My special lady spends an inordinate amount of time pondering the Roman Empire. Over dinner, she’ll cut me—or the waiter—off mid-sentence to expound on the Punic Wars. And recently, she enlightened me about the Roman virtue of utile et dulce, the union of the useful and the beautiful. You see it in an intricate mechanical watch or a perfectly balanced knife forged by a master craftsman. Form follows function, and elegance organically emerges. The tool transcends its function and becomes an objet d’art.
When I discovered the Arc Alarm Clock from NanuElectrics, I realized it epitomized that marriage of utility and sublime design. Needless to say, I snagged her one as a gift.
Photos via NanuElectrics
NanuElectrics
In this twisted age of cheap dopamine and omnipresent screens, as I watch my precious hours skitter away like amphetamine-addled ferrets, I salute NanuElectrics’ mission to “make time tangible.”
The San Francisco–based company crafts handsome analog clocks that, by design, don’t connect to smartphones. In lieu of an app, you set the clock with old-school buttons and dials. It’s a commendable throwback to an era when our limbic systems were innocent of iOS apps and the wicked vortex of the Internet.
The retro-futuristic designs evoke the 70s, but the machinery under the hood exemplifies Silicon Valley’s ethos of cutting-edge engineering. A team of sleep scientists and sonologists spent years perfecting the alarm chime, meticulously researching the ideal frequencies to gently rouse the sleeping brain into waking consciousness.
Photo via NanuElectrics
The Arc Alarm Clock
The Arc arrived in a minimalist white box, packaging that would titillate Steve Jobs, or the Zen master Bashō. Lifting it out, I noticed the unit’s pleasing heft.
The pill-shaped case displays a large white button beside an onyx dial with Arabic numerals. After a day spent staring into glowing rectangles, it’s oddly soothing to look at an analog clock. Premium materials like cast zinc and mineral glass broadcast quality and craftsmanship even at a glance. Like the Dude’s rug, my Arc Alarm Clock is a subtle but cherished touch in my bedroom’s feng shui.
Setting the alarm takes mere seconds. Press the big white button, and a small digital display appears on the dial showing your wake-up time. Turn the button to adjust the hour—et voilà. The top of the clock has a large snooze button, deferring consciousness in 15-minute increments.
A “pleasant wake-up alarm” is, of course, a contradiction in terms—like a joyful tax audit or a hoot of a colonoscopy. Nonetheless, I prefer rising to NanuElectrics’ serene chime over the hellish “Radar” jangle of my iPhone. It swells in gradual intensity like a meditation bell in a Zen temple, easing you from vegetative to animal awareness. And I enjoy looking at something beautiful when I first open my bloodshot eyes each morning.
