Playground · Drawing · HTML · Standing test
An analogue clock that tells the time
An analogue clock looks simple, but it is easy to get quietly wrong: the hour hand has to creep between the hours as the minutes pass, the second hand has to move, and every hour has to be on the dial. We checked each clock against the real time, a second apart, and again at a fixed 10:42:30 to see where the hour hand sits.
The prompt, word for word
Create an analogue clock that shows the current local time, with hour, minute and second hands and the hours marked around the dial. Make it look beautiful. Make it a single self-contained HTML file (inline CSS and JavaScript, no external libraries, fonts or images).
Every answer runs live, in a sandboxed frame. Click into one to play with it.
How each model did
| Model | Our notes | Checks | Time | Output tokens | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-6.1 Sol Our pick | A cream dial in a brass bezel on a deep green page headed "The present hour.", with serif numerals, a digital readout, the date and the time zone underneath. The hands were right to the second against the real clock, and at 10:42 the hour hand sits about two thirds of the way from 10 to 11. Nothing missing and nothing out of place. | 4 of 4 | 54 s | 3,422 302 thinking |
$0.034 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | A navy dial with gold Roman numerals (a watchmaker's IIII for four), a gold rim, a red second hand and a date window, labelled "TEMPUS". The time was exact and the hour hand moves between hours in proportion. It is as polished as GPT-6.1's clock, at about four times the cost. | 4 of 4 | 62 s | 7,237 847 thinking |
$0.145 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | A classic cream dial with black Roman numerals, a gold case and a red second hand with a counterweight, labelled "CHRONOS". The hands showed the correct time and the hour hand sat halfway between IIII and V at 4:28. Clean and correct, but the most expensive answer on the page. | 4 of 4 | 41 s | 3,750 142 thinking |
$0.188 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | A dark "CHRONOMETER" dial with thin gold hands, small gold numerals and a date window. The time and hands are right, but the date window replaces the 3, so only eleven hours are numbered, and the numerals are small for the size of the dial.
|
3.5 of 4 | 55 s | 6,772 2,447 thinking |
$0.025 |
| Muse Spark 1.3 | A navy and gold "AURUM" dial with bold white numerals, a pink second hand, a date pill and a digital readout with the time zone. The time was correct and the hour hand moves in proportion. The date pill sits under the hands near the centre, so the hands cross it. | 4 of 4 | 76 s | 5,899 2,391 thinking |
$0.025 |
| Grok 4.7 | A plain white dial with black stick hands, a thin red second hand and a dense ring of minute ticks. The time is right, but the long hour ticks run straight through the numerals, so 9, 3, 4 and 8 are struck through. The fastest answer, at 23 seconds.
|
3.5 of 4 | 23 s | 2,084 54 thinking |
$0.013 |
| Kimi K3 | A navy "MERIDIAN" dial with gold Roman numerals (IIII for four), a heavy polished gold bezel and a red second hand. The time was correct and the hour hand sits in proportion between hours. It looks very close to Claude Opus 5.5's clock and took 206 seconds. | 4 of 4 | 206 s | 13,695 9,596 thinking |
$0.178 |
| Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | An ornate cream dial with blue steel hands, a date window, a day-progress bar and a sweep/tick switch. The hands are right, but the large Roman numerals are crowded on a small ring, with XI, XII and I running into the "MERIDIAN" label, and the date window takes the place of III. It took over 12 minutes.
|
3.5 of 4 | 732 s | 28,697 20,805 thinking |
$0.172 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | A simple dark dial with a gold rim, white numerals and hands, and an orange second hand. Every check passes and the dial is easy to read, though it is plainer than the best answers. The cheapest answer on the page, at under a cent. | 4 of 4 | 28 s | 8,213 5,894 thinking |
$0.010 |
| Mistral Large 4 | A glowing dark blue dial with gold, white and pink hands. The hands show the right time, but the dial is numbered in minutes (12, 5, 10 ... 55) instead of hours, so 4:29 reads as the hour hand at "20" and the minute hand at "30".
|
3 of 4 | 158 s | 5,999 2,958 thinking |
$0.013 |
One answer per model, at each model's default settings unless the card says otherwise, through OpenRouter. If an answer ran out of room or stopped short, we asked again with more room, then with thinking off, and say so. We tried every answer, with Claude Opus 5.5 running the checks and drafting the notes; it is an Anthropic model, so we check its calls on Claude answers ourselves. This is a quick look, not a benchmark: run it again and every answer will differ. For measured results, see our benchmarks.
What we checked, by trying each answer ourselves: Shows the correct current time (within a minute); The second hand moves (ticking or sweeping); The hour hand sits between hours in proportion to the minutes (at 4:30 it is halfway from 4 to 5); All twelve hours are marked and readable. A partial pass counts as half.
Verdict
Every clock told the right time, had a moving second hand and moved the hour hand between hours properly, so the dial and the finish made the difference. GPT-6.1 Sol's brass and cream clock with its date and time-zone readout is the best overall, and at 54 seconds and $0.034 it costs a quarter of what Claude Opus 5.5 ($0.145), Claude Fable 5.1 ($0.188) and Kimi K3 ($0.178) charged for equally correct clocks. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash gave a plain but fully correct clock in 28 seconds for $0.0099.
The faults were all on the dial. Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8 Max put a date window where the 3 should be, Grok 4.7 ran its hour ticks through the numerals, and Mistral Large 4 numbered the dial in minutes, so it shows no hours at all. Qwen took 732 seconds.
What would your prompt get?The Spring Prompt playground runs one prompt on up to six models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral and others, side by side.
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