Nintendo’s original alarm clock prototypes were a lot less playful

Two Alarmo prototypes next to the final model. — Image: Nintendo

Nintendo just announced its new Alarmo clock with a motion sensor, and even though we’re still soaking in the $100 device, the company also shared a look at some interesting early prototypes that reveal how the project changed during its development.

While the Alarmo is round and an eye-catching red, one “early” prototype Nintendo showed in an “Ask the Developer” interview had a more boxy shape and came in gray. This prototype did have an interesting feature in its dot matrix LED display (similar to the now-discontinued Echo Dot with Clock), but Nintendo ultimately went in a different direction because “we felt that this display system wouldn’t be able to communicate the instructions sufficiently,” says Nintendo’s Yosuke Tamori, who oversaw the development of the Alarmo. “It was especially difficult to explain the product’s new features, such as the motion sensor,” he says.

A photo of an Alarmo prototype. — *I don’t hate this?*

Another prototype, which looks more like the Alarmo you can buy now, sat on a pedestal. “The system that serves as the brain of the alarm clock is in the base, and the LCD screen and speaker are built into the upper part, with one dial on the top, and a second on the side,” according to Tetsuya Akama, the director of the Alarmo project.

However, “the second prototype was difficult for left-handed people to use because the dial was on the right,” Tamori says. “Also, we wanted it to be stable even without the base part, so eventually, we placed all the controls on the top.”

Those two prototypes aren’t as immediately recognizable as an alarm clock, but Akama explained why the team went with the more traditional alarm clock shape with the final product:

The most difficult factor in the design decision was whether to make it look like an alarm clock or not. While it’s a highly novel product that offers a completely new experience, we thought it was important to communicate clearly that it’s an alarm clock. After a lot of consideration, we decided to go with a design that people would instantly recognize as an alarm clock. Also, Tamori-san requested that if Alarmo was to be drawn as a picture or icon, it should be in a shape that would be instantly recognizable and eye-catching to anyone who saw it, so we ended up with this shape.

The full interview, which is broken out into four separate parts, includes a ton of other interesting details about the Alarmo, including why the team went with the color red, didn’t go with gesture controls (somewhere, a Google employee is shedding a tear), and didn’t add any game elements to the clock.