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CINDERCLOCK

programmable desk alarm clock

CinderClock on a desk: a white cube with a large red illuminated dome button on top, a wide monochrome display reading 23:25, and a joystick with four round buttons on the raked front face
A front-facing studio render of CinderClock in matte white, showing the display, the joystick and buttons, and the red dome button on top

Tired of using your phone for everything? Especially for alarms?
CinderClock is a multi-purpose desktop clock, a dedicated device for your time related needs.
Alarms. Timers. Stopwatch. Calendar. Games.
Take control and focus back from your phone.
No app. No account. No subscriptions.
Current stage: fully working Alpha prototype.

Curious how CinderClock was built? Read the design study.

KickstarterLive

CinderClock is live on Kickstarter.

Pledges are open now, and Sweet Sixteen is limited to 16 units.

BACK IT ON KICKSTARTER →
Featured on Fast Company
Featured on designboom
Featured on Yanko Design
Featured on Gadget Flow, the original product discovery platform

CinderClock: Kickstarter overview23 min · YouTubewatch on YouTube ↗

A line drawing of CinderClock beside the list one clock, many feats: time, world clock, alarms, timer, pomodoro, stopwatch, calendar, reminders, games, ambiance; and a grid of twenty-two screens the device actually draws
Everything on one device. Every screen here is rendered by the firmware itself, not mocked up.

Adapts to any schedule

A phone alarm gives you one time and a weekday switch. CinderClock stores the whole pattern.

  • 07:00, weekdays.
  • 08:00, every third day.
  • 06:30, Monday, Tuesday and Friday only.
  • 07:00, three days on and two days off, repeating indefinitely.
  • 08:00, weekdays, two weeks on and one week off.

Set a rotation once and it holds for as long as you leave it there. Each alarm carries its own sound and its own volume. Pre-alarm can play something quiet ahead of the main alarm to get you going.

The CinderClock repeat pattern editor, showing a duty cycle of days on and days off
Repeat pattern. Days on, days off, and the date the cycle counts from.
The CinderClock pre-alarm settings screen, showing lead time and sound selection
Pre-alarm. A quieter sound, some minutes ahead of the main one.

Sunrise and Shine

Enter your coordinates once, or eyeball on the world map.
CinderClock works out local sunrise and sunset for every day of the year and carries the alarm with them through the seasons.

Both take an offset in either direction, so the alarm can land thirty minutes before the first rays, or ninety minutes after sunset to remind you of bedtime.

The CinderClock world map screen, used to set location coordinates for sunrise and sunset calculation
Location. Coordinates on the world map.

Hard to miss THIS button

The dismiss button is a 100 mm arcade dome on the top face. Smash it like it's hot.

Promotional graphic of the CinderClock dome button being struck, captioned SMASH

An alarm can ask for more than that.
Set it to require a game, if you lose - you snooze. Try again in five minutes!

A CinderClock arcade game running as an alarm dismissal challenge, with the alarm still sounding behind it
Dismissal by game. The alarm rings again until the game is won.

The rest of the cast

Timer, with saved presets and Pomodoro.
Stopwatch with laps, down to the centiseconds.
A full month calendar that marks the ringing days.
Ambient sound with animations to match, like fireplace or rain.
Nine arcade games, and room for more.

Audio files are stored on the SD card, choose from the presets or upload your own.

The CinderClock Pomodoro timer screen, showing a work interval counting down
Pomodoro. Work and rest intervals, saved as presets.
The CinderClock stopwatch screen, showing elapsed time to the centisecond with recorded laps
Stopwatch. Centiseconds, and up to four laps held.
The CinderClock calendar screen, showing a full month with markers on the days that have alarms set
Calendar. A full month, with the ringing days shown.
The CinderClock fireplace ambient screen, with an animated fire drawn on the monochrome display
Ambiance. Sound and animation, from the card or the presets.

No app. No account. No subscription.

CinderClock photographed straight on in low light, the display reading 23:23, the red dome lit above it

Every feature runs on the device. The WiFi is off when it boots, requires you to start it manually, to open a file transfer portal or to install new firmware.

The firmware and the documentation are open source under Apache 2.0, on GitHub. Every active component is a breakout module on pin headers, so the parts can be replaced or modified easily.

The CinderClock specification board: processor, display, audio, power, connectivity, enclosure and dimensions listed against a line drawing of the device

What's new

The firmware is still moving. Every release is written up as it lands.

2026-09-05 · v2.10.1What shipped in v2.6 – v2.10Prayer times calculated on the device, a 135-city world clock, twelve reminders with the first way to type on the clock, and daylight saving that covers eight regimes. Everything between v2.6.3 and v2.10.1.
all dev logs →

Customize your CinderClock

Arcade button
Matte PLA
Gloss PETG
Switches

Preliminary customization options. Renders are only for illustration purposes. Suggestions are welcome.

Make CinderClock yours.

Seven CinderClocks in a V-shaped lineup, all with red dome buttons: dark grey, green, blue, white at the front, orange, beige and light grey

What you get

Three ways to back it on Kickstarter.

The Assembled Unit reward: a finished white CinderClock with its red dome button

Assembled Unit$250

A fully assembled CinderClock that works out of the box.

You choose the details: tactile or mechanical switches behind the buttons, the enclosure color from a selected palette, the enclosure material in PLA or PETG, and the action button in red or white.

The DIY Kit reward: the custom PCB, modules and passive components laid out

DIY Kit$150

Every material needed to build your own CinderClock, except the enclosure parts. The custom PCB, all the modules, and all the passive components — capacitors, resistors and the rest.

Nothing else has to be sourced. You supply the tools and you print the enclosure yourself; the files are on GitHub. You solder and assemble the whole thing.

Maximum freedom to really make it your own.

The Sweet Sixteen reward: an early-bird assembled unit, limited to sixteen

Sweet Sixteen$200

Everything in the Assembled Unit, cheaper.

Each one is numbered, and your name goes in the credits on the device.

Limited to 16 units.

Shipping is $20 flat per unit, worldwide, charged separately from the pledge. Prices are the campaign prices.

Overhead layout of every part in the CinderClock DIY Kit: the custom PCB, the display, the audio and power modules, the dome button, the joystick and the passive components
Inside the DIY Kit. The custom PCB, the modules and the passives. The enclosure is not included; you print it from the files on GitHub.
Two studio renders of CinderClock from the left and right three-quarter angles, in matte white with the red dome button on top
Rendered from the CAD. Left and right three-quarter.

Our design process behind CinderClock is written here CinderClock design study.

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