Mihata has just released a new web app called Pomo Clock. It is a focus clock that runs in your browser, with no login and no cost, built around a single idea: to make the time you spend working or studying just a little more comfortable, and a little more focused.
A Pomodoro timer, work-friendly BGM, beautiful color and photo backgrounds, weather, world clock, and a calendar — every "tool you need to focus" is bundled into a single tab. We designed it to be your always-on clock on iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac, or PC.
This article is about why we built Pomo Clock, what it does today, and where it is heading. Whether you are already using it or thinking about giving it a try, we hope you enjoy reading along.
Why we built this app
The honest answer is simple: we wanted a clock app we would actually want to use every day, so we decided to build one ourselves.
At the same time, this product is our way of proving two things:
- In this new AI era, the dreams and apps we sketch out can, in principle, be realized.
- And yet — when design and engineering specialists wield AI as a new weapon, the result becomes far more refined than AI alone could ever produce.
We wanted to prove both of these in a single, real product that people actually pick up every day.
On a practical level, Mihata usually focuses on building things for our clients — websites, web apps, custom AI development, AI adoption support. Because client work fills most of our days, we also wanted to build one product of our own from time to time, on our own terms.
Why a "clock app," of all things
An iPad we had stopped using was sitting around the office. For a long time, we kept thinking: "It would be great to repurpose this as a desk clock for work." But —
- iPad does not have an always-on Standby mode in the first place
- Older iPhones we had on hand never shipped with Standby at all
- Even on newer iPhones, many models cannot keep Standby on continuously
"There is surprisingly no good way to keep a clock displayed all the time, the way you actually want." That realization was the real starting line for Pomo Clock.
What we wanted was this kind of app:
- On an old iPad, an old iPhone, or any PC, you can just leave it open in a browser and it keeps showing the time
- It sits at the edge of your vision and does not get in the way of your work
- Just having it sitting there makes the room feel a little better and gently nudges you to start
Of course, we also had years of accumulated wishes from using BGM apps, Pomodoro timers, and various clock apps: "If only this app could also do that." We layered all of those wishes onto a foundation of "a beautiful clock that is happy to stay on screen all day." That is roughly how the concept came together.
Our audience, broadly speaking, is "anyone working hard at their job or studies." We want to help those people focus more deeply, feel a stronger sense of accomplishment, and use their time more pleasantly. Pomo Clock is a small attempt to provide that environment.
What Pomo Clock actually does
The direction was clear from day one: keep it simple. The time and the date — those two are the unshakable foundation. From there, we layer on only the helpful tools you actually need.
1. Time and date, beautifully laid out — and only that
Open Pomo Clock and the first thing you see is the time and the date. Decoration is kept to a minimum. But typeface (handpicked from Google Fonts), weight, size, color, whether seconds are shown, and 12 / 24 hour format — all of it tunes to your taste. The current weather icon and temperature sit quietly to the right of the date.
This is the "plain Pomo Clock" that every other mode builds on top of.
2. Pomodoro timer — building a rhythm of focus and rest
25 minutes of focus, 5 minutes of rest, four times, then a 15-minute long break. The classic Pomodoro Technique, fully contained inside your browser. Work duration, rest duration, the number of cycles, and the notification sound are all configurable. Even when you switch tabs to do other work, the timer keeps running in the background and pulls you back with a browser notification and sound when the session ends.
3. Backgrounds — colors, photos, videos, or your own images
What counts as a "scene you can focus in" is different for everyone. So Pomo Clock starts from three colors (background, text, accent) and uses an automatic "random palette" that swaps colors at the top of every hour as the default. When the mood changes, you can switch to a photo or video preset, or upload your own favorite image as the background. Make the space in front of this clock look like something you actually like. That alone changes how you feel about facing the screen.
4. Work BGM and ambient sound — presets, or your own YouTube
People tend to be picky about their work music, so we ship a set of focus-friendly preset tracks while also letting you paste in any YouTube video or playlist URL and use it directly as your BGM. Your work soundtrack is essentially unlimited. Playback runs through the official YouTube IFrame Player API, so you can enjoy your music in a properly compliant way. (We do recommend a YouTube Premium subscription.)
5. Watch a video without losing your focus
"I want to play a video as background while I work" — but the moment you open YouTube, recommended videos, the comments section, and related links pull your attention away. Sound familiar? When you play a YouTube video inside Pomo Clock, the central player simply runs the video, with no recommendations, no sidebar, no clutter. You watch the video, but in your field of view there is only the clock and the date. We tried to bring "watching a video while working" back as a real, viable option in the flow of your work. And when the focus presets get stale, switching to a music video by your favorite artist for a quick break can be a really lovely way to spend a moment.
Personally, after seeing one of the Detective Conan films, I have been listening to a certain song by aiko on endless loop while working — and it never gets old.
6. Weather, world clock, calendar, typefaces, and language
While building Pomo Clock, there was exactly one moment where we found ourselves wanting to switch to another app: checking the weather. So we put that in too. Using the Japan Meteorological Agency and other free APIs, you can see a full week of forecasts inside the panel. Beyond that, there is a world clock (timezone switching), a calendar that color-codes Japanese national holidays, Japanese / English language switching, and broad customization of typefaces and notation. We packed in as many options as we could so the app could fit a wide range of taste and habit. "You should not need to leave this tab" is a quiet design principle we kept in mind.
In short, this is "the clock app we think is the best one out there"
For all of the above — Pomo Clock is, at heart, "the best / strongest clock app we ourselves can imagine, packed with everything we wanted in one." If you actually try it, you may notice that our design taste comes through pretty strongly. Even so, we believe it has turned into a genuinely refined and lovely clock app.
The team that built it uses it more than anyone. Mihata's motto when we build a website or an app is simple: "Build something we ourselves are happy to use." Pomo Clock fully meets that bar — and we are proud of how it turned out.
No login, no sign-up — your data stays in your browser
Pomo Clock has no login and no sign-up. Your settings, the images you upload, your Pomodoro stats — all of it is stored only in your browser. Nothing is sent to Mihata's servers. That keeps things safe from a security standpoint, and more importantly, it keeps things easy: you can just open it and use it.
To install it, on Chrome or Edge on a PC click "Install app" in the address bar; on iPhone or iPad use Safari's share button and choose "Add to Home Screen." From then on it launches as a standalone "Pomo Clock app" rather than inside the browser. We especially recommend repurposing an old iPad or iPhone as a "stylish desk clock" sitting on a charging dock.
Where Pomo Clock is going
Our top priority right now is to keep Pomo Clock available as a free web app + PWA (Add to Home Screen) so that as many people as possible can try it without friction. The "Add to Home Screen" route works today, but the steps are a bit hidden. Going forward, we are considering things like:
- Official distribution via the App Store and Google Play (a clearer path than "Add to Home Screen")
- Account integration with Google Calendar (notify before your next meeting, suggest a Pomodoro for an open slot)
- A hub for the various tools you use throughout your work and study day
On pricing, our absolute baseline is that Pomo Clock remains genuinely useful even on the free plan. If we ever reach a point where we can offer features or services that are truly only possible at a paid tier, we will consider introducing a paid plan then — in that order. Even if a paid plan does appear, we want to keep building an app that is good enough to make people say "I would gladly keep using this even if it were paid." That is our stance.
Tell us how you would like it to be better
Because this app started as "the strongest clock app we ourselves can imagine, packed with everything we wanted in one," our personal taste and worldview show through strongly, naturally. But our perspective as users is, of course, limited.
Things you noticed that felt off, "this part is hard to use," "I would love this feature," "I ran into this bug" — we genuinely welcome all of it. Inside the "?" icon on Pomo Clock, the "About this app" panel has a link to our contact form. We cannot promise to address everything, but we read each piece of feedback carefully and weigh it as we plan updates.
If you know someone who has been looking for a clock app or work environment like this, an introduction is also hugely appreciated. Pomo Clock is also a sample we are proud of, showing the kind of products Mihata can build.
About Mihata: making dreams real with AI
Finally, a few words about Mihata, the team behind this. At Mihata, we combine web design and AI development to translate what our clients want into something that can actually be built and shipped.
- Websites and web apps (from initial discovery through design and implementation)
- Custom AI for your organization (internal knowledge AI, customer-service AI, LLM chatbots)
- AI adoption support (embedding AI into your workflow and operating it sustainably)
- AI blog generation and operation (semi-automating content marketing with AI)
Mihata's broader theme right now is "to become the specialists of AI in this new era." AI is not magic — it is a new tool, in the same family as the calculator, Excel, and the PC. Precisely because of that, we want to be the specialists in this new tool, while also continuing to be specialists in design and engineering. We stand on our own feet in design, UX, and engineering first, and only then place AI on top of that as a weapon. We believe the output of that approach has a level of resolution that "AI alone" can never reach.
If you have a question that feels more like a "can we even do this with AI?" dream, please bring it to us anyway. We genuinely enjoy taking design, engineering, and AI and weaving them into a single product — the same way we did with Pomo Clock.
We are an engineering-driven team, and we believe our combined craft in technology, design, and AI sits at the leading edge. Of course, the real, day-to-day needs of any specific industry are something only you, the people inside it, fully understand. We would love to hear about yours.
Thank you for reading this far. Pomo Clock will continue to grow, with us as its most demanding daily users, polishing it with every update. If this app can become a small "companion in focus" for even a tiny part of your day, nothing would make us happier.
We will keep working hard to deliver great services and useful AI know-how. Thank you again, and we look forward to building what comes next together.