If you’ve ever had pretentious fantasies of your very own butler waking you up each morning your dreams are about to be realised without the need of a billionaire bank balance. The Voco clock may look like a regular clock for the mantle piece, but it’s actually a speaking alarm with the annoying posh voice of Stephen Fry.

When it’s time to awaken from your slumber you can get your butt kissed by Mr Fry saying things like:

“I’m so sorry to disturb you but it appears to be morning. Very inconvenient, I agree . . . I believe it is the rotation of the earth that is to blame.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Haute Horologerie exhibition (SIHH) started in Geneva this week. One of the catchiest watches on this show is the the Girard-Perregaux 1945 Jackpot Tourbillion Watch: a massive, classy watch made of 18K pink gold featuring a really fine piece of craftsmanship: a fully-working slot machine, modelled after the first ever slot machine, the Liberty Bell. It even includes the
specific chimes of such a machine.
Read the rest of this entry »

This may look like yet another cool conceptual watch but I’m delighted to report it’s not a concept but a real life in the shops product.

The Pixel Watch from ODM is one of the coolest watches we’ve seen in ages. The Pixel Watch uses an EL (Electro Luminescent) band, and translucent casing to produce an unusual and contemporary design. On the hour every hour, between 9pm and 3am there is an on screen animation and scrolling pattern.

The pixel watch comes in either whit, brown or gawdy pink and is on sale for £80 (~$160) from Red 5.

Do you have some problems waking up in the morning? Logic3 don’t want you to lose your job, or anything like that, so they just released the i-Station IS10, the newest clock with an iPod dock in the market. This clock was designed to wake you with the sound of your favourite songs in your iPod’s playlists, a traditional and annoying buzz, or the radio station of your choice.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you didn’t get your hands on the pong clock and really want an amazing time-telling machine that also brings back memories from the good ol’ times, here’s something that’s even cooler: the Time Machine!

We haven’t been able to find a cool clock that has some real mechanic action since the Wave Clock. This one takes the concept of marbles showing time even further, with an even cooler result: 26 marbles run down 3 lanes, showing the time.
Read the rest of this entry »

Nixie tubes are among the coolest retro electronics ever. Clocks based on them have been made by enthusiasts and by different companies, but this one’s the king. Sleek, well-made and precise.

Let’s start with what we see: the materials and lamps. There’s no plastic, the casing is made out of massive cherry wood and a plate of beautifully-reflective anodized aluminium, and the tubes are amongst the clearest and best-looking ever. The warm glowing digits are 0.61”/15.5mm high, and the clock can be set to display 12/24h time (with the possibility of suppressing leading zeroes) or the date (both in dd/mm and mm/dd formats, for worldwide compatibility).
Read the rest of this entry »

This is an interesting looking watch, it looks like a solid lump of metal complete with sculpted hands, yet still manages to keep near perfect time.

The watch works by rotating the discs in its face, so you have the solid disc in the middle rotating to show the hour and the disc on the outside displays the minutes.

As minimalistic designs go I really like this, though whether I like it to the tune of €415.95 (£281.37) remains to be seen. You can get the Silan 3 Issey Miyake watch (catchy!) from Questo Design.

Everyone knows that the English have the stiff upper lip and barely show any emotions, which is why the process of waking up also requires an air of dignity as evidenced by the Voco Alarm Clock. What sets this alarm clock apart from all other offerings available on the market today is its ability to coax you out of bed in a gentlemanly manner. Yes sir, sleepyheads no longer need to contend with irritating gimmicks such as feeding your alarm clock spare change to keep it quiet, running after it, or even knocking it off in mid flight. What you get the with Voco Alarm Clock instead is the dulcet tone of English comedian Stephen Fry.

Read the rest of this entry »