 codebase. Windows ships as an installer, macOS as a DMG and Linux as a Flatpak.
Can I make the clock semi-transparent or keep it out of the way?
Yes, on Windows and macOS. A slider in the View menu dims the window from fully solid down to a faint overlay, also adjustable with Ctrl and the Up and Down arrows or Ctrl and the mouse wheel. Your level is remembered between sessions. On Linux the app ships as a Flatpak, whose sandbox cannot set per-window opacity, so the control is not available there.
Does it handle different timezones and languages?
Yes. Fancy Clock detects your system timezone and language, shows the correct local time and translates the interface and numbers into 36 languages across 40 regional locales. Choosing a timezone switches to that place's language. Timezones are listed by their IANA names, which are not translated.
Does Fancy Clock have alarms?
Yes. Weekly-repeating or one-off alarms with labels, colours, five sounds, per-alarm snooze durations and snooze budgets, set on a clock-face time picker. The app can live in the system tray and optionally start when you sign in. Anything that fired while the machine was asleep or the app was closed appears in a missed-alarms summary.
Will an alarm wake my computer from sleep?
No, deliberately. Fancy Clock never wakes a suspended or powered-off machine. If an alarm's time passes while the machine is asleep, it rings on wake when recent or is reported in the missed-alarms summary.