# Clocker keeps a world clock in the macOS menu bar > Clocker is a small Swift 5 menubar utility for macOS that shows the time for people in other time zones, is ad-free, takes its translations through Crowdin, and has shipped date-numbered releases steadily through 2026. **n0shake/clocker** — ⏲ macOS app to plan and organize through timezones. - Repository: https://github.com/n0shake/clocker - Website: https://abhishekbanthia.com/clocker - Stars: 626 · Forks: 55 - Language: Swift - License: not declared - Published: 2026-10-22 · Updated: 2026-10-22 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/n0shake-clocker ## What sits in the menu bar Clocker is a macOS menubar utility designed to help you keep track of your friends in different time zones. It is written using Swift 5, and the README strikes through the mention of Objective-C, which reads as a note that the project was ported from Objective-C to Swift rather than written in it from the start. The app is described as completely ad-free. That is the whole product, and being clear about that is the point of this article. It is a clock, not a reader and not a planner. The repository description phrases it differently, calling it a macOS app to plan and organize through timezones, but the README itself only describes keeping track of friends in different time zones, and the README does not document alarms, reminders, meeting scheduling or any of the other features that the word planning would suggest. If you are evaluating the app, the README is the more specific of the two descriptions, and it is the one to trust. The audience is therefore narrow and well defined. It is somebody whose working day spans time zones, who already has a list of colleagues and partners in other places, and who wants their names and local times visible without opening anything. That is a real need, and a menu bar extra is a good answer to it, because the information has to be glanceable rather than readable. The project has a public home page at abhishekbanthia.com/clocker, and the README links detailed reviews on podfeet and an older one on Lifehacker, the latter titled around cramming a world clock into the menu bar. Those links are a reasonable way to see the app in use before installing it. ## Date-numbered releases and a busy 2026 The version scheme is the most distinctive thing about the release history, because the numbers are dates rather than semver. The recent tags are v26.13 on 2026-05-16, 26.12 on 2026-05-13 and 26.11 on 2026-05-03. The 26 prefix is the year, and the trailing number counts the releases within it. The first of those three was published on a Tuesday and the second three days later, so the cadence during that period was close to weekly. The last push to the repository was on 2026-07-28, and the repository is not archived, so development continues between the tagged builds. A date-based scheme like this has a practical effect on how you consume the project. There is no semver contract, so there is no automatic signal about breaking changes, and the number tells you when a build was made rather than what changed in it. For a small utility that is usually fine, because the surface area is a menu bar item and a list of places. It matters more if you fork it and plan to merge upstream changes. The README also links a download badge pointing at the latest release, which is the only installation route it documents. There is no package manager entry, no command line installer and no build-from-source walkthrough in the README, so the project is distributed as a signed application build rather than as something you compose on your machine. The one exception is the contributor path, which is described in a single line: the project is open for pull requests. ## What the source tree shows about how the project is built The repository layout is small and, for a project of this age, unusually tidy. The application code is in a Clocker directory, which is where the Swift sources live. There is an Archive directory, which in a project like this usually means earlier builds or retired assets kept for reference rather than deleted. The rest of the tree is tooling, and the tooling is specific: a .swiftformat configuration for the formatter, a .swiftlint.yml for the linter, and a swiftlint-install.sh script that installs the linter for contributors who do not already have it. There is also a .travis.yml, which dates the continuous integration setup to a period when Travis was the default choice for open source projects, a CLAUDE.md recording conventions for AI-assisted work, and a .github directory for the current automation. The presence of both SwiftFormat and SwiftLint configurations is worth noting because it says the project treats style as something enforced rather than discussed. For a Swift codebase of this size, that is the difference between a codebase where a new contributor's pull request looks like the rest and one where it does not, and it is the reason a formatter config sitting next to a linter config is a mild positive signal about maintenance habits. The mix of a Travis configuration and a GitHub directory also suggests the CI moved at some point and the old file was kept, which is normal and harmless. What the tree does not include is any test directory at the top level, so if the project has tests they live inside the application directory, and the README does not describe how to run them. ## Localisation runs through Crowdin Clocker is localised, and the mechanism is Crowdin, with a localisation badge in the README and an invitation link for translators. This is a small decision with a large effect on a utility like this one. A world clock is only useful if it can say what time it is where your colleague is, in a form that person recognises, and a menu bar item is a particularly hostile place for a fixed-width English string, since the name and the time sit side by side in a fixed-width menu. The Crowdin setup also has a practical benefit for the maintainer. Translations arrive as pull requests from a translation platform rather than as patches to Swift string files, which is a workflow that a single-person project can sustain and that contributors can join without learning the codebase. The README is noticeably light on other engineering detail. There is no architecture note, no data model, no description of how the timezone list is stored, and no explanation of how the app is sandboxed or whether it makes any network calls. For a menu bar clock that reads the system's timezone database, that may be all there is to say, but it does mean that an evaluation has to be based on the app rather than on the documentation. ## Support, donations and a licence to read yourself The support and funding arrangements are simple and are stated in a few lines. There is a support account on X at clocker_support, a PayPal donation link, and an invitation to open an issue for help. Reviews are linked to third party sites rather than hosted, which is a small sign that the project prefers that assessment sits outside its own repository. The copyright line reads Copyright 2015 to 2026 Adrak Studio LLC, and the project is released under the MIT License. The eleven year span in that line is a better indicator of the project's age than any version number, and the app itself dates back to the Objective-C era given the strike-through in the README and the Lifehacker review from 2020. There is one discrepancy worth flagging. The README states the MIT licence, while the licence recorded for the repository is a custom one that GitHub cannot classify, with a pointer to the LICENSE file. For a personal utility that you install and use, the distinction is academic. For a company that intends to redistribute the build or bundle it, the file in the repository is the document to read, and this is an observation about where to look rather than legal advice. The same repository also has a SECURITY.md, which is a good sign for an application that runs constantly in the background on a personal machine. ## Where Clocker fits, and where it stops The honest way to place Clocker is against what the operating system already offers. macOS ships with a clock, and a calendar application that can show times in other zones. The difference is one of shape rather than capability. A system application is opened when needed, while a menubar utility is always present, which is why people who work across time zones often prefer the second even though the first can answer the same question. The trade-off of that shape is the menubar itself. Every permanent menubar item takes horizontal space that other applications want, and a utility whose value is a glance has to justify its width every day. Clocker's own framing, a world clock for friends in different time zones, implies a list of specific people rather than a list of generic zones, which is the design that keeps the width manageable. The README does not describe how that list is built or edited, which is a documentation gap rather than a design problem. The other boundary is the platform. This is a macOS menubar app, written in Swift for the macOS user interface, and there is no version for Linux or Windows in the repository. The archived Objective-C heritage also means there is likely a much older codebase in the Archive directory, and anyone forking it should work out which of the two trees they want before making changes. For the user, the decision is simple. If the problem is knowing what time it is for a colleague in another country while you work, Clocker answers it permanently and without a subscription, an account or an advertisement. If the problem is scheduling, reminders or anything that needs to interrupt you, this is the wrong tool, and the README does not pretend otherwise. ## Conclusion Clocker fits a macOS user who works across time zones and wants a permanent, glanceable clock for colleagues rather than a full feed reader, and who will accept a menubar utility as the right shape for that job. It is the wrong choice if you need alarms, reminders or scheduling, since the README documents none of those, and it is the wrong choice on any platform other than macOS, because the whole design is a menu bar extra. Before adopting it, check the release page rather than the working tree, read the licence file in the repository yourself because the recorded licence is unresolved, and see whether the menubar is already crowded, since that is the failure mode this kind of app has. ## FAQ ### What is Clocker and what does it do? Clocker is a macOS menubar utility for keeping track of friends in different time zones, written in Swift 5 and described as completely ad-free. It is distributed as a downloadable application build through the project's releases. ### How do I install Clocker on macOS? The README points to the latest release through a download badge, and the project home page is at abhishekbanthia.com/clocker. There is no package manager entry or command line installer described in the README, so the application build is the installation route. ### How are Clocker's version numbers formed? They are date based rather than semver. The recent tags are v26.13 on 2026-05-16, 26.12 on 2026-05-13 and 26.11 on 2026-05-03, where the leading number is the year and the second counts releases within it. ### Can I translate Clocker into my language? Yes. Translations are managed through Crowdin, and the README includes an invitation link for translators as well as a localisation badge pointing at the Crowdin project. ### What licence is Clocker released under? The README states the MIT License, with copyright 2015 to 2026 Adrak Studio LLC. The licence recorded for the repository itself is unresolved and points to the LICENSE file, so that file is the one to read if you plan to redistribute the app. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/n0shake/clocker/issues) - [n0shake/clocker on GitHub](https://github.com/n0shake/clocker) - [Project website](https://abhishekbanthia.com/clocker) - [README](https://github.com/n0shake/clocker/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/n0shake/clocker/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/n0shake-clocker