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Turkey, Ankara
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Review on Sleek And Dependable: Sternreiter Silver Double Bell Wind-Up Alarm Clock by Jana Bramlage

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Great quality clock initially and then epic fail

This is by far the best clock I have ever owned. If you are a light sleeper this clock isn't for you, but I find the loud clicking to be soothing. I can tune in on the clicking and drift right off to sleep. The 36 hour winding is awesome, I wind it every night when I go to sleep. I was a little afraid the first few times I wound it that I would screw it up by winding too hard, but it gets to the end and hits a positive stop, so you can definitely tell to quit winding. I have found an issue if you set the clock for say an hour within the current time the alarm will go off. If it is greater than two hours difference to the current time there are no issues. This is really only an issue if you plan to use it for like a nap or something, I haven't had any issues with leaving it set and it going off at the right time. It also has a setting on the back to account for a few minutes of being either fast or slow. Overall I would rate this as a great clock.UPDATE!That was my review of this clock a year ago, and I will leave it in it's entirety to let you see where I have gone with this clock. I originally rated this as a 5 star clock and am now downgrading to a 2 star clock. After about 2 months of nightly use the the feet that prop it up in front started to loosen. I didn't think much about it and merely tightened them back up. After constantly fighting this about twice a week for a month, and effectively stripping the little threads by hand tightening the legs I called the manufacturer. I was glad my wife had saved the original packaging, because they won't accept it for repairs any other way, so I paid to ship it to the manufacturer and waited about 1.5 weeks. I got it back and the clock showed up in the mail. I took it out of the packaging and THE FEET WERE LOOSE! I damn near threw it away at that point. Instead I went to the hardware store and bought some loctite blue to apply to the threads on the feet. I kept them upright the whole time so if there was excess loctite it wouldn't make its way into the mechanism of the clock and reassemble the feet. Voila the feet stayed on no matter how many times I picked it up to wind it.Sad to say that is not the end of my saga. After that I started using my clock again, but it wouldn't keep time. It would be fast or slow, and I couldn't get it set. I spent several weeks adjusting it miniscule amounts trying to get it to keep time. It would run slow and then jump to like 10 minutes fast. I'd back it off and it would run slow again. I seemed to keep missing the sweet spot. I remembered it took a few tries to set it the first time and kept at it. After 2 months of fiddling I gave up (roughly 7-8 months after purchase). I tossed it in the corner and didn't think about it again. 10 months after I bought it I decided to get a hold of the manufacturer and send it back. After 5 days of back and forth e-mails of explaining, no, I"m not retarded and do understand how to adjust my clock I got them to let me ship it back again. I shipped it there, they shipped it back and it does seem to keep time now, that is when it doesn't just randomly stop. About once a week I will wind it at night, clock goes off in teh morning, and then when I get home from work it is stopped. I pick it up to check it out and it starts working again like nothing was wrong. I am still within warranty and could ship it back, but I don't want to spend any more money on this damn thing ($11 each time I had to ship it to them). I think I'll track down a more reliable (ie expensive) mechanical alarm clock and go from there.I would rate this a one star product based on my annoyance level increasing over time, but the manufacturer was willing to look it over and let me ship it back to them, and that is worth something. Even though they didn't ultimately fix it being willing to work on it was worth something to me.

Pros
  • The clock is perfect for those who enjoy the sound of a ticking clock
Cons
  • The clock's ticking noise can be too quiet for some people's liking