Clocks for a senior parent

The clock that works for an aging parent is the one they never have to ask about. Digits tall enough to read from the door, without glasses, from a bed. A display that dims at night instead of lighting the ceiling. Buttons that do one thing each.

Start with digit height. Our 9-inch large-display clock is readable across a room, and the calendar clocks add the part a wall clock never says: the day of the week and the date, spelled out. For early memory loss, that line answers the morning question before it is asked.

Skip anything that needs a routine: auto-set models arrive with the time in them, and after a power cut the backup battery keeps the settings so nothing has to be re-taught. Check the Power & backup table on each page, on most models the display sleeps during an outage and comes back right.