Hot air balloon children's wall clock | Aerio

A hot air balloon with a panda on board

What catches your eye first is the silhouette. Not a classic round dial, but a complete hot air balloon, basket and all, with alternating beige and blue stripes, and little clouds spilling slightly over the edges as if it were floating in the sky of the bedroom. The cloud-shaped outline is carefully cut, and the surface has a slight matte finish that avoids any distracting glare, whichever way the wall faces.

In the basket, there's a small panda. It's just there, sitting quietly, like a stowaway. It's not the kind of detail you'd notice from two metres away, but children spot it straight away and take it to heart. That's the sort of detail that turns a clock into something people talk about.

The hot air balloon children's wall clock displays its Arabic numerals directly on the body of the balloon, spaced out along the stripes. Legibility is good despite the busy background, because the numerals are well sized and contrast enough with the soft background tones. The hands are slim, black and understated. They don't try to blend into the design.

The colours chosen are a mix of powder blue, beige and off-white. Nothing jarring. This design fits just as well into an already-decorated child's bedroom as into a hallway or playroom with neutral walls. It's a good size to hold a wall without overwhelming it.

This children's clock suits a first nursery just as well as a bedroom that grows with the child. The motif is universal enough not to date within a couple of years, and the colours are soft enough to see a child through several ages without clashing with the rest of the room.

If you're after something larger to really dress a wall, our Large Wall Clocks collection offers formats that take up more of the room. For other original designs in the same spirit, our Modern Wall Clocks collection brings together pieces that step outside the standard dial.

What this clock says about a child's wall

A child's bedroom is often a wall that's already busy. Stickers, a poster, shelves full of things. Adding a clock to that space can easily tip it over into too much.

What works here is that the lightweight composite surface and the silhouette cut-out let the piece float visually rather than weigh the wall down. The cloud shape softens the outline and avoids the look of a framed picture. The eye glides around it without catching.

The children's hot air balloon clock also plays a practical role in learning to tell the time. The large, well-spaced Arabic numerals make it easy for a child just starting out to read. There's no need for a stripped-back, minimalist dial for that. The markers just need to be clear, and they are.

This design can go up in a bedroom from early childhood and stay in place without looking out of place years later. The panda in the basket brings a smile at three years old. The beige and blue stripes still work well at seven or eight, in a bedroom that has since had new curtains and bedding. It's a clock you don't take down at the first redecoration.