Museo del Tiempo Tlalpan, Mexico City

Not bad, but not what I expected. The idea of a Time Museum is obviously vague, I'd say all museums ARE about time, with some maybe a little bit more than others (natural science museums are very time-heavy, for example). This one earns its name for its vast clock collection, dealing with timekeeping itself; and with time as the artifice of nostalgia and memory, other than old clocks, the museum showcases all manner of antiques, like gramophones, old video and photo cameras, etc. In fact, just looking at its collection and display it probably wouldn't come off as much more than a glorified antiques store. But what makes it more than that is the decision to have all visits be guided tours where the guides explain the mechanisms at work, their historical context, technological progress and generally try and engage the visitors as much as possible. This is its greatest strength but it can sometimes backfire like it did in my visit. It makes perfect sense that a place full of gears and geeky stuf would attract shall we say, somewhat awkward people (like me) but when it ONLY attracts people like that and a few of them, and the guide isn't really reading the crowd, the whole guided tour side of it can fall flat. This is a weird criticism because the guide is doing their job the best way they know how but if it's not working, it's probably very difficult to find a way to change it a lot. Having read other reviews it seems to me that the type of people who react most enthusiastically to this place are a). those who love antiques for the sake of what they are and b). older people for whom these aren't antiques, they're memories. Those of us who don't really fall into either category, and who are also a bit uncomfortable in improvised social situations, might not make the most of this place.

A place with lots of working old clocks! The oldest is 500 years. It has sand, sun, water and candle clocks. And a nice collection of phonographs, gramophones and old radios