A full screen clock that keeps your screen awake

Borrowed from your phone's lock screen

Most browser clocks go fullscreen and sit there at full brightness, which is unpleasant overnight and hard on OLED panels. This one reduces instead of just fading:

• The numerals thin out from a medium weight to a light one, rather than only losing contrast.
• Everything non-essential disappears — the seconds rail, the controls, the timezone readout.
• On a dark theme the background drops to near-black, so OLED pixels switch off rather than glow.
• The whole readout drifts slowly around a thirteen-pixel ellipse, one step a minute, so no pixel holds the same glyph for hours.

Move the mouse, press a key, or tap the screen and full contrast returns immediately. Why always-on displays dim goes into the OLED physics behind each of these.

Built for the screen you aren't working on

• A second monitor. Drag the window across, press Always On, and reclaim the screen you weren't using. Full walkthrough.
• A bedside or desk clock. An old phone or tablet with Add to Home Screen becomes a dedicated clock. How to set one up.
• Meetings, talks and classrooms. A clock the whole room can read from the back.
• Streaming and recording. A clean on-screen time source for OBS or a capture card.
• Kitchens and workshops. Big enough to read across a room, at a glance, with wet hands.

Four controls, and that's the whole thing

• Always On — goes fullscreen, requests a screen wake lock, and dims after four seconds idle. F
• Theme — follows your system by default, or lock it to light or dark. T
• 12 / 24 hour — picked up from your device's locale, switchable either way. H
• Exit — leaves always-on mode. Esc

Your theme and clock-format choices are remembered in your browser. There is no account and nothing to install.

Frequently asked

Does it stop my screen from going to sleep?

Yes, on browsers that support the Screen Wake Lock API — Chrome, Edge, Safari 16.4 and later, and Firefox 126 and later. Press Always On and the status line reports whether the lock is actually held rather than assuming it worked. It holds the display awake; it cannot override a closed laptop lid or a system-level sleep schedule.

Why does the clock get dimmer?

Always-on mode copies what phones do on their lock screens. After four seconds without input the numerals thin from a medium weight to a light one, the seconds rail and controls disappear, and on a dark theme the background drops to near-black. Move the mouse or press any key and full contrast returns immediately.

Will leaving it on burn my screen?

The readout drifts slowly around a thirteen-pixel ellipse, one step a minute, so no pixel holds the same glyph for long. That is the same burn-in mitigation phones use on their always-on displays. On a dark theme the near-black background also keeps most pixels unlit.

Can I use it on a second monitor?

Yes — that is the main reason it exists. Drag the browser window onto the second screen and press Always On, or use your browser's own fullscreen key. The clock scales to whatever size the window is.

Does it work on iPhone or iPad?

Yes. iOS Safari has no Fullscreen API, so use Share then Add to Home Screen and open it from the icon — it launches without browser chrome. The screen wake lock works on iOS 16.4 and later.

Is the time accurate?

It reads your device's clock, which your operating system keeps synchronised to network time. Nothing is fetched from a time server, so the reading is exactly as accurate as the device it runs on.

Does it need an internet connection?

Only to load the page. Once it is open the clock runs entirely in your browser with no server calls, so it keeps running if your connection drops.

Do you collect my data?

There is no account, no sign-up and no ads. Your theme and clock-format preferences are stored in your own browser and never sent anywhere. The site uses Google Analytics to count visits, which sets a cookie for that purpose.