The alarm clock industry was collateral damage in the smartphone wars.

I just use my watch

This is true. Looking more broadly there's a bunch of industries that have been affected by smart phones.
Here's just some of the devices you no longer need thanks to I-phone / Androids:
- Strictly speaking the replacement for the gameboy is not iPhone / Android.
  It’s the Switch / PSP / other similar handheld consoles.
  I would love to have that red phone with the number dial though, for decorative purposes :)
  
  Phones are powerful enough to emulate those devices via software
- Hard to get a game of bones going with just a smart phone.
  
  I'm sure there's a dice app that adds the "clickity clack" effects. After that it's practically the same lol.

I wish I would have kept my Garfield alarm clock. "Nahhhhh, don't get up, sleep longer". Hated getting up, but loved that thing.
- Ebays a magical place
  https://www.ebay.com/itm/326392867311?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338678874&toolid=20006&_xiid=326392867311&amdata=enc%3A1vNe2x7FBQZqZPPOAQbncog10%26customid%3Ds%253AGS%253Bgc%253A2bc5979a9fdc1730ae9bf049840314cd%253Bpt%253A1%253Bchoc%253A1&customid=s%3AGS%3Bgc%3A2bc5979a9fdc1730ae9bf049840314cd%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A2

I have never trusted my cell phone as an alarm due to my anxiety of if I set the volume correctly or not. I'm rocking my Sony Dream Machine that's got to be over 20 years old now. Works perfectly, would recommend.
- Nice =)
  The one alarm clock I'll never forget was my brother's promo Surge alarm clock. It would just scream "SURGE" when it went off.
  
  The ideal Surge alarm clock would be an IV that at the right time injects caffeine and sugar directly into your veins.
- I understand your concern, but every app should now have volume override. My native Android alarm and Alarm Clock Extreme has worked flawlessly for years despite my phone always on vibrate. Extreme makes me do math or a captcha before dismissing

As were many consumer electronics, radios, walkmans, calculators, landline phones, etc.
- Get your own shower thought, dude.
  Jk
  I will add, of all the things, alarm clocks seem like they deserved it the least. They did one thing and they were fine at it.
  
  Fine is the right term for this. The alarm clocks were not great, not terrible. They were just fine.
  You couldn't adjust the sound volume or the sound they make. In the later years of alarm clocks, you did have some fancy lamp-radio-alarm-hybrid devices that did have some settings. However, they were woefully inadequate for my needs, so I was stuck with a solution that was nothing more than fine.
  Enter mobile phones and their ability to play any mp3 file. My life changed! I made a custom sound that starts gently instead of jumping straight to the RUN OR DIE -stage we've sadly grown accustomed to in the past decades. IMO a mobile phone alarm is orders of magnitude superior to any alarm clock I've ever seen.
  
  They did one thing and they were fine at it.
  so were radios, calculators, landline phones etc

While I never use the alarm function, I love having my bedside alarm clock because it has a projector that puts the time on the ceiling. It's convenient when your bedside table is lower than your mattress

About a year ago I got one of those alarm clocks that slowly light up to simulate the sun rise, and that's been a game changer. I wake up so much easier and feel less groggy when I do.
Highly recommend
- Also highly recommend gradual nature sound alarm sounds like birds and stuff. Wake up way less grumpy.

My dad is still using his same one from the ~~70s~~ 80s as far as i know. Yeah you know the one.
- MREET! MREET! MREET! MREET!
- The analog one with 2 bells that never keeps accurate time? Or the horizontal one with the radio and the flappy, rolodex-shaped parts that display the time?
  
  This one, which i guess is actually from the early 80s..
- Got the truncated version without the radio, just the clock half, faux wood grain, all that. Took me awhile to land the perfect one at a thrift store, but it should last until Ragnarök.
  For the alarm part, "Hey Google, set alarm to $x." (I mounted minis in all my ceilings for convenience and music.)

I just got a new alarm clock and haven't used my phone since. It's a bit unreliable, doesnt have a snooze function, and the sound is a shrill cry, but I love her anyway.

All I want is a reliable alarm clock that isnt a fucking app or sony’s bizarre “dream machine” that can’t fucking keep time.

me and the rest of the ADHD gang keeping the alarm clock market on life support because a phone alarm is too easy to turn off in your sleep:
- Plus keeping the phone far from bed is always a good idea.
- I can't sleep with an alarm clock because my ADHD causes me to always want to look at the time if it's in immediate view
  
  have you tried blocking the view of the clock with a Mountain of Pillows™?
- I keep my phone on the opposite side of the room so I can’t turn off the alarm without getting out of bed.
  
  I used to have an alarm app that forced me to scan a barcode to turn it off (I used my shampoo bottle)
  guess who learned how to force power off their phone without waking up 🤪
  in the end I've found my ability to wake up has improved significantly after treating acid reflux (unsurprisingly it fucks up your sleep) and, to some extent, treating the ADHD

I have that clock that projects the time onto the ceiling. It's the best!
- Me too. Just got it recently. I thought it would be a gimmick and maybe it is. But I love it.
  
  It's so nice to wake up in the night, barely open one eye, and know what time it is. Once you get used to it, you'll miss it when you travel. My FIL had a small folding travel one.

The Smartphone Wars, when Nokia bombardments were a daily reality! Rough times...
That's also how the alarm clocks were wiped out! It was a massacre...
- I'm just thankful we were able to negotiate peace. Though, we could have done better the data plan.
  
  We got really lucky the RAZRs were personable and took pity on us, the data plan was a reasonable compromise at the time... It was either that, or those barely functional Sony nav nubs for everyone, and that would've been assured extinction!
- OMG that ringtone is stuck in my head now.
  
  Yes, that was their incoming shriek, you'd hear a Doppler of the Nokia ringtone, then it started raining bricks!

I have a Sony Dream Machine CD clock radio. I can wake up to CD's. It's pretty cool. I hope it lasts forever.
- I am also rocking a dream machine, mine however does not play CDs just Am/FM, which is perfectly acceptable for alarm duty.
- Narriator: It broke the next day.
  
  I would actually cry

Consolidation Damage

You know what I miss? Answering Machines.
I'm tired of voice mail. I want my "voice mail" to live ON the phone and be provided by an app.
- I don't see why this couldn't be done with an app.... though I'm not an app developer... So what do I know.
  
  Modern voicemail isn't done on device like it was with an answering machine. Instead of your machine picking up, your telecom provider does, so you're no longer actually receiving a call, they are. Theoretically you could have it pick up a ring before your telecom does, but then you'd have 2 mailboxes and if you're offline the call would go to your provider's box.
  This is even the case for landlines nowadays. I had to setup a new phone for a lady and Comcast was snagging the call before her machine would. Had to change it to pickup before they did.

I have an alarm clock / noise machine combo and I love it. I prefer a phone-free bedroom to reduce distraction opportunities. I also completely agree that phone wake-up sounds are just far too aggressive. All it takes for me to wake up is having it change from “brown noise” to “ocean waves” and I’m awake immediately.

I had a pay-as-you-go Nokia from an overseas trip that was perfect as a nonfunctional phone/alarm clock when I got home because it announced the time. Hit snooze at 8am and next alarm it’d say “the time is 8:10” and then do the noise.

I never stopped having an alarm clock. It stopped being the alarm but remained the bedroom clock.

One tyrant rose up and overthrew another. Ordinary people like us were left to carry the cost.