I Hate When Companies Start Getting Cheap!

Somewhere in the middle of the 1990’s (sorry, I can’t pinpoint the year, as I used to live a very hectic lifestyle. God, I miss those days!) I purchased an AB 30 vs travel alarm clock from Braun.

This little puppy woke me up, just like it was intended to do, like clockwork all over this world, and on all types of mornings — whether they were the rainy days that made me want to throw the covers over my head and ignore the outside world, or the sun-filled ones that made it very easy on my alarm clock to get me out of bed! I would have never gotten rid of this “Made in Germany” gem, but it just stopped working for me the other month, and as I found out later: this model is no longer produced — it was upgraded to a newer one with much more bells and whistles (not to mention double the price).

Well, I really had no other options (this company was so good to me for so long) and was forced to replace it with a similar-looking travel alarm that I found on the company’s Canadian website (note: Braun no longer sells clocks in the United States. The reason: who the hell knows) and in two weeks time it arrived in my mailbox. Now here I sit, ready and willing to compare my old clock (of which I loved as much as you can love an inanimate object) to this new thingamajig (of which I was pretty skeptical about, once I noticed a “Made in China” label). If this sort of stuff interests you, please read on (if not, catch me tomorrow with a new topic. So long):

The new model has a face light controlled by a single easy-to-reach bar. The old model had no light and was kind of hard to read in the night (it did, however, have illuminated hands). Chalk up one for the new model (sorry old reliable)!

The new model uses radio control. In my experience, however, I found out that you have to set it manually by holding down the light bar for about 10 seconds, then keeping it down for up to a minute until it reaches the current time. Then, if you overshoot, you’ll need to do it all over again. On the old model, you simply opened the back and turned a small wheel in either direction. One more for the old model!

On the new model, you have to hit the snooze button to silence the alarm for a few minutes. On the old model, a voice control sensor allowed you to simply yell something out loud to make it snooze (this was fun). My opinion: if you’d rather keep your eyes shut when you need more sleep, you’d agree that the old model takes this one as well!

On the old model, you could turn the alarm-set wheel either way to adjust the wake-up timer. On the new model, you can only turn it one way (why Braun? Was it cheaper for you to make it this way?). To wake up ten minutes earlier, you have to literally nudge it more than twenty times. If you turn it too far, you have to do it all over again while cursing. Old model once again!

On the old model, the alarm-set wheel turned silently. On the new model, it loudly clicks a hundred times as you go through the process. Some designer at Braun must have forgotten that wives don’t always retire as early as their husbands, and vice-versa. In my opinion, an alarm clock should run quietly, except at the time when you want it to wake you up. Major plus for the old model!

I can’t, and never will, for the life of me understand why great companies all over this world (especially the ones who have mastered the art of customer-friendly design) often remove the most user-focused features of their products in later models. I can only guess that they aren’t conducting very much customer research, and if they are maybe they’re just ignoring the results because they aren’t fitting in with the bottom line that a lot of places succumb to these days!

Braun is one of these great product companies, and I have bought many, many products from them — that is until now! This new alarm clock is a big disappointment, and I think the company should at least place this article in their suggestion box for future design reference.

Sorry Braun, but the truth is that I think you have been steadily going downhill ever since Dieter Hams left! Peter Schneider isn’t really cutting it over there, and I hope you guys are able to turn around before you take a nosedive like all the other companies who went the “Made in China” crap route! I sure hope not, but keep this in mind before something crazy like that happens!