July 26, 2026
Ticked off, then clocked in
I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
Man builds his dream bedside clock and the comments instantly turn into a time-war
TLDR: One writer got so annoyed with resetting a bedside clock that he built his own self-updating red-number version from scratch. Commenters turned it into a mini culture war: some cheered the relatable obsession, while others roasted it as a dramatic reinvention of clocks that already exist.
A fed-up clock owner went looking for the holy grail: a bedside clock with big red numbers, no creepy phone app, and no more seasonal button-mashing every time the power blips or daylight saving rolls around. When stores failed him, he did what many weekend tinkerers do right before losing an entire weekend: he declared, essentially, “Fine, I’ll build it myself,” then grabbed a tiny computer, a display, a soldering iron, and a 3D printer and went full mad scientist.
But the real fireworks were in the comments, where readers split into camps almost immediately. One side was deeply relatable: yes, this is a real problem. One commenter said this is exactly the kind of simple, readable, non-garbage clock they’ve wanted for family members for ages, asking why it’s so hard to buy something that isn’t ugly, blinding, or junk. The other side came in with elite time-snob energy, pointing out that self-setting clocks have existed forever, from old-school “atomic” radio clocks to the gloriously fancy Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos clock. And then there was the pure internet drive-by: “so basically NTP!” — a hilariously blunt summary that became the thread’s unofficial punchline.
The drama, in short: was this a charming DIY victory, or a wildly overcooked solution to a solved problem? The crowd couldn’t agree, which is exactly why everyone kept reading.
Key Points
- •The article centers on building a self-setting bedside clock after the author could not find a commercial product with automatic time adjustment, a red seven-segment display, and no app requirement.
- •The author evaluated both Arduino-style microcontrollers and Raspberry Pi-based systems, ultimately choosing Raspberry Pi for its Debian-based OS, Wi-Fi, NTP, and familiar Linux management tools.
- •The hardware build used an Adafruit 1.2-inch clock-face LED display and backpack board with an HT16K33 controller.
- •The project required the author to learn soldering for the first time and acquire basic assembly tools such as soldering equipment and a magnifying lens.
- •The author published the completed project's bill of materials, software, and 3D-print files in a repository.