Quickly Switching Between Analogue and Digital Clock in the macOS Menu Bar

1 Jan 2021, by Aadi

On previous versions of macOS, clicking on the time opens a drop-down menu, so changing modes was only a click away. Unfortunately, macOS Big Sur removes that option. I was used to conveniently switching between the compact analogue clock and the precise digital clock in the menu bar. Now, clicking on the time opens the new Notification Centre + Widgets pane.

The new Notification Centre in macOS Big Sur (Source: Apple)

After some digging¹ and research, thanks to this StackOverflow answer I have an Applescript that checks and then toggles the state of the clock:

set currentValue to ¬
	(do shell script ¬
		"defaults read com.apple.menuextra.clock 'IsAnalog'") ¬
		as integer as boolean

do shell script ¬
	"defaults write com.apple.menuextra.clock 'IsAnalog' -bool " & (not currentValue) & ";"

Screenshot of Save As dialogue box — The *Save As…* dialogue in Script Editor

Once this AppleScript is saved as an application, just run it to switch modes!

I prefer using Spotlight to launch the app, that way I don’t have to switch away from whatever app is in the foreground. Another quick tip, I am not sure but it looks to me that enabling the Open in Low Resolution option found in the Get Info window makes this app a tad faster to launch.

Basically used defaults find ↩︎