Turnable Calendar Clock

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Judie Hughes

October 13, 2004

Product Requirements:
Two AAA batteries (included)

While I was recently perusing the Watch Brando site, I came across an interesting gadget, the Turnable Calendar Clock. This 2.75" tall x 2.75" wide x 1" thick translucent colored block includes the day and date, the time, an alarm, a room temperature meter, a countdown timer and a stopwatch. It even comes in my favorite color green, as well as blue and red. I figured I had better give this thing a try...

Included in the package were a starter set of two AAA batteries, instructions and the Calendar Clock. The back contains the battery slot as well as the set and adjust buttons.

What makes this little gizmo unique is that when it is flipped it will display the property described by the heading at the top of the frame. Here you can see that I have it turned to the Calendar mode. This is where the year, month and date, time and day of the week are displayed. Setting these features is accomplished by pushing the set button on the rear and pressing the adjust button until the correct unit is displayed.

Pressing the adjust button when the clock is in calendar mode will turn the alarm on or off.

Rotating the clock in any direction produces a "bong" sound, and the display changes to show the feature under the newly rotated heading.

Here you can see the Countdown function, which is what I usually think of as a timer. It can keep track of either seconds or minutes, pressing the set button makes that change. The adjust button is where you can add increments of time - up to either 99 seconds or 99 minutes. Tilting the gadget to its side seemed to set the number and stop it from blinking, turning it back to the countdown feature began the actual counting down. If you are in the minute mode, seconds will display once the last minute begins to tick. When the alarm went off, it was in sets of three rapid "bongs". Rotating to a different screen ended the alarm. An interesting feature was that the countdown "remembered" the last set time increment, so tilting back to the countdown screen began the same countdown once again. This could be quite handy if you are timing the same increment repeatedly.

The Timer function is similar to a stopwatch feature. When the gadget is rotated to this screen the counter will add increments of time by the second, up to 99:59 minutes. While the gadget is rotated to timer mode, you can press the set button to choose from a variety of aggravating tunes and alarms. While I was testing them out, Steve found them so annoying and loud that he actually had to leave the room...which is something to consider if you have difficulty waking up to a traditional alarm clock.

Temperature is self explanatory, and it can be changed from Celsius to Fahrenheit  with a press of the set button.

The Turnable Calendar Clock is a pretty cool gadget for those that want an all in one item for their desktop. If kept by the bed, it could make a decent alarm clock. In fact,  I defy anyone to sleep through the beeps, but especially the music - it is that annoying - which in this case is a good thing. The Turnable Calendar Clock would make a great travel clock, if there were a way to put it in sleep mode. I am afraid that if airport security heard all of the beeps it makes, your luggage would be fair game for a search party...

The Turnable Calendar Clock is available from Watch Brando.

Price: $13
Available in blue, red and green

Pros:
Many functions in a compact item
Alarms are loud and annoying

Cons:
No sleep mode for travel