It wasn’t 30-something paranoia or a morbid sense of humor but the image of Beethoven lying on his deathbed, shaking his withered fist at God and yelling for more time, that inspired the creation of the quintessential 90s gadget: a clock that counts down the hours, minutes, and seconds left in your life.
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Altholz, a 45-year-old talent manager, and Faldner, a 37-year-old conductor, invent things. Timisis is the first invention they’ve had produced commercially. “We’ve been doing inventions for 15 years but haven’t been successful with them because it takes lots of money,” says Faldner. “Electronic products take three to five years to produce on average.”
“We look at it as an antiprocrastination tool,” says Faldner. “The idea of counting backwards acts as a motivational tool to live life and make time for people you love,” adds Altholz.
Available at the Sharper Image and Neiman Marcus, Timisis Personal LifeClocks have a suggested retail price of $129. “We thought our customers would lean toward a younger group, but we’re finding they’re not quite so young,” says Altholz. “The audience is quite broad. The average age is 39, but we’ve had people buy it at 76.”
