Passing the time: a clock made from beer bottles

Rick Stanley makes some very special clocks. He makes clocks from beer bottles (over 300 Yuengling beer bottles to be exact), clocks with bicycle bells, clocks with coins, dominoes and liquids. He makes fancy clocks of great intricacy alongside his son Vince Stanley in Millville, Pennsylvania at Stanley Clockworks which they founded in 2006.

Rick didn't start with clocks. A graduate of the University of California, Rick earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. With this degree, he has supported his family for the past 20 years as a technician in the power generation industry. Always the inventor, Rick has also designed and built machines that dispense medicine, agricultural equipment that reduces the time spent growing crops, and a working electric motorcycle.

As an outlet for his creativity, Rick often resorted to his clocks, exhibiting a "what if" attitude. What if the clock was elongated laterally rather than circular? What if the mechanisms were exposed in such a way that everyone could actually see the inner workings of the clock? What if we built a clock around a particular theme?