So I started looking for one that I could take with me easily. It’s amazing the variety that’s out there.
I started looking when I saw Clocky, the rolling alarm clock. This clock, after you hit snooze, starts running and hiding from you so you have to get out of bed to find it and turn it off.
I started thinking about the alarm clock that I saw in college. It was a baseball alarm clock that you could throw against the wall to hit snooze. That was a fun alarm clock.
Being the gadget junkie that I am, I realized at that point that I really shouldn’t just settle for the classic-boring-bargain travel alarm clock. It just wouldn’t fit with my persona and image. Having a clock that I have to find, however, in strange hotel room is not a fantastic idea. Not knowing what to do, I hit Gizmodo and started looking at the options. Wow! There are a ton of different types of alarm clocks out there.
I really like the size and features of the LifeMax Under Pillow Vibration Alarm Clock. It’s small, battery operated, robust and it has a vibration wake feature. 
That’s cool for those mornings that I need catch an early plane and need to get up in the morning without waking up my wonderful wife. The issue there is that I haven’t been able to find a distributor this side of the ocean. I can order it from MenKind in the UK but I don’t think that they ship international – at least their checkout form didn’t let me pick another country.
So the seach didn’t end there. There are alarm clocks that fly and more alarm clocks that can fly, sensory alarm clocks that wake you up with smells (see the Bacon Alarm Clock and Hakugen Odor Alarm) and cool audio clocks (see the Space Invaders Clock, Police Scanner Alarm Clock or any of the many MP3 alarm clocks), clocks that make you think to turn them off (see the Pattern Clock that plays Simon says with you before you can turn it off or the Puzzle Alarm Clock that makes you put together the puzzle before it turns off). I’m also interested in the Progressive Wake Alarm Clock and others like it because they don’t jolt you awake. Among the many other issues with all of the clocks in the this paragraph – very few of them will fit in the suitcase well.
So, I started looking for clocks that will travel better. Obviously the best for that would be the Online Clock but I’m not on the internet all the time. I know that Martin Shoemaker has written an alarm clock that works well when his machine is not in the shop or gets rebooted because of auto-updates. I could write/buy a software clock, but I really want a hardware solution to this because I never know how my laptop will be in use so I’m leary of that.
I’m now looking at the Credit Card Case Clock and others like it. They are small, light and ultra portable.
So, what travel clock works for you?