VOICE OF A GENERATION
When portable alarms were first mooted, the dominant on-the-go timekeepers were carriage clocks followed by pocket-watches. All were large enough to accommodate the added mechanism, but, more importantly, their size allowed the inclusion of gongs or bells or other noisemakers that could be heard, and serve as sonic reminders not just for those who were already awake. When wristwatches took over in the 20th century, reducing the size to fit them presented two challenges.
Miniaturising the mechanical bits wasn’t the entire story. Generating high enough sound-pressure levels — or ‘volume’, to the layman — meant finding a way to amplify what is a barely audible sound when emanating from a case half the size of a pocket-watch’s shell. As for enabling it to work under water, even aided by the fact that sound travels beautifully through H2O — this might have been a challenge too far.
Numerous brands have contributed to what some feel is the most useful complication of all — a usable alarm — with
