Word Clock for macOS
A small, native macOS menu-bar clock that writes the current time in words and keeps your calendar one click away.
Word Clock was inspired by Fuzzy Time by Marcus Olovsson, an app I used for many years and loved for its simple, human way of showing the time, which in turn was inspired by FuzzyClock made by Guido Neitzer. This project carries that idea forward as a modern native macOS app, with a calendar and quick access to upcoming events.
Highlights
- Speaks the time naturally, such as “ten past four” or “quarter to five”
- Shows a compact, browsable month calendar with optional ISO week numbers
- Opens Calendar on the selected day when you click a date
- Lists up to five upcoming Calendar events
- Opens Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Whereby links directly
- Opens other events in the system Calendar app
- Can hide all-day events or events with fewer than two participants
- Supports exact-minute wording or five-minute rounding
- Optional weekday, lowercase text, configurable look-ahead, and launch at login
- Native “Check for Updates…” action in About, with automatic launch-time checks
- Uses AppKit, EventKit, ServiceManagement, SF Symbols, and native macOS materials
- Runs entirely in the menu bar with no Dock icon
Requirements
- macOS 14 Sonoma or newer
- Apple silicon or Intel Mac
Download
Download the latest universal build from GitHub Releases.
The downloadable build is ad-hoc signed rather than notarized. On first launch, macOS may require you to approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
Word Clock uses Sparkle for secure updates. Automatic checks and automatic installation can be controlled independently in General settings.
Build from source
Only Apple’s Command Line Tools are required; a full Xcode installation is not necessary.
git clone https://github.com/AnandChowdhary/word-clock.git
cd word-clock
./scripts/build-app.sh
open outputs/WordClock.app
The build script produces a universal arm64 and x86_64 application in outputs/WordClock.app.
Run the formatter checks with:
./scripts/test.sh
Calendar access and privacy
Calendar integration is optional. When enabled, Word Clock reads events locally through EventKit to populate the Up Next section. Calendar data is not transmitted or stored outside the system calendar database.
If an event contains a supported meeting URL in its URL, location, or notes, clicking it opens that link. Otherwise, clicking the event opens Calendar.
Clicking a day uses Calendar’s native automation command to show that date. macOS may ask for permission to control Calendar the first time you use it.
Project structure
Sources/WordClock/ AppKit application source
Support/ App metadata and privacy descriptions
Tests/Runner/ Lightweight formatter checks
scripts/ Build and test scripts
assets/ README imagery
.github/workflows/ Signed release and appcast automation