Xanadu Miniature Golf Ball Quartz Desk Clock on Brass Stand, c. 1990–2005

The Piece

A miniature desk clock in the form of a golf ball, from the Xanadu line of novelty quartz miniatures, set on a polished brass stem and domed foot. The ball is a full-size golf ball in dimpled white, tilted back on its stem so that the face looks up at the person sitting at the desk, and the clock is let into it behind a wide polished brass bezel. The dial is white with black Roman numerals, a minute track and the Xanadu name in script above the center, with Quartz lettered below, and the hands are black spade hands on a quartz movement marked for Japan at the foot of the dial. The brass base is a simple bell-shaped stem on a round domed foot, and the underside is stamped with the maker's oval cartouche.

The ball and the brass are bright and clean, with the slight softening of the plating on the foot where it has been handled. The dial shows a fine hairline across the crystal that is visible only at close range and does not affect the reading of the time. The clock is offered untested and takes a standard button cell, which is a moment's work to change through the back of the movement.

History & Provenance

Xanadu miniature clocks were one of the signature lines of the novelty clock trade of the 1990s and early 2000s, when a handful of importers sold small quartz clocks built into every shape a gift shop could display: a golf ball, a tennis ball, a grand piano, a typewriter, a carousel, a telephone. They were made in the Far East on reliable Japanese quartz movements, finished in polished brass, and sold through department store gift floors, pro shops, airport shops and catalog houses as the small, affordable present for the person who had everything. The golf ball was the natural best seller, bought for the golfer's desk, the club trophy table and the nineteenth hole, and the Xanadu examples are the better finished of the type, with a proper brass bezel, a legible Roman dial and a weighted base that keeps the ball from tipping.

The piece is marked for Xanadu on the dial and carries the manufacturer's cartouche on the base. The dating rests on the materials and the construction rather than style alone: the quartz movement marked for Japan, the polished brass fittings and the molded ball are all consistent with manufacture between about 1990 and 2005.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

This is the small object that makes a desk personal. It takes up less room than a coffee cup, it tells the time at a glance from the chair, and it says something about the person who sits there without a word. It belongs on a writing desk, a study bookshelf, a bedside table or beside the trophies in a den, and it is the easy gift for the golfer, the retiree or the colleague who is impossible to buy for. For a shop or designer client it is the ready-made golf gift that sells on sight and the kind of small brass accent that finishes a gentleman's vignette.