That is quite the nixie clock. A real labor of love.
It's interesting to note that he used none of the tube-saving tricks
that HP used in their nixie instruments. Another nixie clock builder
in the USA did use these tricks and ended up with a smaller, but not
as lovely, all-tube clock:
http://www.eldocountry.com/projects/tubeclock.html
For example, HP used a 4-bit BCD counter to drive 8 neon bulbs, then
made a BCD-to-decimal decoder from a hybrid photoresistor network to
drive the nixie cathodes. The German fellow used tubes to do the
BCD-to-decimal decoder.
He also didn't use phantastron divider circuits, which will divide
frequency by ten with one tube (but only for fixed frequency, such as
you get in a clock).
I have an old HP frequency counter that uses about 60 tubes to achieve
a 5-digit display with A and B trigger inputs, 10 second gating
derived from a 1 MHz crystal, etc. Its fan is rather too noisy to be
in a clock, though.
Whatever... nixie clocks are wonderful, no matter how they're made.
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