How do I find a meow-chiming wall clock?

February 5, 2013 7:38 PM

For some time I've desired to own a wall clock which plays a cat (or cats) meowing the tune to the Westminster Chimes, as well as one meow for every hour. How can I purchase or make this?

The exact shape of the clock doesn't matter, as long as it hangs on the wall, tells time and audibly plays cats meowing in tune to the Westminster chimes at least every hour. Playing the quarters every quarter hour is obviously a bonus.

I don't have significant electronics 'maker' skills so I'm not sure that I could, say, do some fancy work with an arduino/etc to make my own clock/speaker/auto-tuned cat samples.

Cursory googling tells me that nothing like this exists for me to buy, but maybe I'm wrong. Can I buy this somewhere? If I can't, is there a clock with programmable noises where I can replace the hour chimes with my own .wav or .mp3 samples?

Basically, how can I acquire this clock of my dreams?

posted by pziemba to technology (7 answers total)

First, I'd like to say that if you read it often enough, the word "clock" ceases to have meaning.

This seems like a tough one, but this place looks like they do custom clock work - although I've no idea of their prices or your price range.

Good luck!
posted by dotgirl at 8:08 PM on February 5

Mount a remote speaker behind a normal clock or in the carcass of a grandfather-clock-shaped cabinet. Then use a computer program, either off-the-rack or bespoke, to remotely drive the speaker.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:14 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]

I can't speak to the construction of the clock, but -- and I realize how ridiculous this may sound -- a good source of the desired audio might be the Cat Piano app. Which is available for both iOS and Android. If you can figure out how to play the tones you want, you should be able to record them. There are a number of different "meow" sounds available in the app, some surprisingly realistic, and having the piano interface means you can vary the pitch and make any tune you like.
posted by aecorwin at 10:24 PM on February 5 [3 favorites]

This recordable chime clock looks like it might be helpful.
posted by lollusc at 11:14 PM on February 5 [2 favorites]

How's your programming? You could plug a Raspberry Pi into amplified speakers and teach it to meow the time with no electronics fiddling. A tiny bit of electronics lets you add an LED display.
posted by moonmilk at 7:09 AM on February 6 [1 favorite]

Won't a phone do something like this with the right ringtones? Could you DIY something around an old phone?
posted by Jode at 8:11 PM on February 6

You could post this on jobs.mefi. There are many talented people here; maybe someone will take on the task.
posted by theora55 at 9:53 PM on February 6