Time Museum (Tehran): Iran's first clock museum

Museum's environment sights

We've said before that the museum is in a garden that gives you an interesting space. You can see the following objects before you enter the museum building.

1. Sundial Clock 

Sundials were time-measuring devices that were invented 5500 years ago. In these types of watches, there is a vertical wood called the indicator.

The sun shines on the indicator, casting a shadow on the horizontal surface whose size determines the time. Sundials were used in Europe until the 18th century and their samples are still found on the walls of churches and old houses; interestingly, there were also small sundials for traveling time.

6. Rope Clocks

A rope clock is also a type of fuel clock that consists of a number of ropes. At the surface of the rope there are nodes at equal distances that are somehow degrees of time. Burning the rope would destroy the nodes and you can measure the time with respect to the remaining nodes.

1. 1st floor: Take a look at old European clocks 

Take a step into the large first floor lounge and take a look at the clocks made from the 17th to the 20th century. Here you will find mechanical weight clocks, and you will find examples such as pendulum, desktop, wall and standing clocks.

The clocks have been artfully decorated, indicating the importance of clock decorations in the past.

Maquette of clocks with old engines, Louis XVI and Napoleon III clocks are parts of this part, attracting attention with their distinctive shapes and forms. These clocks show a mix of art and clock industry and various arts such as sculpture, enamel, mosaic, and so on.

Some of these clocks were gifts received by political men during their travels to other countries, and others were personal belongings.

Another interesting thing of this part is a bronze clock made in France that has gold cover. This clock is a type of shelf or desktop clock and belongs to the 5th century.

A figure of Homer - the epic poet of the Greek - is on this clock and is adorned in the style of Louis XVI.

Of course, not everything ends in clocks; when you raise your head a little and look at the ceiling, you will be obsessed with its design and forget about the time.

Artistic plaster works have been designed with a mental design in mind, and according to the documents available, the plaster masters have implemented these decorations vertically.

5. Second floor: wrist, pocket and custom made watches

The second floor of the museum has many attractive things some of which are:

• Time clocks or clock card machine

There is a shift clock in the Simplex American company that is said to belong to the train station.

With the increase of jobs in the late 18th century, there were some timing devices for registering the time of arriving and leaving the company.

Bundy and Dey companies were famous companies of this field. At that time the employees had their own keys and they inserted the key in the hole of the device so the engraved number on the key along with the time was written on a paper in the device and a report was made.

• Qajar Clocks

There are some clocks in the second floor that belongs to Qajar era from which you can see the sundial clock of Nasereddin Shah and clocks of Ahmad Shah and Mozaffareddin Shah.

6. The second floor: Measuring day, month and year

Time measuring doesn't end to hours, minutes, and seconds, and we have to account for the day, month, and year to arrange our work. Part of the Museum of Time deals with this, too, in which you find documents and tools related to Jalali's chronology and its history in Iran.

In this section, you will see astrolabe which is one of the oldest astronomical tools, and referred to as a permanent calendar. In a corner you will see the celestial sphere, or sky sphere, which is a hypothetical, concentric sphere with the earth, and used to measure time in the past.

The prominent figures in the writing of the calendar are also introduced to you in this section, and the replica of the oldest Iranian document with dates (the Bistoon inscription) is in front of you. The Iranian Religious Calendars are also kept in this section, among which are:

Hebrew, Zoroastrians, Armenian, Ethnic Tabari and Deilami, and ethnic Kurdish calendars.

7. Second floor: Celebrities' watches

One of the fascinating parts of the museum is the collection of watches of celebrities who have been donated to the museum by themselves.

In this section, you will find donations from people such as Jamshid Mashayekhi, Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, Ehteram Boroumand, Davood Rashidi, Aminollah Rashidi, Mostafa Rahmandoust, Dr. Hassabi, Dr. Parviz Kordvani, Shahid Avini, Shahid Mehdi Bakeri and ...

Hossein Khodadad's House | the host of Time Museum 

The Time Museum is located in a Qajar building dating back to the time of Mohammad Shah and Nassereddin Shah Qajar.

The building is home to Hossein Khodadad, an Iranian businessman and entrepreneur, and has been at the disposal of the Mostaza'fan Foundation since the Islamic Revolution. The museum building has 700 meters of infrastructure and is located in a beautiful area of 600000 square meters.

Buying of property by Hossein Khodadad

It is a two-story building dating back to more than 80 years and was built during the Qajar era.

The garden was once part of the Ferdows garden and was owned by Moeir Al-Mamalek, son-in-law of Nassereddin Shah. After his death, his son Doost-Ali Khan Moeir al-Mamalek became the owner of the garden and, since he was not interested in it, he cut down the trees one by one to be used as firewood in the furnaces of Tehran.

In 1925, a man named Abdullah Khan Mansour bought the property from Doost Ali Khan and owned it until 1967. Hossein Khodadad bought the property in the same year; at that time the building was a one-story mud-brick garden with a wooden skeleton.

The beginning of dramatic changes in the house

By the order of Hossein Khodadad, the wooden skeleton was replaced by an iron skeleton and changes were made within 10 years.

Hossein Khodadad made dramatic changes to the building by retrofitting the building and building a floor to the ground. His keen interest in revitalizing the art of drawing and plastering in Iran led to the work of the best craftsmen in the building of his home and to create an eye-catching and amazing building.

Master of Tile works, the architect of the building, the engineer Ebtekar was chosen as the building consultant, and Haj Ramezan Abbassian did some work on it. Designers such as Haj Abdul Karim Navid Tehrani, Farhad Yahypour and Haji Ali Sheikh also worked on the house.

Decorating the building with plaster art

It took 12 years for the plaster art to be finished and finally the house became a work of art in 1977. Inside the building, we find a combination of Iranian and foreign styles, and in the facades and the margins, we can see a mix of Qajar and modern styles.

On the first-floor ceiling and columns, plasterboard art has also been done on mirrors, and masters such as Haj Mohammad Kashi and Hossein Bahonar have done the Girih art on wooden doors and windows to exalt the beauty of the building. On the walls around the building, there are beautiful brickworks and vaulted works, all of which make the Museum of Art a masterpiece.

The destiny of the house after Hossein Khodadad

 Hossein Khodadad lived in this house for a year and moved to America before the Iranian Revolution. This building and all its assets were confiscated by the Mostaza'fan Foundation. It was in June 1999 that the building became the Museum of Time and started to work as the first museum in the country.

Time Museum facilities

You can access the following facilities at the Time Museum:

• Ribar Restaurant Cafe: One of the notable amenities of the Time Museum is Ribar's café, which is known for its delicious breakfasts and charming atmosphere and attracts many people to this place. The restaurant café opens at 9 am and serves its customers until midnight.
• Restroom
• Praying room
• Time Museum Gallery: A place to buy works of art including paintings, jewelry, crafts and ...

Access to the Time Museum 

Address: Parzin Baghdadi Ave., Zaferaniyeh St., Tehran

Ways to access public vehicles: 

1. Bus

The Tajrish-Rah Ahan BRT line crosses Valiasr Street. Take off at the Ferdows Garden Station and reach the Museum by walking 500 meters.

2. Subway

The nearest station to the Museum of Time is Tajrish, which is about a 20-minute walk to the museum where you can take a taxi to Zafaraniyah Street, or take the bus to the Ferdows garden station. 

3. Taxi

You can access taxis whose destination is Tajrish from different parts of the city. If you cross Valiasr Street, head to Zafaraniyah Street and seek the assistance of a taxi driver if the route is different.

Visiting time

First half of the year Saturday to Wednesday from 09:00am to 6:00 pm and Thursdays and Fridays and holidays from 10:00am to 6:00pm

The second half of the year Saturday to Wednesday from 09:00am to 5:00pm and Thursdays and Fridays and holidays from 9:00am to 5:00pm