Viktor IV

Around 1978 Viktor / Bulgar became enthusiastically involved with clocks.
He thought that it was time to end the age-old way in which we indicate and read the time from our clocks and watches. It started with the dial of a clock in a bar, from which he had removed the six and regularly divided the other numbers, so that at first sight everything seemed normal. But visitors to the café who had a few drinks after work, became strangely confused when it came to establishing the time to go home.

Viktor called this new activity ‘Bulgar Time’.
(‘In the beginning was the idea that the number six has carried or supported the number hierarchy of the twelve hours for many centuries and thus deserved a vacation from its duties stoking coal into the boilers down at the bottom of the cruise ship with all the rest of the numbers danced merrily above…’ as Viktor put it)

The next step (in 1980) was to design a clock with hands turning in the opposite way. The 6 reappeared, but the clock dial was turned upside down, so that the 6 appeared at the top and the 12 at the bottom.

In September 1981, after many trips to Switzerland together with Ina in his old black Citroën deux chevaux, at last the first prototype of the Bulgar Time Swiss Quartz wristwatch was manufactured. A long series of different models, including watches running at double or triple speed even, was to appear over the years.
First they were sold by Viktor himself, but finally (in 1986, shortly before his death), the four models he considered as definitive were put on the market by Art Expo, Odense, Denmark, in a limited edition, in a black box with accompanying book ‘The Time Is Always Now’. www.artandphoto.dk www.artandphoto.dk

'BULGAR TIME' by Anne Marie Huibregtse

Around 1978 Viktor / Bulgar became enthusiastically involved with clocks. He thought that it was time to end the age-old way in which we indicate and read the time from our clocks and watches. It started with the dial of a clock in a bar, from which he had removed the six and regularly divided the other numbers, so that at first sight everything seemed normal. But visitors to the café who had a few drinks after work, became strangely confused when it came to establishing the time to go home. Viktor called this new activity ‘Bulgar Time’. (‘In the beginning was the idea that the number six has carried or supported the number hierarchy of the twelve hours for many centuries and thus deserved a vacation from its duties stoking coal into the boilers down at the bottom of the cruise ship with all the rest of the numbers danced merrily above…’ as Viktor put it) The next step (in 1980) was to design a clock with hands turning in the opposite way. The 6 reappeared, but the clock dial was turned upside down, so that the 6 appeared at the top and the 12 at the bottom. In September 1981, after many trips to Switzerland together with Ina in his old black Citroën deux chevaux, at last the first prototype of the Bulgar Time Swiss Quartz wristwatch was manufactured. A long series of different models, including watches running at double or triple speed even, was to appear over the years. First they were sold by Viktor himself, but finally (in 1986, shortly before his death), the four models he considered as definitive were put on the market by Art Expo, Odense, Denmark, in a limited edition, in a black box with accompanying book ‘The Time Is Always Now’. www.artandphoto.dk www.artandphoto.dk



C = Clockwise, CC = Counterclockwise. Notice: these dials with hour + minute + second indicators (hands) all read the time at exactly: 10 hrs 11 minutes and 28 seconds (10: 11.28)		Photo: On all watches the time is 8 minutes past 10

Unexpected end Viktor IV was still very active when, on June 26th 1986 at the age of 57, he drowned in the Amstel River while repairing the rafts. His last trip by boat over the Amstel to the cemetery of Zorgvlied on the warm and sunny 3rd of July attracted thousands of sympathizers along the water-front and on the bridges, and dozens of boats escorted his funeral on the water.
Letter from the Mayor Amsterdam’s mayor Ed van Thijn, wrote in a letter of condolence to Ina: ‘For Amsterdam as well, his accident has come as a blow. Our city is proud to carry the image of a free society, allowing new impulses, new thoughts. In Amsterdam ‘it’ happens, the playful, the unexpected. Walter Glück was by all means a man who contributed in his own unique and colorful way. The heart of Amsterdam goes on beating. Yet the death of Walter Glück leaves a scar.’



Funeral When Viktor’s old aunt, ‘Aunt Fani’, who lived at the time in an old people’s home in Florida, saw the newspaper cuttings with the photos of the enormous crowd at the obsequies, she must have exclaimed: “A royal funeral? What happened to our Walter?” Twan Huys (journalist and tv presenter) remembers: “As far as I am concerned it was the most impressive funeral I have ever seen. A flotilla of small boats, water bikes and rubber boats on the Amstel River. Viktor IV is dead, he got a royal funeral with an anarchistic flair. With the American flag on his coffin and the text “VIKTOR IV TO ZORGVLIED” he slowly plies the Amstel River. An unforgettable end, only in Amsterdam”.

Ref: Viktor IV. Ad Petersen & Ina Munck. Ed. Meulenhoff/Landshoff & The Second Quality Construction Company 1988