Customer Reviews

Seiko Bedside Alarm Clock

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I first bought one for my son because he had trouble setting other clocks for school and would get up late.. later got another since my wife and I kept changing wake settings and I needed my own.

Setting the alarm is SUPER easy. There is a built in night-light, amber when the alarm is turned off, green when on. Auto-sensor turns off LED in the daytime or when lights are on. Pressing the snooze button increases LED brightness making the clock easily visible in the dark. I thought the LEDs would mean frequent battery changes but they last and last. Alarm sound is an escalating beep that increases in volume.

This is a great clock for any drowsy person to operate correctly.

One thing that nobody else has noted is this clock's size; it's BIG! The circumference of the face is 4-1/2 to 5 inches (didn't actually measure it, just estimated). I found that a pleasant surprise, but I can see somebody possibly ordering one of these thinking it's a travel-sized clock since no dimensions are given on the product info page.

The backlighting is great; it doesn't light up the whole room but you can make out what time it is at night. The amber/green (alarm off/on indicator)light is a nice touch too.

The alarm is persistent without jolting you awake. It starts with a moderate multi note pattern, then progresses to the persistent part. The snooze bar is on top right where it should be and has an interval of about 5 minutes before the alarm sounds again.

The second hand sweeps instead of ticking off, which makes the clock extremely silent. Last but not least, the alarm setting wheel is on the front of the clock and the alarm on/off switch is big and located on the side.

It takes 3 "AA" cells and the manual says that they should last 1 year.

Alarm clocks all seem to have a personality and this one is like an apple-pie-baking sort of friend. Cheery in the morning, subtle lighting in the dark - but easily brightened for viewing the time, reliable, quiet, straightforward - need I say more? It tells the time and wakes you up - no additional gimmicks. Very easy to set, the color of the face light lets you know if it's on or off, the alarm increases in intensity, so it doesn't attack you first thing in the morning, plus it has a snooze button! The only unknown for me at this time is what happens when the batteries die. Does the clock just stop without warning or will it begin slowing down? In my opinion, it's worth the wait. I've tried out a lot of clocks and this is clearly the best one for me.

This is exactly what I was looking for in an alarm clock

Large easy to read face

Easy to find alarm on off button. ( for those sleepy mornings)

Can make sure you set the alarm at a glance (face is green when set)

Pleasant alarm tone.

I would recommend this product without hesitation!

This clock seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, but you can't read it in the dark. The little amber and green lights that are mentioned just rake across the dial; they don't light up the numbers or the hands, so you can't see what time it is unless you reach out and depress the snooze alarm, which will momentarily light up the clock enough to see the hands. In fact, the light(s) is only enough to locate the clock itself in the dark. The clock has hands that glow, but only for several minutes after the lights are turned off before they lose their "charge".

I had hoped this would replace a much less expensive alarm clock that does softly glow all night (you have to manually turn it on at night and off in the morning if you want to save on its batteries) and is easy to read at a glance. But it's a quartz movement that ticks louder than I like. I was really looking forward to the Seiko's quietness, which it does have.

I was looking for something different to replace my standard digital alarm clock. I considered some of the ones that displayed weather, etc, but I opted for something traditional and I am very pleased with my decision. This clock looks great sitting beside a bed and in comes in black or white.

The alarm gradually gets louder, but honestly it wakes me up as soon as it goes off. It's not too loud and is much more pleasant than my other alarms have been. The clock itself is super silent. You cannot hear it operate at all. The light sensor works very well. It lights up in the dark with just a small amount of light. If you want to make it brighter for a moment while checking the time all you have to do is hold the top button down. It glows in orange when the alarm is not set and in green when it is set. The clock has a small footprint, so it is great for small tables. It runs on a couple of batteries, so no cords to worry about. The instructions say that it should last a year on the batteries, but only time will tell.

My only complaint is that this clock is pretty much all plastic. While it looks very nice from a distance, once you pick it up it can feel a bit cheap. I wish they had produced it with a few more metal pieces (like the knobs and dials) or used some different finishes with the plastic. All in all, I am very pleased. This is a clock that takes a step back from all of the huge digital clocks being produced and looks refined. It sits there, performs the tasks that it should, and nothing more. If you are looking for something different (or something that takes you a few years back), then check this alarm clock out.

Attractive and easy to work. This clock has a sweeter-sounding alarm than any I've ever heard. When you turn on the backlighting (there is a switch inside the clock near the batteries) the face lights up at night--orange if the alarm isn't set, green if it is.

The is a really good alarm clock, but it's by no means perfect or "Ultimate." I bought it to replace a perfectly functional Braun alarm clock whose annoyingly loud ticking sound finally drove me to get a new clock. The Seiko is a bedside clock rather than a travel alarm clock because it's huge, measuring 5" tall and 4.5" wide.

What I like:

1. It's smartly illuminated. There is an optional button to enable/disable background illumination. When enabled, the illumination turns on by a photo-sensor. It's lit by a faint orange LED if the alarm function is not set and by a noticeably dimmer green LED if the alarm is set. By glancing at the color you'll know instantly whether you have set the alarm or not, although I'm a bit perplexed by this reversed color scheme because I tend to associate the color orange with "alarm" and green with "no alarm."

2. Not only no loud ticking sound, but no ticking sound at all! It's totally silent, perfect for light sleepers and those who have trouble falling asleep. I think the reason it doesn't have any ticking sound is it's not quartz-based, but I could be wrong on this. At least nowhere on the box, the clock, or the instruction does it mention the word "quartz." The lack of quartz could mean it might be less accurate.

3. It has a 5-minute snooze feature.

What really annoys me:

1. The alarm is supposed to be soft-start to get progressively louder so as not to shock you out of your deep slumber and give you a heart attack with the first note. But there are several problems. One is it's not soft to start with. Even the first note is still far too loud and jarring. Putting a tape on the outside of the alarm port or stuffing crumbled paper towel over the outlet port did not attenuate the sound. To do the job right, I had to open up the back case by unscrewing four screws to get at the piezo alarm chime. (Take out the batteries first to get access to the screws). I then put a tape on the chime's port and then stuff the paper towel on the INSIDE of the case to muffle the loud alarm noise. Now it's perfect for me.

2. The soft-start alarm progresses from soft to loud too quickly. The volume progression should take much longer and rise much more gently. I also fault the design for it's lack of a dial to adjust the alarm volume. Some Seiko travel alarm clocks have this feature, but this "Ultimate" clock doesn't! The loudness is probably there to accommodate sound sleepers, but light sleepers, as many adults are, will almost invariably find the first note too loud. A truly "Ultimate" alarm clock should have the capability to adjust the volume.

3. It's large. This may sound funny, but it's true. When placed on my night stand and facing me, its large face creates the strange sensation of someone looking at me when I'm lying in bed trying to be intimate with my lady. I always have to turn the large clock face away when we're engaged in romantic activity.

Overall, I love this clock, but those several things I noted really annoy me and so I give it only 4 stars.

No nonsense. Simple in operating. Very pleasant gradually escalating sound that does not wake up the whole house with the first ring. Pleasant light to be switched on demand or through a light sensor. Good quality of materials used.

I was convinced to order this clock after reading all the reviews. Here are some things I didn't see in the other reviews that made me decide it was not for me:

1. The clock doesn't care about AM and PM. Those of us that have had analog clocks before probably already realize this, but it may not dawn on people like me who have always had digital alarm clocks. This means if you have your alarm set for 6 it will go off at both 6 AM and 6 PM if the alarm is on. So you can't just turn the alarm back on when you get up, you have to remember to set it before bed. This isn't as difficult to remember as you might expect, because the clock face illumination is amber when the alarm is not enabled. This leads me to the next problem.

2. The green clock face illumination when the alarm is enabled is not bright enough to read the clock in the dark. On the clock I had I was able to read the time OK with the amber light, but found it difficult if not impossible to tell the time with the green illumination. Your experience may vary however because...

3. The clock is cheaply made in China. Without the batteries this is really evident. Judging from the construction the price should be much lower. The movement wiggles slightly when you turn the dials to adjust time and alarm making it difficult to do so with any precision. The plastic the case was made of felt fairly fragile as well. I don't know that this could be knocked off the nightstand too many times and continue to be serviceable.

While each of these things on their own might not be a show-stopper, the combination was enough for me to seek something else. If the price were 1/3 to 1/2 of the current price I might be a little more forgiving, but for nearly $50 there are certainly clocks that are a better match for me.