Time at the bar! Beer glass that doubles as a SUNDIAL launched so punters will never miss last rounds (and it is accurate to within a few minutes)

SunGlass has markings on the side that show the drinker what time it is

It took six months to perfect and works anywhere on a certain latitude

Designer says glass tells you 'if you've got time to squeeze another one in'



Time for a beer: The SunGlass allows outdoor drinkers to use the sun to tell the time

Clever drinkers have come up with an ingenious way of telling the time while boozing - by turning a beer glass into a sundial.

Friends Jackie Jones and Steve Chapman spent six months perfecting the glass, which when positioned correctly casts a shadow over the time of day.

The pair came up with the idea after Steve asked Jackie, a professional sundial maker , to design a beer glass sundial to use at a beer festival he organises.

Six months later they launched the SunGlass - and they have since sold more than 400.

The clever device works by positioning it so the sun shines through a ring on the back of the glass onto vertical markings showing the months of the year.

The height of the shadow then tells the user what time of day it is - and it is accurate to within a few minutes.

Like all sundials, the SunGlass uses local solar time, a method of measuring time using the height of the sun, rather than Greenwich Mean Time, which clocks go by.

Because of that it doesn't take into account British Summer Time.

The SunGlass has been calculated to work anywhere in the world which is at a latitude of 51 degrees north, including Banff in Canada, Dresden in Germany and Kazakhstan.

Ingenious: Sunlight goes through the ring onto the correct month... and then reveals the time by reading across the glass

The SunGlass costs £15 and can be ordered online.

Jackie, 65, from Brighton, East Sussex, said: 'The idea for the SunGlass came about because Steve runs a beer festival in Brighton and asked me if it was possible to make a sundial from a beer glass.

'There is a type of sundial called a chalice glass which casts a shadow from the rim of a tumbler, and they have been around for 2,000 years.

'But no-one has ever made one from a beer glass before.'

Thinker and drinker: Rob Jones with the sundial glass he developed with his friend Jackie Jones

She added: 'It took about two months just to plan and design the sundial and then it was another four months before the first glass was manufactured.

'I'm very proud of it - there's nothing else like it on the market.

'There's something rather lovely about only having to look to your beer glass to see if you've got time to squeeze another one in.'