Nomads’ Coffee Shop Clock

Good Directions LTD had the pleasure of manufacturing a bespoke double-sided Drum Clock for Nomads’ Coffee Shop, located in Paisley, Scotland. This drum clock was to be a replica of an old travel agents clock which hung outside of “Duncan’s Travel Agency” back in 1957, a business which stood on the same location that Nomads’ now occupies.

In June 2021, Nomads’ Coffee moved into the historic location and as part of a move to restore and retain the heritage of this iconic building, as they had kept the travel themed etched windows and other original features, they wanted a replica of the long lost clock feature, but in the colour scheme of Nomad’s quaint coffee shop.

We were contacted by SJM Architects who were working on a project to refurbish the shop frontage as part of the townscape heritage regeneration of Paisley High Street. Working with SJM Architects, Good Directions replicated the original clock design working from historical photos.

Aluminium profiles were cut on Good Directions’ waterjet cutter, and then welded together to create a framework, which would not only be what attaches to the side of the building, but also houses the actual dials themselves. The aluminium framework was powder coated a shade of copper, to fit in with Nomads’ existing branding.

The clock was a double-sided drum, so for maximum visibility both day and night the customer opted to have the dials back illuminated, a feat achieved by affixing LED strips to the inside of the drum. The dials themselves were cut from acrylic, with vinyl chapters and hour markers. Prominent signage panels incorporated into the clock design were sign written with “Duncan’s Travel Agency” as on the original 1957 clock.

The clock is a prominent feature outside the coffee shop and easily read from up and down the street, so to ensure the clocks are accurate without the need to get up a ladder the customer installed one of our clock resynchronisers just inside the shop above the door out of reach. This automatically restarts the clocks after any power cuts and is pre-programmed to alter the clocks at the seasonal time changes, so once set up the clocks take care of themselves.

Working closely with the customers contractor Colorado Construction, Good Directions installed the clock to the coffee shops fascia. Whilst the high street refurbishment work was still ongoing the Good Directions team were able to leave the clock running to the delight of the owners and their customers.