Dismissals from a recent round of testing (clockwise from top left): Jall Analog Alarm Clock, Jall Twin Bell Loud Alarm Analog Clock, Farbe Alarm Clock, Kikkerland Blue Retro Alarm Clock, Addison Ross Taupe Enamel Square Alarm Clock. Joshua Lyon/NYT WirecutterThe Addison Ross Taupe Enamel Square Alarm Clock looked elegant online, but in person it came across as stuffy. The small numbers (it has only the 12, 3, 6, and 9) made telling time difficult, and setting a precise alarm was even harder than on most other analog clocks due to its missing numbers and lack of graduations. The shrill electronic tone is surprisingly loud.We liked the Alume Cube Clock for its compact, 2.75-inch minimalist silver-cube design. It should fit on any surface with plenty of room to spare, and it displays the time, date, and temperature with a snap of the fingers or a tap on its top. But it lacks snooze and dimming options (the display turns completely off between snaps or taps), and its LED display glows a bit too cold and bright for tired or still-waking eyes.The Capello Round Time Table Clock is a small and lightweight plug-in alarm clock with an easy-to-read LED display and a stylish gray-fabric front. A USB port in the back works well for overnight charging, but the clock’s lightweight plastic construction makes it easy to knock over. Snoozing the alarm requires a firm, palm-down press across the entire clock, and even at the lowest of this clock’s three dimming settings, we had to turn it face down at night.We love the Farbe Alarm Clock’s pop-of-primary-color options, but despite being made from Japanese beech, it didn’t feel like a wood clock at all: The casing was so thin that tapping on the surface picked up the echo and vibrations of the clock mechanism inside, so it both felt and sounded like plastic.We tested the Jall Analog Alarm Clock hoping to find a budget option similar in style to the pricier Riki and Station clocks, but we found this model’s clicking and whirring too loud. If you don’t think the noise would bother you, it does come in 11 colors, and it has almost 8,000 Amazon reviews with an overall rating of 4.4 stars (out of five), plus a $13 price that can’t be beat.The Jall Twin Bell Loud Alarm Analog Clock certainly lives up to its name. The design is charming, but when the alarm begins to ring, the hammer that swings between the two bells perched on top is so aggressively fast that the clock actually hops up and down like in an old-timey cartoon.The Kikkerland Blue Retro Alarm Clock has a whimsical look, but in our tests the plastic casing was so flimsy that we could see it flex when we squeezed the clock with just one hand.The Lemnos Riki Alarm Clock was a long-time pick in this guide, and while we still think it makes a handsome table clock, the alarm functioned poorly in our latest round of testing. We know that this style of analog alarm only tends to accurately sound-off on the hour, half hour, and quarter hour, but we found it extremely unreliable even within those limited options.This article was edited by Joanne Chen and Daniela Gorny. Additional reporting by Abby Balter.
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