Bought a travel click by Braun a few years bact to put next to me when I work. The quality is abysmal, the hour arm is half to a full hour ahead after I used for a while. And it costs like 30 bucks I guess one just pays for the brand name while the product is the same quality as no-name ones on aliexpress for a tenth of the price.
What you really pay for in a Braun is the silent mechanical movement, no tick-tock to keep you awake at night. But while the movement is still allegedly made in Germany, the quality has gone downhill, as you point out. I had some Kienzle and Braun clocks in the 90s that were extremely good, but the new ones made under license, not so much.
The older ones are solid. A tale as old as 1990s corporate decline
I bought a casio, it's been great.
I’ve been building a retro computer BASIC operating system for microcontrollers.
My first project is a watch made from an ESP32-S3 with an AMOLED made by Waveshare.
A traveling clock could make a really interesting second project and, because it could plug in, a slightly less challenging one.
If you're going for a portable version, swap out the OLED for EInk and limit to 1min refresh. You're have battery life for months. Assuming you manage the ESP sleep states well.
wow, I remember stuff like this (though not 30's and 40's)
When I was young and traveled, it was before phones became ubiquitous.
I had to take a travel clock with me as an alarm clock. You couldn't trust a hotel alarm clock. So I had small sized clocks to wake up for an interview or a conference or a tour or a return flight.
I just forgot about all of this with smart phones and watches that get you up in the right time zone at the right time.
I’m currently working on a personal version of the Mecascape[0] (as much because of the cost as a chance to play with some hardware ideas). Taking it on travels is part of the fun.
[0] https://code41.com/en/projects/mecascape/
My Grandma used one of these. Happy memories of many summer trips to the Alleghenies :)