The designer of the iPhone has created an alarm clock to do away with the smartphone

When we were now giving up on desk clocks, replaced by the smartphone that performs the same function and allows us to have one less object on the bedside table, Balmuda tries to challenge this habit with The Clock.

Founder Gen Terao envisioned this object as an alternative to smartphone use during the hours of sleeping and waking. While the phone is effective in marking time and acting as an alarm clock, it also introduces elements that are hard to ignore: notifications, distractions, and a light source that can interfere with rest.

The Clock was thus created to do less, not more. It retains essential functions, but eliminates what makes them invasive. At the heart of the design is sound: the alarm clock starts three minutes before the set time and grows gradually, avoiding the abrupt cut-off typical of digital alarms. Alongside this function, the device integrates a series of soundscapes - from the crackling of a fire to the sound of water or a gentle wind - designed to accompany work, study or relaxation.

The design also follows the same logic of subtraction. The object is reminiscent of analog alarm clocks, but eliminates both the screen and the hands, and with them the ticking and the need for precise time reading. The hour is suggested through the Light Hour system: a pulsating light that follows the rhythm of the seconds with a slow, pendulum-like movement, inspired by the Foucault pendulum observed at the National Museum of Nature and Science.

The project was developed in collaboration with LoveFrom, the studio founded by Jony Ive. A presence that introduces an obvious paradox: one of the designers who helped define the smartphone interface is working here on an object that reduces its impact. The studio's contribution focuses on materials research, particularly the aluminum used for the body of the watch, but it is consistent above all with the overall approach of the project: not to add functions, but to reduce the interface to the bare minimum.
 

Compact, battery-powered and controllable via app, The Clock is already on sale on Balmuda's website for about 350 euros. More than proposing a more efficient solution, the object suggests a different use of technology in the most everyday moments, starting with the way we fall asleep and wake up.