The sundial is on the south wall facing the formal garden in the French manner. The front of the palace is directed to the west, so the south wall is the side-wall and could be seen from the garden only. The vertical dial was designed in 1681-82 by Johannes Hevelius, the astronomer, and Adam Adamandy Kochański, the royal librarian; it is made in stucco in the baroque style.The figure of Chronos is a central point of this triple-dial surrounded by six small putti. Chronos, god of time, holding out the mantle of the heavens, on which both the time and the season's astrological sign are displayed.

There is one more vertical sundial in the palace of Wilanów. It was traced on window glass in 1788 by Jean François Richer of Paris for the king Stanisław August Poniatowski. Originally it was mounted in the Royal Castle of Warsaw.