Beogradski Sat
On February 22, 2026, on the night between Saturday and Sunday, the Belgrade Clock was installed in the center of the newly formed roundabout on Republic Square.
Soon after the installation and public presentatino, representatives of opplisition criticized the city government that the similar clock that costed the city about 12 million dinars (approx. 102,000 EUR) can be bought on Chinese market platform Alibaba and for around $6,000.
The chief urban planner is refusing the accusations, claiming that the clock and its pedestal are handmade. The unique highest-quality mechanism, purchased from the French Bodet company. According to Belgrade city official portal publication, the value of the entire contract was only 10 million dinars (85,000 EUR), with the clock mechanism in it costing around 5 million dinars (42,500 EUR). Marko StojΔiΔ said that he will not accept that such a pedestal with a clock can be obtained on sites like Alibaba for alower price and offered his resignation if anyone would proove the accusations or get a better or identical watch at smaller price.
The clock ignited a discussion in society, where some are saying that the clock is fine and it’s the opposition who tries to raise a scandal, and others accusing the government in corruption and overspending the budget.
Thanks to Alibaba AI helper, this can be easily checked:
My main questions are:
- why, despite of rich typographic tradition and great European cultural legacy, Arabic numbers were chosed for the dial?
- why, instead of scaling-up the clock, there was a desicion to put the disrpopirtionally small clock to be rasied on a pedestal?
- why a clock at all? It’s far enough from the sidewalk to read the time for pedestrians, and obviously not for the drivers which have dashboard clocks and defenitely aren’t meant to be distracted. So, why a clock, not a vase, a fountain, or a sculpture
- after all, why is the roundabout made with cobblestone, not asphalt, and why the lack of lane markup is less important than the purely decorative element?
Finally, let’s see the similar clocks from around the world (thanks to Google Image search):
Maybe it’s becuase we can’t tell a genuine thing from a cheap chinese copy?
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