How many clocks are there in your home/dwelling?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Astronuc
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Clocks
Click For Summary
SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on the number of clocks present in various homes, revealing a wide range of clock counts and types. Participants report having anywhere from 2 to over 40 clocks, including those in appliances like microwaves and ovens, as well as in vehicles and digital devices. Commonly mentioned clocks include alarm clocks, wall clocks, and clocks integrated into electronics such as computers and cell phones. The conversation highlights the challenges of managing multiple clocks, particularly regarding their accuracy and the inconvenience of resetting them after power outages.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of household appliances with built-in clocks (e.g., microwaves, ovens)
  • Familiarity with digital devices that display time (e.g., computers, smartphones)
  • Knowledge of timekeeping mechanisms (e.g., analog vs. digital clocks)
  • Awareness of the impact of power outages on electronic devices
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the functionality of smart home devices that synchronize time automatically
  • Explore the differences between analog and digital clock mechanisms
  • Investigate the effects of power outages on various household appliances
  • Learn about the history and evolution of timekeeping devices
USEFUL FOR

Homeowners, appliance manufacturers, and individuals interested in time management and the integration of technology in everyday life will benefit from this discussion.

Astronuc
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
2025 Award
Messages
22,504
Reaction score
7,432
Cristo's thread "Clocks go back?" prompts me to ask the question - "How many clocks are there in your home/dwelling/abode?"

I count 5 clocks in our kitchen - microwave, stove, coffee maker, wall clock (battery powered with bird sounds), and over-the-counter clock radio.

One in the living room - VCR.

Three in the master bedroom - the satellite clock, and two radio/alarm clocks.

Then each computer and cell phone :rolleyes:

Then there are watches - but I don't wear one.


I'm sure there are more.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Working? Three in the kitchen - stove, microwave and coffeemaker, all off by one minute each, hey I can only program one at a time. Computer and cell phone. So 5.
 
Astronuc said:
I'm sure there are more.
Yep! You can add in each digital camera in the house, too.
 
digital thermostat
 
22 or so in my house (1 wall clock, 5 alarm clocks, plus clocks in the microwave, oven, coffee pot, cable receiver, DVD recorder, and a clock in each of 4 computers, 3 TVs, and 4 cell phones). Do the immediate surroundings count? If so, add the clocks in the 3 vehicles parked just outside the front door.

I don't wear a watch because I am surrounded by clocks.
 
D H said:
22 or so in my house (1 wall clock, 5 alarm clocks, plus clocks in the microwave, oven, coffee pot, cable receiver, DVD recorder, and a clock in each of 4 computers, 3 TVs, and 4 cell phones). Do the immediate surroundings count? If so, add the clocks in the 3 vehicles parked just outside the front door.

I don't wear a watch because I am surrounded by clocks.
Before my house was hit by lightning and 4 cars totalled by baseball size hail, I would have outnumbered you. :biggrin:
 
We have four clocks (computer, stove, microwave, portable radio) plus the watches that my wife and I both wear. I only ever use my watch and the computer clock to check the time.
 
At least 19 and most read different times. Probably at least half are within a few minutes of the correct time. Nearly half will be within a few minutes of the correct time in about a week. A few only tell the correct time twice a day.
 
I gave up wearing watches back in early years of university - they kept getting destroyed. Not even a Timex could survive attached to me. :biggrin:
 
  • #10
Ive got a wall clock in my room, a watch, a clock on both my cell phone and computer, and one in the open living area-- so that's 5 in total; although only the automatic ones (computer and phone) tell the correct time at present!

D H said:
[...]5 alarm clocks, [...]
Wow.. you must be a very heavy sleeper!
 
  • #11
D H said:
... 5 alarm clocks...

cristo said:
Wow.. you must be a very heavy sleeper!

You can set them to go off sequentially 30 seconds apart along a path to the coffee pot. What a concept!
 
  • #12
cristo said:
Wow.. you must be a very heavy sleeper!

I only have one alarm clock. My wife and my three sons have one each.
 
  • #13
D H said:
I only have one alarm clock. My wife and my three sons have one each.

Yea, I guessed it was something like that. I was only making a joke, really. There are some days when I could do with 5 alarm clocks though! :zzz:
 
  • #14
Over 30 years ago, my friend inherited a drug-store (the old-fashioned rural drug store that carried lots of dry goods, jewelry, etc) and the 3-story family home next door. His grandfather and his great-grandfather were both jewelers and they repaired clocks, too. There was a clock in about every room of that big place, and one day after Bill and his wife had gotten settled in, he and I set out to start up and regulate every clock. We thought it would be a good idea to wind up or set the counter-weights operating all the sounders, too. Most of the clocks would toll the hour and many would also chime for each quarter-hour. The next day, his wife (a light sleeper, apparently) let us know in no uncertain terms that it had NOT been a good idea to activate all the sounders and that we had to disable them all or face dire consequences.
 
  • #15
I've been gradually reducing clocks, because it was getting to the point where I didn't need to turn on lights at night with all the things with numbers glowing at me.

The kitchen has the microwave, range, and a battery-operated analog clock on the wall (so I have something to set all the other clocks by when the power goes out). I wouldn't bother setting the ones on the microwave and range if either one would operate without the clocks set (I don't use either clock for telling time, and it's a pain to keep resetting them after every power outage).

There's an alarm clock in my bedroom, and one in the guest bedroom (though the one in the guest room is probably blinking 12:00 at this point...I never check it after power failures, only worry about it if I have a guest visiting who needs the alarm, which is rare).

In my office, I use the clock on the computer to keep track of time (usually it's better to not know what time it is when I'm in my office getting work done :rolleyes:). That said, I'm also up to 3 computers now, so that's 3 clocks total there, but they all set themselves, so I don't worry about them.

The cellphone has replaced wearing a watch. Clock in the car too.

I no longer have VCRs or DVD players or coffee makers that display the time, which is great.
 
  • #16
Evo said:
Before my house was hit by lightning and 4 cars totalled by baseball size hail, I would have outnumbered you. :biggrin:

Did the cars crash into your house to get out of the hail?


I only have 2 working clocks, my computer and my alarm clock. I guess I can count the 2 in the kitchen also, but I haven't reset them since I lost power months ago and they are 20 minutes slow.

If I actually put batteries in everything and set all the timers properly I would have 9 in my apartment and 1 in my car.
 
  • #17
Counting one in each computer and one in each cell phone, that's six. Then two VCRs, and four clock clocks, and one wallphone that has a clock in it I think. Oh, and the fax machine has a clock. So that's 14! I'm sure there are more hidden somewhere with non necessarily a digital readout.
 
  • #18
Can anyone "top" this for clocks at home? Five years ago, during my last year as a bachelor, I had the clock on my portable radio and my watch.

At work, I had the clock on my computer and my watch.
 
  • #19
turbo-1 said:
Over 30 years ago, my friend inherited a drug-store (the old-fashioned rural drug store that carried lots of dry goods, jewelry, etc) and the 3-story family home next door. His grandfather and his great-grandfather were both jewelers and they repaired clocks, too. There was a clock in about every room of that big place, and one day after Bill and his wife had gotten settled in, he and I set out to start up and regulate every clock. We thought it would be a good idea to wind up or set the counter-weights operating all the sounders, too. Most of the clocks would toll the hour and many would also chime for each quarter-hour. The next day, his wife (a light sleeper, apparently) let us know in no uncertain terms that it had NOT been a good idea to activate all the sounders and that we had to disable them all or face dire consequences.

:smile: Reminds me of a visit to a friends' house once. I was sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the living room, and woke up EVERY HOUR to the cuckoo clock they had in there. First thing the next day, I made them shut off the cuckoo mechanism in it. They were so used to hearing it, they completely forgot it was there and might keep someone awake at night who wasn't used to it...especially when it was directly over the sofa I was sleeping on! Needless to say, I needed a nap that afternoon to get through the day.
 
  • #20
D H said:
22 or so in my house

Update: The count is well over 30. Disgusting. Add four watches (none mine), two stopwatches (both mine; I used to be a referee), digital thermostat, 3 telephones, two stereos, a VCR, and a digital television. The clocks in the three cars make the count closer to 40.
 
  • #21
Moonbear said:
The cellphone has replaced wearing a watch. Clock in the car too.
I'm on my second (company) cell phone, but they do last longer than my watches did. I didn't count the clocks in each car.

I just noticed the digital thermostat in the hallway has a clock. I never look at it. Sneaky clock.
 
  • #22
At least fourteen in the house + two for my car (a radio clock plus a second one on the dashboard) + my wife's car + watches. The little biannual ritual is approaching once again. Someone ought to start making receiver clocks that can self-adjust from a radio or wifi signal. At least cell phones and PCs already do that.
 
  • #23
Man! Even in our primitive little log house, we have LOTS of clocks. Three alarm clocks, 2 in computers, one each in VCR and microwave, one in a phone, one in a FAX, one in a caller ID box, one in an answering machine, 2 wristwatches each for me and my wife (including Swiss-made diver's watch I bought over 40 years ago and still keeps time like a champ when the battery runs low on my Luminox). That diver's watch survived one heck of an impact when I was playing pick-up BB after school and forgot to take it off. The expansion band let it slip over my hand during a half-court pass, and the watch out-distanced the BB and came down hard on the tile floor. Maybe I can pass it on to Astronuc. If I couldn't kill it, maybe it would survive his gentle ministrations.:rolleyes:
 
  • #24
out of whack said:
Someone ought to start making receiver clocks that can self-adjust from a radio or wifi signal. At least cell phones and PCs already do that.
They already do. My wall clock automatically synchronizes with the broadcast from the US Naval Observatory. :smile:
 
  • #25
Astronuc said:
I just noticed the digital thermostat in the hallway has a clock. I never look at it. Sneaky clock.

I forgot I had one of those too! I only remember it's there when I switch from a/c to heat or vice versa, and need to check the times it's set for (since my schedule changes from year to year, I usually need to readjust it each season for the times I'm home or not...nothing worse than having a day I have to get up earlier and the thermostat hasn't kicked the heat on yet from the low I set it for overnight while I'm buried under blankets).
 
  • #26
turbo-1 said:
The expansion band let it slip over my hand during a half-court pass, and the watch out-distanced the BB and came down hard on the tile floor. Maybe I can pass it on to Astronuc. If I couldn't kill it, maybe it would survive his gentle ministrations.:rolleyes:
:smile: I don't know - maybe. I gave up a long time ago. The scars on my arms and hands indicate that I'm probably too physical to wear jewelry and watches.

Back during university, I used to bound up and down stairs, had a job as a plumber and maintenane person working on stuff like machinery, car engines, . . . . , and then had a job as an iron worker. I just remember looking down occasionally and finding the watchcover (glass cover) scratched or broken, and not knowing when it happened. After I destroyed my third watch, I gave up. I had one watch where the minute hand came off - before the watch face came loose and the cover broke.
 
Last edited:
  • #27
Moonbear said:
I forgot I had one of those too! I only remember it's there when I switch from a/c to heat or vice versa, and need to check the times it's set for (since my schedule changes from year to year, I usually need to readjust it each season for the times I'm home or not...nothing worse than having a day I have to get up earlier and the thermostat hasn't kicked the heat on yet from the low I set it for overnight while I'm buried under blankets).
Our "thermostat" is me getting up in the middle of the night in the winter to either build or replenish a fire in the wood stove, so the house is comfortable when my wife gets up to go to work. She re-fuels the stove so it will be comfortable when I get up, and we keep our schedules staggered throughout the heating season. I'm a night-person so that works out great.
 
  • #28
Clock confessions:

When I was a child, the main clock on the sideboard was a posh affair, with a pendulum inside, and Westminster chimes every quarter-hour. One got used to it, but it relentlessly hurried the day along with those chimes. It left me not caring much for 'when' anything 'had' to happen (a bit like in Jamaica).

When at university, the bedside alarm clock, besides being radioactive, and having a cheesy rotating centre-star graphic, had a defect on the escapement such that it included a "clonk-clonk" every 14.5 ticks. It took weeks of feeling tired and ill before I realized I was not getting properly to sleep, being partly woken in that rhythm. Since flinging it into a wall had no effect, I took a matchstick, and stuck it through the balance wheel spokes.

Replaced with a constantly humming 'digital' thing that changed its white digits by flipping flaps, very like some rail station departure information boards, that got shown the 'off' switch. Finally - LED technology arrived. Then LCD.. ahh bliss. My family are convinced I have a few loose screws, but no tick-tick thing is tolerated long near me. I can get along fine now with my radio-controlled projection clock I got at the Science Museum gift shop. Its locked to the national atomic standard, and is entirely OK for anything scientific - and its quiet! :smile:
 
  • #29
One I don't bother with is the one on the TV --


or the answering machine
 
Last edited:
  • #30
Hurkyl said:
They already do. My wall clock automatically synchronizes with the broadcast from the US Naval Observatory. :smile:

Excellent, I didn't know they made those. Now you only have to adjust fifteen clocks instead of sixteen! :wink:

We (all of mankind) should get serious about time. Let's all switch to universal time and be done. Who says noon must be during daylight everywhere? It's not even true at the poles...
 

Similar threads

Do Movies Teach Us Realistic Life Skills?
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
10K