Is it a trend anyone else is noticing? I'm noting that new build retirement apartments are including a functioning public analog clock as part of their design.
It's not something I see in any other kind of building; is this the barber shop pole of retirement homes? A quick visual that denotes the function of the building?
Prior to the proliferation of cellular phones, we didn't carry time in our pockets. People used watches, but they could easily be unreliable. We didn't have any means of automatically synchronizing clocks - the best one could do was listen to the radio for the top of the hour one second tone from the National Research Council Time Signal.
Public clocks were common, even twenty years ago, and have become increasingly rare. Analog clocks even more rare.
This throwback, nostalgia if you will, is fitting for a retirement residence.