Rubik's Clock

The front face of a solved original Rubik's clock

The Rubik's Clock is a mechanical puzzle invented and patented by Christopher C. Wiggs and Christopher J. Taylor. The Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik bought the patent from them to market the product under his name. It was first marketed in 1988.

The Rubik's Clock is a two-sided puzzle, each side presenting nine clocks. There are four dials, one at each corner of the puzzle, each allowing the corresponding corner clock to be rotated directly. The corner clocks, unlike the other clocks, rotate on both sides of the puzzle simultaneously and can never be operated independently. Thus, the puzzle contains only 14 independent clocks.

There are also four pins which span both sides of the puzzle; each pin arranged such that if it is "in" on one side, it is "out" on the other. The state of each pin (in or out) determines whether the adjacent corner clock is mechanically connected to the three other adjacent clocks on the front side or on the back side: thus the configuration of the pins determines which sets of clocks can be turned simultaneously by rotating a suitable dial.

The aim of the puzzle is to set all nine clocks to 12 o'clock—straight up—on both sides of the puzzle simultaneously. A method to do so is to start by constructing a cross on both sides—at 12 o'clock—and then solving the corner clocks individually. Other viable speedsolving methods have been devised that always solve it in 14 moves or less. An example is the "7-Simul" method, which involves performing seven pairs of moves on the front and back of the clock simultaneously and requires mental calculation from the puzzle's initial position to determine some moves.

The Rubik's Clock is one of the events recognized by the World Cube Association (WCA). On June 24, 2026, the WCA announced they would be removing Rubik's Clock from their selection of events sanctioned at official competitions, citing high proneness to incidents, difficulty of holding the event at competitions, spectator friendliness, and a desire to move the organization's identity away from "mechanical puzzles". The last competition to host the Rubik's Clock will be the WCA World Championship 2027.

Combinations

Since there are 14 independent clocks with 12 settings each, there are a total of 1214 = 1,283,918,464,548,864 possible combinations for the clock faces. This does not account for the number of pin positions.

Including pin positions, the total combinations is 1214 × 16 = 20,542,695,432,781,824 (approximately 20.5 quadrillion) combinations.

God's number for the Rubik's Clock is 12.

Notation

The puzzle is oriented with 12 o'clock on top, and either side in front. The following moves can be made:

Pin movements

  • UR (top-right): Move the top-right pin up.
  • DR (bottom-right): Move the bottom-right pin up.
  • DL (bottom-left): Move the bottom-left pin up.
  • UL (top-left): Move the top-left pin up.
  • U (both top): Move both top pins up.
  • R (both right): Move both right pins up.
  • D (both bottom): Move both bottom pins up.
  • L (both left): Move both left pins up.
  • ALL (all): Move all pins up.

Wheel movements

  • X+ (X clockwise turns): Turn a dial next to an up-position pin clockwise X times, then move all pins down.
  • X− (X counter-clockwise turns): Turn a dial next to an up-position pin counter-clockwise X times, then move all pins down.

Puzzle rotation

  • y2: Flip the puzzle, then move all pins down.

Records

The world record for a single solve is held by Lachlan Gibson of New Zealand with a time of 1.53 seconds, set at Hasty Hastings 2025 in Hastings, New Zealand.

The world record for the Olympic average of five solves is held by Lachlan Gibson of New Zealand with an average of 2.14 seconds, set at GAN New Zealand Nationals 2026 in Wellington, New Zealand with times of 2.10, (2.07), 2.22, 2.09, and (2.33) seconds.

Top 10 solvers by single solve

RankNameResultCompetition
1New Zealand Lachlan Gibson1.53sNew Zealand Hasty Hastings 2025
2United States Brendyn Dunagan1.60sUnited States Agoura Winter 2026
3Australia Kyle Jones1.61sAustralia Melbourne Summer 2026
4United States Volodymyr Kapustianskyi1.64sUnited States Moorhead Madness 2025
5Poland Antoni Stojek1.74sPoland Cube Factory League Zgierz 2026
6Philippines Karl Abarquez1.84sPhilippines Greenwoods Summer Overtime 2026
7United States Alessandro Diomampo1.85sUnited States Agoura Winter 2026
8Russia Anatolii Turenko1.87sCzech Republic Back to Kostelec 2025
United States Max McGillUnited States Iowa Championship 2026
10Poland Eryk Kasperek1.90sPoland Polish Championship 2025

Top 10 solvers by Olympic average of 5 solves

RankNameResultCompetitionTimes
1New Zealand Lachlan Gibson2.14sNew Zealand GAN New Zealand Nationals 20262.10, (2.07), 2.22, 2.09, (2.33)
2United States Brendyn Dunagan2.24sUnited States Temecula Valley Winter 20252.02, (3.27), (1.93), 2.27, 2.43
3United States Volodymyr Kapustianskyi2.26sUnited States Heartland Championship 20262.46, 1.91, (3.32), (1.76), 2.42
4United States Alessandro Diomampo2.41sUnited States Mountain House Open 20262.46, 2.35, (2.16), (6.45), 2.43
5Australia Kyle Jones2.42sAustralia Melbourne Summer 20262.65, (3.70), 2.30, (1.61), 2.32
Poland Antoni StojekPoland Cube4fun Lublin February 2026(2.70), 2.35, (2.22), 2.26, 2.64
7Poland Eryk Kasperek2.52sPoland Cube4fun Lublin on WEII 20242.44, (3.36), 2.59, (2.40), 2.52
8Philippines Karl Abarquez2.55sPhilippines Greenwoods Clock Clash 20262.71, (4.45), 2.67, 2.27, (1.89)
9United States Ivan ThanhDanh Duong2.57sUnited States North Star Cubing Challenge MN 20262.72, (2.18),, 2.47, (3.05), 2.51
10United States Aaron Jake Wong2.58sUnited States PBs in Palisades Spring 2026(2.29), 2.79, 2.47, (2.96), 2.48

Top 10 single solves

RankNameResultCompetition
1New Zealand Lachlan Gibson1.53sNew Zealand Hasty Hastings 2025
2United States Brendyn Dunagan1.60sUnited States Agoura Winter 2026
3Australia Kyle Jones1.61sAustralia Melbourne Summer 2026
4United States Volodymyr Kapustianskyi1.64sUnited States Moorhead Madness 2025
5United States Brendyn Dunagan1.70sUnited States Georgia Championship 2026
6New Zealand Lachlan Gibson1.74sNew Zealand New Zealand Cubing Decathlon 2025
Poland Antoni StojekPoland Cube Factory League Zgierz 2026
8United States Volodymyr Kapustianskyi1.76sUnited States Heartland Championship 2026
9United States Brendyn Dunagan1.77sUnited States Agoura Winter 2026
101.80sUnited States Rubik's WCA North American Championship 2026

Top 10 Olympic averages of 5 solves

RankNameResultCompetitionTimes
1New Zealand Lachlan Gibson2.14sNew Zealand GAN New Zealand Nationals 20262.10, (2.07), 2.22, 2.09, (2.33)
2United States Brendyn Dunagan2.24sUnited States Temecula Valley Winter 20252.02, (3.27), (1.93), 2.27, 2.43
3New Zealand Lachlan Gibson2.26sNew Zealand 2x2 in Tāmaki Makaurau 20252.27, (1.82), (3.01), 2.26, 2.24
United States Volodymyr KapustianskyiUnited States Heartland Championship 20262.46, 1.91, (3.32), (1.76), 2.42
5United States Brendyn Dunagan2.27sUnited States Agoura Winter 20262.07, 1.97, (1.60), (DNF), 2.77
6New Zealand Lachlan Gibson2.28sNew Zealand Puzzling Papatoetoe 2025(2.20), 2.22, 2.26, 2.36, (2.65)
72.29sNew Zealand Milford Winter Warm Up 2025(4.34), 2.57, 2.08, (1.87), 2.21
82.30sNew Zealand New Zealand Cubing Decathlon 20251.98, 2.16, 2.77, (2.93), (1.74)
9United States Volodymyr Kapustianskyi2.31sUnited States Moorhead Madness 20252.35, 2.40, 2.18, (3.71), (1.64)
10New Zealand Lachlan Gibson2.32sNew Zealand GAN New Zealand Nationals 2026(2.53), 2.43, 2.36, (1.90), 2.18

Non-human solving

On Nov 21, 2024, a robot developed by Erez Borenshtein achieved a Guinness World Record by solving a Rubik's Clock in 0.443 seconds. This accomplishment was officially recognized by Guinness World Record as the fastest time for a robot to solve a Rubik's Clock. The record is documented on the Guinness World Records website.

References

  1. ↑ Patents EP0322085 (1989-06-28), JP1171588 (1989-07-06), GB2213739 (1989-08-23), US4869506 (1989-09-26)
  2. ↑ Tommy Cherry (2023-01-27). 7 Simul Tutorial (Clock) by Tommy Cherry. Retrieved 2026-06-14 – via YouTube.
  3. ↑ "Changes to the WCA's List of Official Events (June 2026) | World Cube Association". www.worldcubeassociation.org. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  4. ↑ "Changes to the WCA's List of Official Events (June 2026) | World Cube Association". www.worldcubeassociation.org. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  5. ↑ "Rubik's Clock has now been solved!". www.cube20.org. March 4, 2025. Retrieved 2025-03-04.
  6. ↑ "WCA Regulations | World Cube Association". www.worldcubeassociation.org. February 1, 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  7. 1 2 World Cube Association Official Clock Rankings - Single
  8. ↑ World Cube Association - Records
  9. ↑ World Cube Association Official Clock Rankings - Average
  10. ↑ World Cube Association Official Clock Rankings - Single
  11. ↑ World Cube Association Official Clock Rankings - Single
  12. ↑ "Fastest robot to solve a Rotating puzzle clock". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 2026-02-18. Retrieved 2026-05-31.