Gravity is a Shenzhen-based startup building “sci-fi to function” desk objects, and this video focuses on Universe Time: a timepiece that behaves more like a kinetic display than a traditional clock, with a floating sphere acting as the moving indicator for how time “flows” across different reference frames and places. The core idea is to make time feel physical: you watch a miniature “planet” move rather than just reading digits. https://www.gravityplayer.com/
Universe Time uses a controlled magnetic levitation system to keep a metallic sphere hovering while it repositions itself to a target angle, then locks into a stable hover again; the demo also shows how the mechanism can articulate through wide orientation changes, including a 720° motion sequence and a 6-DoF style movement envelope while maintaining levitation. The interview is filmed at CES Las Vegas 2026, which fits the product’s intersection of consumer hardware, industrial design, and playful physics for home setups here.
On the software side, the companion app turns the display into a “universe time” selector: you can switch between time zones or choose planet-based presets and watch the sphere accelerate to the new setpoint, then settle with closed-loop stabilization. The interface also exposes visual tuning such as LED color themes, plus time display modes where the orbit maps to hours, minutes, or a seconds cadence, so the motion becomes the readout rather than a conventional hand set too.
A practical engineering thread in the conversation is calibration: levitation height is configurable (the demo mentions roughly 1 cm hover with options up to about 7 cm), but changing mass, finish, or geometry can require recalculating control parameters for magnetic stability. They also mention how paints and surface treatments can perturb the magnetic field and sensor feedback, which is why “planet skins” and textured finishes become a non-trivial materials problem rather than just decoration, and why customization is treated as a premium, order-defined setup for now it.
Behind the scenes, Gravity’s productization looks like a modern IoT pipeline: cloud + app + device identity, with OTA firmware updates and certificate-based onboarding, supporting a connected device that is as much embedded control as it is décor. The same levitation stack is shown branching into other categories (lighting, a levitating desk lamp form, audio speaker concepts, wall-mounted floating pieces, and levitating rocket collectibles), suggesting a platform approach where the control electronics, sensing, and magnetic actuation get reused across new form factors today.
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