The dominating visual feature of the clock is a grim-looking metal sculpture of an insectoid creature similar to a grasshopper or locust.
The hour is tolled by the sound of a chain clanking into a small wooden coffin hidden in the back of the clock.
[citation needed] Below the clock is an inscription from the Vulgate 1 John 2:17: mundus transit et concupiscentia eius ("the world passeth away, and the lust thereof").
The clock has many unexpected and innovative features; for example, the pendulum briefly stops at apparently irregular intervals, and the Chronophage moves its mouth and blinks its eyes.
As the huge pendulum below the Clock rocks the Chronophage as he steps round the great escapewheel, each backward and forward movement is used by sprag clutches to wind up the drive spring.
The mechanism is released by a countwheel with semi random spacing so the Blink takes place at any position in the to- and fro- motion of the pendulum.
A further countwheel mechanism chooses a single or a double blink whilst the air damper at the top of the gear train slows the action to a realistic pace.
[9] Taylor invested five years and £1 million in the Corpus Clock project, and two hundred people, including engineers, sculptors, scientists, jewellers, and calligraphers, were involved.
The clock is also featured as a plot element in the alternate history novel "The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg" by Eva St. John.