Always Have The Right Time! (Acctim Radio Controlled LCD Wall Clock)

Member Name: wendybull

Product:	Acctim Radio Controlled LCD Wall Clock
Date:	04/04/08 (181 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sets itself.

Disadvantages: Moonphase?

A few years ago my husband came home with this clock from Argos and I remember being mortified that he had paid £29.99 (at the time) for a wall clock for the kitchen! However I have since changed my tune and now I am totally in love with this little baby and want one for my home/office and the bathroom.

It is a really basic design, being rectangular and decorated in plain silver and grey round the edges. There is nothing striking, interesting or petty about its look. To be honest for a kitchen clock that is all I wanted or needed, I am not in to ornate cuckoo clocks or chiming ringing noisy clocks. I am not really a lover of boring round clocks where you actually have to look for more than one second to realise the time. This design was everything I wanted in a kitchen clock with its digital display of the time in 24 hour clock mode and an additional display of some other interesting details as well.

Firstly and most important to me the time display takes up about two thirds of the top of the clock. It displays the time in big bold numbers and when you glance at it there is no way on this earth you could mis-read the time. It is right there in your face for the whole world to see. Lovely!

Secondly, it tells me the date. Underneath the time it has three smaller sections next to each other and the first box occupies the date. It tells me the date, followed by a slash and then the month in numerical form, followed by the day in abbreviated letter form. I love this little feature as well because ever since I gave up full time work, I never have a clue what the date is and regularly use this feature on the clock for lots of everyday reasons.

The next two boxes hold the information relating to the moon phase and the temperature. Now the temperature seems to be interesting, although being in the kitchen it usually reads a lot higher than it actually is in the rest of the house, so while it is interesting it is relatively useless as a feature we could gain information from. The moon phase is interesting as well to look at and to now and again know if it is a full moon or not , but as I have absolutely no belief system in Were Wolves (so no need to worry about a full moon!) I can't really think what use I could get out of this feature. I am sure there are people out there who will use it more than I do, but I think the space could have been better used by making the date a larger area.

However, despite this little niggle over the moon phase thingy, the feature I love the most on this little diamond of a clock is that it is radio controlled, and every few minutes it picks up a signal floating about in space somewhere and automatically keeps completely accurate track of the time. For instance when the clocks went forward last weekend, did I have to manually adjust this beauty like every other bloody clock in the house? Nope, I came down Sunday morning to find it telling me exactly what the time was on this new day and much as I disliked the fact that I had lost an hour, I was delighted at having one less to change.

It takes three AA batteries which are included when you buy it (there's a novelty!) and ours lasted about two years before a little flashing battery image appeared on the display of the clock, prompting us to change them. Once we did this, it re-set itself within a minute, picking up the radio signal and setting itself with the correct time and day again.

The price has since come down to £19.99 in Argos and I would highly recommend this to everyone. It makes a great kitchen clock, especially if you have chrome and silver appliances as we did at the time. I will be getting one for my office as I said as well, as the date function on it makes a very useful additional to a quick read clock.

I would gladly pay more for it now as I really do think this was worth the money.

Summary: RECOMMENDED xx