How to Show Seconds in macOS Sonoma and Ventura Menu Bar Clock

The clock on a Mac is permanently displayed in the menu bar and cannot be removed. By default, it shows the current time in digital format, including hours and minutes, along with the date and day of the week. Additionally, the clock module serves as a convenient button for accessing the Notification Center. This post will show you how to show seconds in macOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura menu bar clock.

Meanwhile, if you have a preference for seeing seconds on the Mac clock, you’re in luck. Fortunately, macOS offers an option to display the time in seconds at the top-right corner of the screen. However, the seconds indicator on the clock is not activated by default. Nonetheless, enabling it is a breeze as you can quickly toggle it on.

How to Show Seconds in macOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura Menu Bar

It appears that many users have been left puzzled by the absence of the seconds’ option for the clock in macOS Ventura, especially after upgrading from Monterey or Big Sur. The reason behind this mystery lies in the complete revamp of the clock customization interface in Ventura, which differs significantly from previous versions of macOS.

Curiously, the option to display seconds on the Mac clock in Ventura is nowhere to be found in the General > Data & Time section of System Settings (formerly known as System Preferences). Instead, you can locate this particular setting within the Control Centre settings.

By enabling the display of seconds on the Mac clock in Ventura, you gain the ability to accurately track the passing moments in the format of hh:mm:ss. This proves invaluable for tasks that require precise timestamping and other critical operations.

Now, let’s dive into the step-by-step process of displaying the seconds on the clock of your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, both running macOS Ventura (version 13) or macOS Sonoma (version 14)

Here are the steps to see seconds on the Mac menu bar with ease:

1. Click on the Apple logo and select System Settings.

System Settings

2. On the sidebar, select Control Center.

Control Center

3. Under the Menu Bar Only menu, click on Clock Options.

Clock Options

4. Turn on the toggle next to the Display the time with seconds.

Display the time with seconds

Take a look at the upper right-hand corner, and you’ll notice the seconds indicator steadily ticking along with the hours and minutes. If you ever want to go back to how it was before, simply follow the steps again and uncheck the last option.

Show Seconds in macOS

Enabling this feature is a fantastic way to quickly check the time with great accuracy, but it might be a bit distracting in the beginning. It’s normal to take a day or two to get used to it. You’re used to seeing only hours and minutes in that spot, so adding seconds might confuse your memory a bit. Don’t be surprised if you accidentally mistake the seconds for minutes at first. It happens to everyone!

That’s all. These were the steps to show and display the seconds on macOS Ventura and macOS Sonoma.

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