Seiko 3" Compact & Lightweight Bedside Alarm Clock (QHE085KLH) , Black

Best alarm clock ever!!! Convenient size (not too big not too small). The numbers are completely visible at night but not at all so bright as to keep you awake. The stronger backlight is a convenient push of the button on top if you want more light to see the time and appreciate that they included this feature. The silent second hand and silent clock operation was a must for me and this is 100% completely silent. I have been searching for the perfect alarm clock for a very long time. Thank you, thank you Seiko, finally a perfectly designed alarm clock with every feature that I want in a perfectly sized alarm clock.

I looked at a lot of alarm clocks before buying this one. I am a light sleeper and wanted a bedside clock that would be both quiet and have a dark dial, yet could be illuminated at the press of a button. This clock does it all. While I can hear it if I hold it up to my ear, it is otherwise quiet. The numerals and hands are luminous, but not bright. I can just barely make out the time in the middle of the night. If wanted, a press on the top button will illuminate the dial. I haven't needed the alarm, but tested it for the purpose of this review. One turns it on by a switch on the side of the clock, which also illuminates the small round button on the lower right corner of the front. The alarm makes a beeping sound which is not overly loud for me. I have always liked Seiko's design and quality, and this clock is no exception. Happily, it is also inexpensive in relation to quality: a good buy.

This is a very good clock: simple to use, attractive, easy to see from a distance (in normal light bc white hands on black) and keeps accurate time. It's not quite as silent as another similar Seiko I recently purchased (QHE086SLH grey/silver bedside clock) which is very quiet. This black model would seem to have the same internal mechanisms being a very similar clock, but the whirring of gears inside is a little more noticeable. I am sensitive to this and it's definitely not annoying like a tick-tock sound, but I can hear it from a few feet away; many others might not even notice this though. Otherwise, I love the clock. It's no-frills but works well, easy to set the time and alarm hand, and both functions are pretty accurate. That is, you can move the alarm hand for fine tuning within a few minutes (e.g. put the yellow hand a little after the hour and it will go off at 5 after, etc.) Alarm on and off is secure and easy to see with little yellow dot (not a light) in lower right corner. Night light is illuminated by pushing snooze button (5-min delay) on top and is dim but adequate. Glow in the dark hands and dots for each hour on face stay bright through the night. Alarm is certainly loud enough; typical shrill "beep-beep-beep-beep" and can be dampened by covering small holes on back side. Some people complain these clocks are flimsy, and it is plastic, but for this price and for normal use at home or even in travel, I think it's a great clock and very reasonably priced. One last note: the clock is slightly larger than stated in the Amazon description and details (diff dims in each place, both wrong). It measures 3.5" wide x 3.75" high x 2.25" deep.

Updated on 5/29/2014 - There are two big negatives and these are probably deal breakers. 1. After 6 months of use, the alarm siren went out and in a bad way. The first time it happened & did it for several days in a row, the alarm didn't sound out even though the alarm was on. 1 week later, I heard the alarm ring loud for 2 seconds and then it went to really quiet rings. 2. Both the time & alarm settings use the same knob and this can cause accidents when changing the alarm time. These are two big risks for me on using this alarm clock and so I can't recommend this clock. I am going to buy more expensive Seiko alarm clock that has separate alarm and time knobs. Original - The seconds move almost like Swiss automatic watches as it moves so smooth. A minor thing is that the snooze button is for every 5 minutes and I wish it was for 10 minutes.

This is a great clock with one exception, the battery compartment. The GOOD points: You can illuminate the dial by hitting the snooze alarm at night; it has a gentle beep that gets slightly louder if you don't turn it off; snooze button is for five minutes and you can hit it over and over; it makes absolutely no ticking sound - it is perfectly quiet; and it is large enough to see and small enough not to take up too much space. The ONLY BAD point: the battery (one AA) is not secured and has a huge cavity to fall into if it dislodges; the first time I used it the cat knocked it off the nightstand while I was sleeping and lo and behold, the battery dislodged and of course the clock stopped and no alarm . . . . Not a bad kitty, just a bad design for the battery compartment. I put a piece of tape inside to hold the battery and I'm using it and loving it.

I purchased a cheaper product and while it worked fine it was noisy and the hands were very hard to read by the internal night light. I didn't like the result so I bought this Seiko. I've had a couple other Seiko clocks and they worked perfectly and still do today. This clock is a good size at about 3" across. It's TOTALLY SILENT! The second hand is a constant sweep with no clicking at all. The hands glow throughout the night and when you use the night light the hands are easily distinguishable. I do need glasses so a digital model won't work when you peek at it in the night. The positions of the hands tell you what time it is without seeing the numbers. This is a terrific clock.

With my eyeglasses on, it's very readable; however when I awake at night the white hands against the white letters and the yellow/orange alarm marker all blurr - rendering this clock useless for my intended use. While the hands do have luminescence, their small size and relative position make it hard to determine whether it's 2:05 or 1:10. Even with the light, the lack of contrast and/or distinctive hour/minute hands, makes the light less than effective. While the clock is quiet, it is not silent - however my tinnitus blocks the sound to where, for me, it's a non-issue - and much better than the tick tick tick of the clock that it replaced. Unfortunately, this clock will be relocated to a guest room once I find one that I can see without my eyeglasses. The instructions indicated that I should expect around EIGHT MONTHS of life from the battery; and given that another reviewer pointed out that there's enough space in the battery compartment for a better-fitting battery, it seems to me that Seiko could have used a C or D cell to extend the battery life to something more in tune with their wristwatch battery life. While the sweep-second hand helps the clock stand out against the more normal one-second-tick of many clocks, at least the movement of the second hand is an indication that the battery is not depleted. UPDATE: Its now 10 months old - and while it keeps great time, it has developed a Tic-tock-tick-tock whereupon the loud tick tick tick each second on normal clocks has now been replaced by a tick-tock each second by this initially-quiet clock. I have significant tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and can no longer hear my watches; however this clock is now loud enough for me to hear at a distance of a few feet (and at a tick-tock rate that is twice the speed of the annoying clock it replaced). It is now a good looking and accurate ornament in the bathroom.

This little clock is perfect for my needs. I can read the dial easily, even across the room (and without my glasses) because the font is the right size, the combination of the white hands with the brown/black Seiko chose, the minute markers around the dial, and the secondhand. It doesn't tick (ticking clocks drive me crazy), the alarm is loud enough, this newest version (I have several of these, bought my first at least ten years ago) has an indicator which lets you know if you've turned the alarm on-very handy). It's not heavy, it feels good in the hand, the design is surprisingly graceful, 'surprisingly graceful' because not many alarm clocks are graceful in the least. I mentioned that I have several. The only reason I've just bought another one (I now have four in all) is that I gave one to a young man who is working for me and arrived late and had none besides his phone which he had lost). . It uses just one battery and that lasts forever - or at least several years. Yes, I would buy it again, already have, in fact.