There are Batman fans who will casually collect caped crusader action figures, and then there are Batman fans who will drop $300 on a giant Lego Batmobile. Several tiers of obsessive above that you’ll find the true Batman devotees who will happily spend almost $US30,000 ($41,112) on a desk clock that even Bruce Wayne would hesitate about putting in his study. “Maybe it’s too much?”
Created by Kross Studio a year late for the thirtieth anniversary of Tim Burton’s first Batman film, the desk clock trades most of the Batmobile’s most iconic features like pop-up machine guns and a turbine engine for an analogue clock — revealed through a window in the hood — assembled from 397 tiny components. Kross Studio points out that a traditional mechanical movement usually features around 130 parts, but this mechanism had to be custom-designed to fit entirely inside the vehicle while revealing a vertically mounted regulator in the front ticking away at 21,600 beats every hour.
The Batmobile’s body is made from an aluminium composite and finished with a black matte coating that offers “aeronautical grade scratch protection” which brings peace of mind to those who worry about what might happen to the car at 9,144 metres. Thankfully, the risk of a catastrophic bird strike is much lower with this parked on a desk. Finally, in lieu of jet fuel, the Batmobile’s time-keeping mechanism is powered by a 30-day power reserve which is wound up using a key shaped like the iconic Bat-logo, naturally.
If you’re part of the one-per cent who has $US29,900 ($40,975) they’d rather spend on a desk toy instead of a real car, an extravagant vacation, or helping someone in need get through four years of college, you’ll be in an elite club with only 99 other people with questionable taste and fiscal ethics because Kross Studio is only producing 100 of these collectibles. At least worldwide shipping is completely free.