Internally the clock is run by an Arduino Nano clone, a DS1307RTC to keep the time, and a bunch of WS2812 LEDs. Hidden in the back is a rotary encoder that can be used to adjust the time, hue, saturation, or brightness of the LEDs.

The clock made with strips of of fibre board. The face of the clock is a pizza box cut with a Cricut vinyl cutter. A paper diffuser and sheer cloth wrap this up to help hide the secret words and create a classier look.

To keep light bleed down, the back panel is lined with craft foam which presses against the light baffles creating a very light tight seel.

Knowing that time is inherently confusing for programming, and the time would have to correctly be translated into assorted lit segments and not just cast from an int to a string, all of the code for the clock was written using test driven development. The unit tests can be found in the GitHub repo.