The German chess clock company Alpha offered this design back in the 1950s and 60s. The flag is linked by internal gearing to the minute hand, and falls when the minute hand reaches 12. It is an ingenious design, but it makes it very hard to see how much time is left--the sudden fall of the flag got this clock the nickname "guillotine" because of the sudden flag drop. The left hand clock shows the flag in the "up" position; the right hand clock shows the flag fallen. It was also more expensive, so Alpha discontinued this line, and went with a more orthodox flag-and-post system. In the first photograph you can see a guillotine Alpha in use at the 1959 World Championship Candidates' Tournament; the boy is Bobby Fischer; the man across the table is Mikhail Tal, who won the tournament and went on to challenge and win the World Championship. In the fifth photograph you see the replacement Alpha, with an orthodox flag, used in the television series The Queen's Gambit.