40 Minute Timer, No Sound — Split-Flap Countdown Clock

A forty-minute countdown on a split-flap board, with no sound at all. Put your own music, lesson or workout audio over it. The forty minutes are real. The clock runs for exactly 144,000 frames at 60 frames per second. There is a three second lead-in (3, 2, 1) before it starts, and the board holds on TIME'S UP for six seconds after it reaches zero — which is why the video runs nine seconds longer than the timer does. Because there is no bell, the board itself is the signal: every card stops moving and TIME'S UP appears. There is a version of this same timer with ticks and a bell, if you want the sound. Split-flap boards are the ones from railway stations — Solari di Udine built the first in 1956, and the leaves are still why a departure board sounds like applause when a platform changes. This one is the quiet exception.