Make a turn at the Time Ball Tower in Cape Town

Make a turn at the Time Ball Tower in Cape Town. This maritime landmark at the V&A Waterfront has been restored to its 19th-century glory. Visitors to the landmark will be able to see it manually cranked at 12:55 every Monday and Thursday. The ball will drop at 1 pm on those mentioned days.

According to a media statement, the tower was erected in 1894. This was to ensure safe passage for incoming ships. It now stands as a revived symbol of the city’s rich maritime history. Furthermore, the restoration project was initiated following a conversation between the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis and the Chief Executive Officer of the V&A Waterfront, David Green. They were discussing safeguarding the city’s history.

“This project breathes new life into a structure that once played a vital role in maritime navigation before the digital age of radio and Global Positioning Systems (GPS).”

The Historic Time Ball Tower has been brought back to life

The V&A Waterfront Harbour Master’s Steven Bentley, says that at the specified time, the time ball mechanism would be manually cranked. The ball would drop 5 minutes later at 13h00. This was triggered electronically by a signal from the South African Astronomical Observatory.

He added, “This allowed navigators on ships in Table Bay to accurately reset their chronometers to correctly calculate longitude at sea and ensure safe navigation.”

Green says this adds a second time‑signalling device to Cape Town’s landscape, with the Noon Gun serving as an audible signal and the Time Ball Tower providing a visual one.

Green says the Cape’s original time ball was installed in 1836 on the mast of the main Royal Observatory building. By the mid-19th century, the expansion of the settlement and the development of the Table Bay Docks had obscured its visibility from the harbour. He added that by the mid-19th century, a second time ball was installed on Signal Hill, but with growing volumes of maritime trade, there was a need for a time-signalling device within the harbour itself. The Time Ball Tower remained operational for over 40 years and was declared a national monument in 1982.

One of only a few in operation worldwide

Meanwhile, the V&A Waterfront CEO, David Green, said that by preserving our maritime heritage, we symbolise Cape Town’s longstanding role as a global maritime hub and the V&A Waterfront’s continued function as one of the world’s oldest working harbours.

Green added, “We are proud that the Time Ball Tower will add depth to our city’s tourism and cultural offering by bringing this important piece of history back to life.”

Time Ball Tower: Key Dates

1836 – First time ball erected at the Royal Observatory, linked to the master clock.
1860 – Construction of the Alfred Basin begins.
1894 – The Time Ball Tower was built within the harbour atop the Dock Road Power Station.
1982 – Time Ball Tower declared a national monument.
1997 – First major restoration led by architect Gabriel “Gawie” Fagan and UCT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.
2025 – Time Ball Tower restored to full working order by V&A Waterfront, MNA Engineering & Supplies, Thorold Architects, Henry Fagan Consulting Engineers & Project Manager and Professor George Vicatos.

You can find the Tower next to the Dock House Boutique Hotel. This revived landmark has now been reopened to the public and operates as it originally did.

Visitors to the V&A Waterfront can learn about the history behind the Time Ball Tower, as well as other heritage landmarks around the precinct, through the free self-guided audio walking tour “Reinventing the Tavern of the Seas”