Posted at November 4, 2017 by Tom Murray

Dementia Clock Buying Guide

Digital VS Analogue

Type of Clock
Advantages
Disadvantages
Digital
  • Many have a bright backlit display that reduces chance of clock going unnoticed
  • Easier to read due to backlit display and can also be viewed in the dark
  • Multi-displays allow information shown to be changed depending on degree of impairment
  • Most are mains powered and may be unplugged to save power (although they hardly use any)
  • A small number of users find the light too bright for bedroom use
Analogue
  • A more familiar clock style than digital, individual more likely to "take" to it quickly
  • Battery operated means they're less likely to 
  • More likely to be ignored/not noticed, especially if similar colour to wall
  • Usually needs manually adjusting for irregular days & leap years
  • Premium price for perpetual/automatic calendars

Winner

We have to recommend digital clocks to our customers. Although they are not a perfect solution the backlit display alone helps massively.

Automatic/Perpetual Calendars

What are they?

Perpetual calendar clocks are clocks that do not need manually adjusting for irregular months and years. If a clock has a perpetual calendar the date information will always be correct.

If the clock doesn't have a perpetual calendar then the date will need manually correcting on the 1st day after any month with 30 days (March 1st, May 1st, July 1st, October 1st, December 1st)

Note: This doesn't mean the clock will automatically adjust for daylight savings (that's radio controlled, explained below)

What clocks have this feature?

All digital clocks have perpetual calendars but only some analogue clocks. 

Semi-Perpetual

Semi-Perpetual clocks will automatically adjust for irregular months but not for leap years, they will need the date manually changing on February 29th every leap year.

Radio Controlled Clocks

These clocks have built-in radio receivers that receive

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