I had been working with a collaborator named Dave for several years creating weird clocks and he had initially suggested a clock based on a dial caliper.  When that idea didn't pan out we started exploring other ideas and I came up with the idea of using the dial indicator.  So our collaboration finally inspired me to make one for myself.

Dial indicators have a plunger that can move up to 1 inch and the gauge displays its position with a resolution of .001".  So a full rotation of the gauge represents a travel distance of 0.1 inch. 

I found a high precision stepper motor  that has a resolution that can step in increments of .000125 inch which is perfect for this application.  I developed electronics and firmware so that this clock slowly moves the dial all the way around over a period of 12 hours making a very tiny movement every 3.75 seconds.  And then every 12 hours it quickly moves back to the beginning so it can start over at 12:00. 

Below is my original concept sketch, and I'm quite pleased that the clock turned out very much like my rendering.