Malaysia's Genting International said it will build a clock that can run for 10,000 years if it wins the bid to build Singapore's first casino.

Made of stone and steel, the handcrafted, mechanically-run clock will chime once every century and sound a gong every 1,000 years, the inventors said at a news conference with Genting executives.

"It will have multiple displays and mechanisms. For instance, the clock records the relative positions of the Earth and the five other planets that humans can see without the aid of a telescope," said Danny Hillis, co-chairman of the Long Now Foundation which developed the clock.

"In this way, if a person approaches the clock a thousand years from now, he could still read the time, even if he did not use the same time system we use today."

The timepiece, to be called the Great Clock of Singapore, "ticks once every 12 hours (and) every year there is a hand that moves one spot," Hillis said.

"There are no minute hands, there are no hour hands, no second hands ... Every hundred years the clock has a small chime and every thousand years the clock has a large gong."

He said the latest prototype stands 9.0 feet (2.7 metres) tall but the final version may stretch to a height of at least 60 feet (18.2 metres).

Four surviving bidders

Genting, Malaysia's sole casino operator which also runs a range of businesses ranging from power to properties, is one of four surviving bidders for the casino on Marina Bay near Singapore's financial district.

Last week, it announced it would invest more than S$5 billion (US$3.10 billion) with its partner Star Cruises if their bid is successful.

The bidding closed on March 29 and the government is expected to announce a winner in June.

Genting's rivals are Las Vegas Sands as well as US gaming giants MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment.

Sands is alone, while MGM has partnered with Southeast Asia's biggest property group CapitaLand and Harrah's teamed up with prominent local developer Keppel Land.