Do you love your alarm clock?

August 18, 2020 9:32 AM

Looking to get my phone away from my bed at night, and need a simple alarm clock. My ideal qualities are: not super bright (ideally clock very dim at night), no audible ticking, battery or battery back-up power for when power goes out, gentle alarm sound option, dual or multiple alarms. I prefer to buy used, so if you have a fancy alarm clock you bought 5 years ago and still love, that's probably the one for me!

If you see the specific alarm clock you recommend on Ebay or somewhere else used, please do link! I will buy it up!

posted by latkes to Shopping (12 answers total)

I love my Braun Classic Analog Alarm Clock in black. Simple, stylish, very reliable.
posted by Umami Dearest at 9:47 AM on August 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

(It's only got one alarm though. But if you want dual alarms, you can just buy two of them!)
posted by Umami Dearest at 9:49 AM on August 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've had two of the Oregon Scientific Projection clocks. You can have it so there is no display at night and you tap a button to have it project the time on the wall or ceiling. Crescendo alarm, gets louder and more intense the longer it rings. Syncs to the atomic clock and has back-up battery. Choices on eBay.
posted by XtineHutch at 10:05 AM on August 18, 2020

I have recommended the SoundFreaq SoundRise alarm clock/radio many times. It checks all your boxes and then some.
posted by TDIpod at 10:27 AM on August 18, 2020

I love my Timex Quartz batter alarm clock. It's over 20 years old, and with just one alarm, so it's less available.

If I had to replace it, I'd get another Timex. This one looks like the best option: battery powered, not bright (the Indiglo only lights up when you push a button), dual alarms. (There are a few options for this model on eBay.)
posted by hydra77 at 10:28 AM on August 18, 2020

We bought this Ambient Weather Projection Alarm Clock a few years ago, and it's been amazing. It projects the time on the ceiling, which is incredibly useful.

It has different brightness and color settings; you can set almost any color you like as the color for the digits. You can even turn off the screen entirely if you just want a ceiling projection. It also has a surprisingly-useful temperature display, which lets you know the temperature of the room. It uses atomic syncing, so it's always dead-on in terms of time.

We actually haven't used the alarm on it much, but it does have two of them.

When I want an alarm, I usually just use my G-Shock. It solar-charges so there's no worry about power outages, and it's loud enough to wake me but quiet enough to not wake my wife. It has a snooze feature so it'll beep again in 5 minutes if I don't turn it off the first time. Probably not what you want, but it works well on my nightstand (including when I travel!)
posted by vitout at 10:34 AM on August 18, 2020

I use a smart watch that has a vibrating alarm. I need to get up early for work so did not want anything with an audible alarm that would wake my wife. Has prevented much discord, and also fits your other criteria re quiet, battery backup, multiple alarms by time or weekday etc.
posted by rongorongo at 11:13 AM on August 18, 2020

I love my Acurite 13024A1 . The volume is adjustable, although it's still an alarm clock sound, so may not fit your definition of gentle. The brightness is also adjustable, although I would prefer if the lights were all red and that it got even dimmer. I have a little sheet of some self adhesive filter stuff that I stuck over it to make it dimmer, which could be an option if you find something you like except for the brightness. What I absolutely love is that the dual alarms are set and turned off by physical switches on the side, so I can reach over and confirm that the alarm is set without looking.
posted by Advanced_Waffler at 12:09 PM on August 18, 2020

This is my ideal alarm clock, but unfortunately it's not made any more. Mine still works despite being gnawed by a cat, and I will keep it until it dies.

What I like about it: it's only illuminated when I press the big button, so I am not forced to know what time it is when I wake in the night; nice big display; no tick; it's red. Only one alarm, quiet or loud options (the quiet one isn't that quiet, though) but it has a snooze function. Things my kid likes about it: ability to record an audio clip that can be used as an alarm. I've had it about 15 years and have only had to replace the batteries once.
posted by altolinguistic at 1:41 PM on August 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have this Sony alarm clock that looks to be discontinued but I LOVE IT. I use the radio function as my alarm because I HATE being woken up with blaring klaxons. You can set 2 alarms (I use mine for weekday and weekend alarms), it has a DST button, and it's not too bright for normal people (I actually have a piece of fabric covering mine at night because I need ABSOLUTE darkness when I sleep), and battery backup.
posted by cooker girl at 2:24 PM on August 18, 2020

I love my alarm clock, but it's not an alarm clock, it's a bedside radio. Namely, a Logitech Squeezebox Radio. It has dual alarms, individually settable by day of week, the clock has the only LCD backlight I've ever seen which goes dim enough to be just barely visible in a dark room - seriously, I cover all the LEDs on my power strips, but this is fine.

Of course, it wakes you with music, so you'll need to set up station presets (if there's no internet, the tune it uses is annoying, but not that annoying) and the like, but really, it's the best bedside clock I've ever had.
posted by ambrosen at 3:51 PM on August 18, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks all! Lots of GREAT suggestions here, it was hard to choose, but I was somewhat limited by what I found used on ebay. Anyhow, we got one Soundfreaq that I gave to the teen - so she can leave her phone out of her room too - and one of the battery powered timex numbers recommended above that I am using. Perfectly simple, works great, dark when the room is dark, and I get a silly amount of joy out of the multiple color lights when I need to check the time at night.
posted by latkes at 9:45 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]