# New(?) Rubik's Clock method



## Robert-Y (Oct 18, 2013)

So I finally got around to actually practising clock and getting a sub 10 average of 12 and I started to think about solving the clock faster...

I used to use the Pochmann method to solve the clock, but now I solve it slightly differently. I "invented" this order because I started to dislike turning the bottom gears and wanted to avoid them as much as possible 

Assume that on a given scramble, you have no lucky cases. I'm going to asume that you are already familiar with Jaap order (and/or concise) scrambling notation. Also please note that, I'm left handed, so I prefer to do turns with my left hand for clock solving.

1. Set the pins to ddUU and connect BD and FU to their respective centre clocks simultaneously. I tend to turn the LU and RD gears together for this step.
2. Then I set the pins to dUdd and connect FL
3. Uddd pins, connect FR
4. UUdd pins, connect FD
5. UUdU pins, rotate the front cross to 12

x2

6. Do not alter the pins, connect FR
7. dUdd pins, connect FL
8. UUdd pins, connect FD
9. Connect corners. This is just the same as the Pochmann method now
10. Finally, rotate the face to 6

And that's it 

I've only just developed this "method" half an hour ago and my best average so far is 10.21: 9.58, 9.59, 10.32, 8.21, 11.56, 9.33, 9.36, 10.57, 9.89, 11.85, DNF(8.96), 10.04. It would have been sub 10 if the 8.96 wasn't a DNF (only off by one edge clock which was out by one hour). I'm pretty sure it can be very fast. I wouldn't really be surprised if someone could pull off a sub 8 or even sub 7 average of 12 immediately after learning this way of solving the clock.

Thanks for reading, I hope this interests you...

TL;DR: To simplify it, 1st step is solving the front U edge clock and back D edge clock at once, then the rest is standard.


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## Michael Womack (Oct 18, 2013)

I want to see a video of this also how dose it compare to the Pochman method?


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## antoineccantin (Oct 18, 2013)

I don't really understand. Could you make a video?


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## Tim Major (Oct 18, 2013)

Antoine to simplify it, 1st step is solving the front U edge clock and back D edge clock at once, then the rest is standard. Lowers amount of bottom scroll turns you need to do. I THINK


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## Michael Womack (Oct 18, 2013)

antoineccantin said:


> I don't really understand. Could you make a video?



I agree a video would be more usefull then a big blob of Non-Understandable text.


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## Robert-Y (Oct 18, 2013)

Hmm... Sorry it seems that it's not that easy to understand. I thought it'd be easy to understand, that's why I didn't make a video, because it would take longer (to setup, shoot, upload, etc...). If someone who understands it can describe it in a better way, please make a post and I can edit the first post...


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## Michael Womack (Oct 18, 2013)

Robert-Y said:


> Hmm... Sorry it seems that it's not that easy to understand. I thought it'd be easy to understand, that's why I didn't make a video, because it would take longer (to setup, shoot, upload, etc...). If someone who understands it can describe it in a better way, please make a post and I can edit the first post...



My clock method is like this:
Solve the cross like in the Pochman method
flip clock and then solve the top row and then work your way down to the last 3 clocks.

Is that the new method?


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## antoineccantin (Oct 18, 2013)

Tim Major said:


> Antoine to simplify it, 1st step is solving the front U edge clock and back D edge clock at once, then the rest is standard. Lowers amount of bottom scroll turns you need to do. I THINK



Ahhh, thanks. The problem I find with this is solving the back edge is really awkward as you have to hold the Clock weird in order to see the back side properly.

edit: Ohhhhhh, if you plan it in inspection it's really nice.


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## Mollerz (Oct 18, 2013)

Planning it during inspection is the whole point.

It falls apart when you have adjacent edges solved lucky case, it only works when there are no lucky cases, because the other lucky case is just what this method creates.


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## kunparekh18 (Oct 18, 2013)

This is a sweet method/trick. At my next comp, I'll boast "I use Yau for Clock". They'll be surprised


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## antoineccantin (Oct 18, 2013)

After 20 solves, this is the best avg12 I got:
11.76, (12.94), 10.39, 10.44, 7.89, 11.89, 7.09, 9.97, 12.27, (6.90), 9.72, 10.84 = *10.23*

Note that on the 7s and 6 I got the back first step skip.

The thing I dislike the most is when you get 4-6 turns on the back one, often resulting in either slow turning to make sure I get the exact amount of clicks or going normal speed and it being off by one of two.


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## Robert-Y (Oct 18, 2013)

Btw, if you're right handed, I'd recommend mirroring the steps I've listed.


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## Ronxu (Oct 18, 2013)

I prefer doing x2 over y2 so I might actually start using this in some solves. I'm surprised nobody has thought of this before.


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## kinch2002 (Oct 18, 2013)

antoineccantin said:


> The thing I dislike the most is when you get 4-6 turns on the back one, often resulting in either slow turning to make sure I get the exact amount of clicks or going normal speed and it being off by one of two.


Why do you need to slow turn/get it wrong? Just watch the FUR corner...
EDIT: Rob does this mirrored to the way I do it so I think it's FUL for him. Anyway, it's whatever gear you're turning to solve the back edge.


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## Sebastien (Oct 18, 2013)

Interesting thought, might try this soon. I would rather call this a "trick" than a "method" though.



Michael Womack said:


> I agree a video would be more usefull then a big blob of Non-Understandable text.



why think about something if you can just ask for a video?...


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## Iggy (Oct 18, 2013)

Cool idea, I should try this the next time I practice clock.


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## Laura O (Oct 18, 2013)

kinch2002 said:


> Why do you need to slow turn/get it wrong? Just watch the FUR corner...



Nevertheless it's not the simple way of just synchronizing each clock, so I think it's slower. At least it is for me and was the main problem when I practiced no-flip solves some years ago.

It's definitely some kind of shortcut, but I wouldn't use it. I think it's more worthwhile to use lucky cases - not only the simple adjacent ones, but also diagonal and corner-skips.


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## Robert-Y (Oct 18, 2013)

kunparekh18 said:


> This is a sweet method/trick. At my next comp, I'll boast "I use Yau for Clock". They'll be surprised


Haha



kinch2002 said:


> Why do you need to slow turn/get it wrong? Just watch the FUR corner...
> EDIT: Rob does this mirrored to the way I do it so I think it's FUL for him. Anyway, it's whatever gear you're turning to solve the back edge.


Yep.



Sebastien said:


> Interesting thought, might try this soon. I would rather call this a "trick" than a "method" though.
> why think about something if you can just ask for a video?...


Yeah I should have just called this a trick. I wasn't really sure if the rest is standard to people. I almost never did x2 flips until yesterday. I also wanted to point out the pin skip that you get after the flip. I guess this is probably standard after reading other people's opinions.



larf said:


> Nevertheless it's not the simple way of just synchronizing each clock, so I think it's slower. At least it is for me and was the main problem when I practiced no-flip solves some years ago.
> It's definitely some kind of shortcut, but I wouldn't use it. I think it's more worthwhile to use lucky cases - not only the simple adjacent ones, but also diagonal and corner-skips.


Yeah one thing which Mollerz pointed out is that this trick doesn't let you take advantage of edge clocks which are diagonal to each other and synchronized. But really, I was proposing this for a standard solve where you have no lucky cases.

One thing I didn't mention was how to solve the BD clock easily (if it's not obvious to you). So with ddUU pins, I do a x2 flip and work out how much I need turn the centre clock by to connect it to BD. Then you simply take the negative of that number. So for example, if you need to turn the centre clock by -1, you turn one of the top gears by +1 instead. This probably isn't necessary to write up, I hope most of you have already figured this out


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## Schmidt (Oct 18, 2013)

Robert-Y said:


> I also wanted to point out the pin skip that you get after the flip.


The way I use standard "Clochmann"  I get pin skip too. 
ddUd (solve U)
dUdd (L)
UUdd (D)
UdUd (R)
UUUd (point to 12)
y2 and start again


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## Robert-Y (Oct 19, 2013)

PB Average of 12: 9.63
1. (8.13) (4, 6) / (-3, 4) / (1, 5) / (-5, 4) / (1) / (-4) / (2) / (-3) / (4) / (6) / UUUU
2. 8.37 (2, -5) / (-3, 1) / (1, -2) / (2, 5) / (-3) / (-2) / (-1) / (4) / (2) / (3) / ddUd
3. 10.10 (6, 5) / (1, 4) / (0, -3) / (-5, 2) / (-4) / (4) / (-3) / (-5) / (-2) / (0) / UUdU
4. 10.12 (-4, -1) / (6, -1) / (-4, 1) / (-1, -2) / (4) / (-2) / (1) / (5) / (4) / (0) / dUdd
5. 10.16 (1, -5) / (-4, 5) / (-2, 0) / (-1, 2) / (-1) / (-3) / (2) / (-3) / (3) / (-5) / UUdU
6. 9.76 (-2, 6) / (-2, -3) / (3, 6) / (1, 2) / (-5) / (5) / (-1) / (-1) / (2) / (-1) / UUdd
7. (11.02) (1, 3) / (3, 1) / (6, -4) / (-5, 1) / (3) / (-2) / (-2) / (5) / (-1) / (5) / dUUU
8. 10.02 (0, 1) / (-2, 6) / (-1, 6) / (2, 0) / (5) / (5) / (5) / (-1) / (4) / (5) / UdUU
9. 9.18 (1, -3) / (-2, -4) / (-5, -4) / (5, -3) / (-3) / (6) / (3) / (-3) / (5) / (-5) / UddU
10. 10.02 (2, 0) / (-1, 6) / (2, -5) / (0, -2) / (-3) / (-3) / (-2) / (2) / (5) / (5) / UUdd
11. 9.66 (6, -1) / (1, -1) / (0, -5) / (-3, -1) / (4) / (3) / (1) / (-3) / (4) / (-1) / dUdd
12. 8.92 (4, 3) / (-4, -1) / (-4, 1) / (4, 3) / (-3) / (1) / (-2) / (4) / (-3) / (1) / UUdd

I only used pochmann or freestyle for 1 or 2 solves. I definitely used it for the last one. Just scramble and it's obvious why 

Schmidt: Of course, it's outlined in the method. I just wanted to mention that with my way, you will also get a pin skip


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## ryanj92 (Oct 19, 2013)

Aww that's sneaky. Will give it a go at some point - sometimes doing a y2 rather than an x2 gives a significantly 'easier' second face, though, so it all depends on the scramble ^^


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