Display time in Applet class AppletTimer { javax.swing.Timer timer; String s; SimpleDateFormat timef = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm"); //private Launch ll = new Launch(); //public AppletTimer(final Applet ap) public AppletTimer(final JTextField tf) { timer = new javax.swing.Timer(1000, new ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { s = timef.format(new Date(System.currentTimeMillis())); //ap.showStatus(s); tf.setText(s); } }); timer.start(); } } And in ur applet create a JTextField and use like this in the init() method JTextField jtf = new JTextField(); new AppletTimer(jtf);