Clocky The Rambling Alarm Clock

For the two of you who haven’t yet heard of Clocky, Clocky is the clock that rolls onto the floor and hides when the alarm goes off.

You have to get up, out of bed, and then find the clock to turn off the alarm.

This is a great idea for an alarm clock and an aid to everyone who’s grown accustomed to turning off their alarm clocks while still half awake, then falling back to sleep and possibly showing up late for work.

The idea behind Clocky is that you’re forced to get out of bed to find the darned thing, in order to turn off the annoying alarm, and, once you’re already out of bed and have gone to the trouble of finding the clock and turning off the alarm, it’s much less likely that you’ll go back under the covers and continue dreaming again.

Here’s a short blurb from the homepage of Nanda, the company which has created Clocky:

Nanda was started by Gauri Nanda when she was a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab. The Clocky alarm clock evolved out of Gauri’s own need for an alarm clock that wouldn’t let her snooze repeatedly. She created a prototype for a class project and a flurry of unexpected attention by the press ensued.

Take a look at one of Clocky’s slick promotional videos:

Back when I used to work in the advertising industry, we used to sometimes talk about the differences between Concept & Execution.

If you look at Clocky close enough, and I have to say that I’ve only once held an actual Clocky in my hand, it just doesn’t look like the most durable kind of device to be jumping off of nightstands and rolling around the floor. No, it comes off as being a little bit cheaply made.

Take a look at some of Clocky’s product pages at Amazon (scroll down to the bottom) and study the user reviews, and you’ll tend to find quite a few disgruntled Clocky owners, for various reasons. (Admittedly, one never knows if these are “real” reviews!)

For my money, I’d rather have a Clocky with a skin made out of better-quality materials: industrial-grade rubber, thicker plastic, etc…

For this reason – durability and solidity – I would have to give Clocky a couple points off for Execution. Regarding the Clocky Concept, however (an alarm clock that runs and hides), you simply have to give this alarm clock an A+. Gauri Nanda, the creator of Clocky, came up with a truly great idea. (And yes, judging from the amount of press coverage she’s received over the last few years, I’m sure she knows this by now.)

Here’s an interview with the creator of Clocky on the Big Idea Show with Donny Deutsch:

Clocky is further proof that a great idea is simply unstoppable, and I predict that, over the years, this clock will become a classic! Like some others that we know

But before I shell out the 50 bucks for a Clocky, I’ll personally be waiting for Clocky 2.0.

And hey, if you’re the kind of person who gets himself into trouble by hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock too often, we have an idea for you: set up our alarm clock on your laptop, far away from your bed. Turn your speakers on high and set your desired alarm time. Our piercingly annoying alarm sound will force you to get out of bed to turn it off.

If you decide to throw a brick at your laptop to turn off our alarm, however, we cannot be held liable for damages.

Tags: alarm clock, alarm clock blog, alarm clocks, clocks, clocky, Crazy Alarm Clocks, onlineclock, onlineclock.net, rolling alarm clock