There's a saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day. If you take that spirit to heart, TRMNL can be a fantastic clock.
But truthfully, TRMNL was never built to keep perfect time. Our servers render each plugin's screen every 15 minutes (or every 5 minutes with TRMNL+) if there is new content, and the fastest frequency for the device to display the next playlist entry is 5 minutes. Not exactly the ideal setup for a clock.
Also, after downloading a new screen, the TRMNL goes back to sleep to save battery. That is what gives it months of battery life, but also what makes it unsuitable for showing the exact time. Updating every minute or even second would use up the battery in no time and would keep our servers busy rendering a new image for every new minute, per user.
While there are numerous e-ink clocks for a lower price point and one-task functionality available through online retailers, TRMNL is meant to show calm, glanceable information that does not need to change every second. A task list. A quote. Your next meeting. The weather.
Plugins and recipes
Still, there are several native clock plugins on our site, and many users have built their own. Have a look at some community clock recipes here.
One popular example is the Literature Clock. It shows time in words, but rounded to the next 5 or 15 minutes. For most users, that feels accurate enough.
Another great one is the Word Clock, available in English, French and German, which also shows fuzzy time.
Advanced methods
If you want to go further, there are more advanced ways.
The Redirect plugin lets you connect your TRMNL directly to your own server. Your server pretends to be the TRMNL core app and tells the device which image to show, how long to sleep, and when to refresh again. This allows you to update the screen more flexibly, currently as fast as once per minute. Perfect if you want to experiment with your own timing, including more frequent "clock-like" updates.
Alternatively, you can use the TRMNL WiFi Captive Portal to connect your device to a custom backend like Terminus (BYOS) and update it as often as you like.
Both options require some setup and are best suited for developers or tinkerers.