Sharper Image - LED Pro Word Clock with Dimmable Light, Modern Design, 5 Minute Red Alert

Cute

I've wanted one if these for ages so when I saw it on sale I ordered. Love it, but im slightly dissapointed that the light is not even across all the words. Some letters are not as bright as others. Overall brightness is adjustable.

Cool clock but shows minutes only in 5 minute increments

I really like the idea of the clock, even if I at first misread it as World Clock and wondered how this could possibly ... Anyway, it's certainly unique and in a way resets our relationship with time to a slower pace. It does not display every minute but goes in five-minute increments. This is good for a general idea, not when it has to be precise. Further, a quick glance is not enough as one literally has to read the time like a sentence. It doesn't do 24hr time. It's a novelty item that uses time as an approximation. The XL (a.k.a. Pro) version comes with a USB cable, but no power supply. A 5V 1A USB-A brick is sufficient. The included cable is fairly long (ca. 5 ft) and is the main power source for the clock. There are backup batteries (2x AA) but those are only to keep the time when the power goes out. In that case, the display is off. The XL (Pro) version has two differentiating characteristics. First, the display is dimmable. That is a manual setting of one of four brightness levels. Unfortunately, it does not adjust automatically to varying room brightness (i.e., day and night). The adjustment button is behind a (fairly hard to remove) battery door and therefore not easily accessible. Even at the lowest settings it’s fairly bright at night and not suitable for a bedroom (unless as a night light for kids.) The other is the red "five" that signals that a full hour is next. (It's only used for 5 minutes to the full hour, not five after.) Setting the clock is somewhat tedious as you have to cycle thru time in five-minute increments. (no jumping hours etc.) To be somewhat accurate, you’d have to wait for a time matching the 5 minute increments and have to wait up to 5 minutes to be in sync with your setting. There is also no function to observe DST, but at least you can go forward or backwards in time, in 5-minute increments. The white housing (and black front plate) are both minimalistic and elegant. It's meant to be hung on a wall, but in any case there will be a white USB cable to power the clock's display. Overall, it's a nice novelty clock for those who find standard analog or digital clocks boring, or those who can't read an analog clock and need it spelled out. It's not the most practical clock and I wish it had some network functionality to at least read the time and automatically adjust to DST. An adaptive dimming level would be great, too. The price seems reasonable, but not a bargain.

Looks great, but it’s a bit difficult to match up to the actual time since it only shows in five-minute increments of time.