The One Piece of Old Tech I'll Never Let Go

Do people have bedside clocks anymore? I use my phone for an alarm, but I still have a bedside clock, and I feel like I always will. It could be an old-fashioned habit that I’m holding onto, but I like it. The trick, for me, is to make sure I have a clock that doesn’t have a light in it - or at least, has a light that is only on when I want it on.

I was in high school when I got a non-lighted bedside clock and I couldn’t believe what a difference it made. Not having some blue or green digital light shining the time in your face at all hours is a real game changer. Then I upgraded my clock to one that showed the date and the temperature and I felt like I’d leveled up again. The thing was, that one looked like some tool you’d find on a ship. It was very industrial and no-nonsense looking. So I made it my mission to find a clock that 1) didn’t have a light shining all the time, 2) showed the date and temperature, and 3) didn’t look like something you’d find in a park ranger’s office.

Now you know exactly when I took these photos.

Of course, Amazon had what I was looking for. This clock by Peakeep comes in six colors, but I got the mint green. I’d call it more of a cheery turquoise. It livens up my bedside table just enough, but it also has everything I was looking for in a bedside clock.

It doesn’t add any light to my room unless I want it to, and then I just hit the enormous snooze button and it lights up for a few seconds. If you use this as an alarm clock, I suppose it’s also nice that the snooze button takes up almost the entire top of the clock. Just reach out and give it a smack - you’ll probably hit it.

One thing to know about this type of clock, i.e. one that tells you the temperature, the day, month, and year, as well as the time, is there there is a LOT to set up at first. And there are about a billion switches and buttons on the back to help you make everything correct. Even so, it takes 10 minutes max to get it all done. Then, you just have to mess with it when the time changes.

There’s no cord to mess with, and while you do need to have batteries to run this clock, they last for YEARS. With my last clock, I didn’t realize I needed new batteries for a week, because I’d had the clock so long I figured the display was fading simply because it was so old. But I threw some new AA’s in there and it was back to normal.

Are you holding onto some old-timey tech like a bedside clock? Do you have to have one that tells you what temperature it is in your room? I find I rely on it now, especially that I have a hard time regulating my body temp, to let me know if it’s actually cold or if it’s just me.