QUITTING TIME: Blue with almost a half moon means it’s 5:20. Courtesy Shelley Harrison

Times change, but Shelley Harrison wants to change time—the way it looks, at least.

Harrison, ’90, turned problem into revolution after playing Prince Charming at a child’s birthday party. Unable to break character with a wristwatch, but anxious to see time passing, Harrison invented and patented a new way to tell time.

Harrison’s timepiece departs from the standard numerical format (what he calls “ugly time”) and uses a colorful new method—literally. “Twelv” uses colors to signify the hours and a central moon image correlated to minutes. Harrison says colors are more easily distinguished from a distance than numbers, and telling time by the fullness of the moon is “built into us at the caveman level.”

Wristwatches and clocks are in the works, and Harrison envisions the Twelv format being used to display the time in aquariums and fountains and on building exteriors.