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Overall Rating

Functionally perfect, beautifully built.
This is the first alarm clock I’ve had that I like looking at, working with, and waking to. It’s the first one I’ve not want to put through the wall when it goes off. It strikes me as a peculiarly friendly alarm clock.

The alarm starts simple and rather quiet, then smoothly but quickly gets more complex and louder. A brisk waking, not a jarring one. Generous snooze. At least four repetitions of about 10 minutes each. There may be more. The index marks for the alarm hand are for every 10 minutes. The alarm set wheel is large, serrated, and one-way. It also “ratchets”. Every “tic” is 5 minutes, there’s marks every 10. The most precise and user-friendly alarm setting I’ve seen in an analog clock. The switch to arm and disarm the alarm is not exactly hidden, but not exactly exposed. This makes it easy to deliberately operate, but very hard to accidentally move. Perfect for us “brain not in gear till caffeine” types. Fairly large, but not obnoxiously so, that switch.

I’m sure they had in mind people who find it difficult to operate fiddly things when they designed the entire clock. All the controls are easy to operate easily, but hard or even impossible to accidentally move. Battery door is huge, and hinged, and looks quite strong. Behind it are 3 AA battery slots, the time-setting stem, and the switch for the ambient light sensor which drives the LED night light — more on that later.

The dial is two-piece, a white background, with a transparent foreground about 2mm in front of it. The numbers and index marks are on the transparency. The result: A luminous dial with shadows, the likes of a fine old porcelain-dialed clock or pocket watch. The hands received equal attention, the second hand, which glides along quietly without a sound or jerk, is long and thin, a very shiny perfect cylinder which reflects light in a most delicious dance. Then, very few clock and watchmakers understand light the way Seiko does. I own a 1968 Seiko wristwatch, and it also plays delightfully with light. I own two more seiko clocks, and they also are very good at playing with light.

The build is good, the plastics chosen are more than adequate, the lens is also plastic, but beautifully domed and faceted, as is Japanese watch and clock tradition. More gorgeous light trickery, that domed lens reduces big lights to mere pinpricks.. with a christmas tree in the room, it’s downright dream-like. Once you load the batteries in, it’s a nice hefty piece. Takes 3 AA’s: The bottom one runs the movement, the other the two LEDs just to either side of the 6 o’clock. The LED’s are amber for no alarm, green for alarm armed. A switchable light sensor can activate the correct LED and glow it very, very low. Low enough that it won’t bother even in the darkest of rooms, but due to the luminous nature and shape of that magnificent dial, you can easily read it by that faint light alone. But if you hit the top button (the snooze button) that LED will go full-intensity.. but I rarely use that. Just for effect ^.^ The barely-there LED is enough to read it. I imagine running it for 8-12 hrs a day on that faint light alone will probably stretch the batteries to a year? Maybe more? We’ll see when a year passes.. but I do know LEDs require very little juice to run. Especially when run so conservatively as in this application. However you run them, they’re beautiful. They illuminate upwards, from 6 to 12. They’re narrow, like a car’s headlight, and shine directly on that beautifully detailed dial. Being between the transparent portion with the numbers and marks, and the white background behind, the light actually results in a very sharp contrasty dial, even with the ghost-like night light described above. This dial is at it’s best when lit from the sides or directly above or below.

Oh yeah. Did I mention? This clock is tomb-quiet. It doesn’t make a sound. No tic-tic-tic. It won’t drive you bonkers.

Overall Rating

Best tableside clock I’ve ever had
Rated 5 stars.