How do you show seconds on the Mac clock?

This post is dedicated to m’learned colleague on the PC Pro Podcast, Darien Graham-Smith. He presses the magic button that sets our podcast live at 1pm every week and recently complained that the clock on his new Mac didn’t show seconds, making it tricky for him to go live at precisely the right time. However, as Darien himself discovered, there’s an easy way to show seconds on the Mac clock.

How to show seconds on the Mac clock

1. Click on the little Apple icon in the top left-hand corner of the screen and select System Preferences
2. Select Dock & Menu Bar
3. In the window that appears, scroll down the left-hand side menu until you see Clock and click on that
4. Tick the box that says Display the time with seconds (as shown below)

If you look up to your clock in the top-right corner of the screen, the change should take effect immediately. On the downside, we now have no excuse for starting a podcast late ever again…

Note: In MacOS 13 (Ventura) it’s been moved to System Settings -> Control Center -> Clock Options

By the way, if you like that fancy clock screensaver shown in the main image above (ironically without seconds because I’m nothing if not contrary) then it’s called Fliqlo and available for free download (donations welcome) from the link.

Related reading: Is there a printable list of Mac keyboard shortcuts?