How to get a clock screensaver on your Mac

Apple's screen savers are aerial films, photos and a few classics, and none of them is a clock. The old Show with clock checkbox is gone too: it isn't on Apple's screen saver pages for Sequoia, Tahoe or macOS 27. What macOS Tahoe has instead is a clock drawn over the screen saver, which you can turn on in Wallpaper settings.

For a real clock screen saver, Fliqlo is the free flip clock. With Koi 2.0, turn on the idle screen and pick Time: after a few minutes away every screen fades to black with a big calm clock.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 2.0 does. The macOS steps come from Apple's own guides, checked October 25, 2026, except where we say otherwise.

On macOS Tahoe, the clock moved into Wallpaper settings, under Clock Appearance. According to MacTech, it has six font styles and a weight slider, and you pick where the clock shows: on the Lock Screen, on the Lock Screen and the screen saver, or never.

1. Choose Apple menu, then System Settings, then Wallpaper in the sidebar.
2. Find Clock Appearance and pick a style.
3. Set it to show on the Lock Screen and the screen saver.

It's a small clock over whatever screen saver you picked, not a clock filling the screen. Apple's own guide doesn't describe it yet, so menu names may differ a little on your Mac.

On macOS Tahoe and later:

1. Choose Apple menu, then System Settings, then click Wallpaper in the sidebar.
2. Click Screen Saver on the right. You may need to scroll.
3. Pick a screen saver. Hover its thumbnail and click Preview to see it; move the pointer to stop.
4. Use Start Screen Saver to set how long your Mac sits idle before it starts.

On macOS Sequoia, Screen Saver is its own item in the System Settings sidebar, and Start Screen Saver when inactive sits in Lock Screen settings. Apple's guides for Tahoe and Sequoia have every option.

1. Download Fliqlo from fliqlo.com and install it as its site says. It's free and needs macOS 14 or later.
2. In System Settings, Wallpaper, Screen Saver, pick Fliqlo under Other.

Fliqlo's site lists version 1.9.5 and doesn't say whether it supports macOS Tahoe. Third-party screen savers have had bugs on Tahoe, from black screens to not starting until a restart, which an Apple engineer acknowledged on Apple's developer forums. If Fliqlo misbehaves, that's the likely reason.

1. Open Koi's Settings, then Notch & tools, and find Idle screen.
2. Turn on Show an idle screen. It's off until you do.
3. Under Look, pick Time. Click Try it to see it now.
4. Under Start after, pick 1, 2, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes. It's 5 to begin with.

• After that long with nobody at your Mac, every screen fades to black with a big calm clock.
• Pick Kois instead for a crowd of little Kois floating and bumping about.
• A move of the mouse or a key brings everything back.
• It never comes on during a call, a recording or a video.
• It's Koi's own screen, not a macOS screen saver, and it doesn't lock your Mac. Your lock settings stay as they are.

• The display turns off first. If your Mac turns the screen off before the screen saver's start time, the screen saver never shows. Set it to start sooner.
• A hot corner starts it on demand: System Settings, Desktop & Dock, Hot Corners, then Start Screen Saver.
• Koi's idle screen waits on purpose while a video plays or a call is on.

The macOS clock and Fliqlo are free. Koi has no free plan: Pro is $20 a month, or $7 for a first week. Lifetime is paid once. If a clock is all you want, Fliqlo is the better deal. Koi makes sense if you'd use the rest of it too. More screen savers are in the best screensavers for Mac, and plans are on the pricing page.