Turn the wheel to today's date and it stays there until you turn it again — no batteries, no resetting in January, no app asking to be updated. A perpetual calendar simply keeps working.

It is small and quiet next to a keyboard or a stack of books, in plain white with a wooden base, and it belongs to a particular kind of desk object: useful first, decorative as a consequence. There is something to be said for glancing at a wheel instead of unlocking a phone just to check what day it is.

A desk that is due one useful thing instead of more clutter, a shelf beside books, or a gift for someone who works at home and has run out of desk ideas.