Concept: Timepiece Silhouettes

We were asked to create a Timepiece for the second task. Timepieces can take many forms and can be powered by many different things. I toyed with the idea of creating something which was powered by the growth and process of life.

My initial idea was to create a tree whose apples fell and decayed throughout the course of a day. This way, a person would be able to tell what time of day it was by seeing how decayed the apple was. There were some issues coming into this though; Realistically, the apple would be likely to break after falling from the tree, so I added a pool or a trench of water to catch the fruit.
Other ideas have included a landmark with a waterfall mechanic, a dress or flower which decayed over a period of time and several statues which turn into different numbers or shapes depending on the time.

I settled on trying different alterations of the round glass like figure filled with water. This would empty out somehow during the day. 

These are designs and patterns drawn on Alchemy, all of which used the mirrored option.
Although I like all of these designs, all of them look as though they would be a statue or a monument from a sci-fi type setting. The middle left design looks like something from an alien-esque setting and the one in the top left looks as though it is of a woman one would worship. The rest of the bottom two rows look as though they are settings of combat or profiles of warrior like figures.
The designs didn't suit what I had imagined a timepiece to look like. It was fun creating things in Alchemy and although I didn't end up wanting to use any of them, it let me explore different areas and perhaps I will use these as inspiration to look back on for other briefs.