LotteryClock
Built by Dylan Jones

The alarm clock you can't quite trust

Set a time and choose how far off it's allowed to be. If it rings early, you've won a snooze — if not, you're late

Set your alarm
Tap the time to change it
Add some doubt
Drag the bell to add more
A little spice

Demo video coming soon

An idea that wouldn't stay dead

Hi,

Sometime in the early 2000s I was cleaning my room, which was rare, and tripped over the cord of my alarm clock. It went dark. I plugged it back in and forgot about it.

The next morning it went off and my hand stopped halfway to snooze. Was that the real time? Had the clock been off for five minutes or twenty? Was I already late?

I had no idea, so I got up. I was on time for school that day, and the next few. Then I worked out the offset, fixed the clock, and went straight back to being late.

That little bit of doubt stuck with me. In 2012 I built an iPhone version that looked like a slot machine and emailed the owner of lotteryclock.com to ask if he'd sell. He had plans for it. The app never shipped.

Kiroween's Resurrection track asks for something dead, brought back with today's tools. This idea has been in the ground for fourteen years. So here it is, dug back up.

Dylan Jones

Inbox

LotteryClock.com - Are you using it?

  1. Dylan Jones

    to Russell S.

    Hi Russell,

    I found your info with a WHOIS search.

    I was wondering if you were planning on using LotteryClock.com?

    If you don't have any plans for it, would it be possible if I buy it off you?

    Thanks!

    - Dylan

  2. Russell S.

    to me

    Hi Dylan - I have always had plans for it but I don't know when I will get to it. Sorry, not for sale.

    Rejected

Why would anyone want this?

This random variation is what makes it impossible to ignore

Alarm 7:30 AM

The alarm is set for 7:30 AM and could ring any time from 7:15 to 7:45.

7:15Right on time7:45

Snoozing is a reflex, and reflexes need a predictable cue. When the alarm could be 15 minutes early or 15 minutes late, your hand stops halfway to snooze and you have to wake up enough to check.

The research behind the doubt

Note - this is a hackathon project, not a clinical trial. The research above explains why the idea works; nobody has tested LotteryClock itself yet. My own sample size is one teenager in the early 2000s.

Bonus: the alarm that actually wakes you up

The website is the toy. A real alarm has to live on your phone, so alongside it I started a React Native app with Expo. Same idea, more casino.

  • Play

    Your target time on slot-machine reels, and casino chips for how much doubt you'll accept: ±5 to ±45 minutes.

  • Reveal

    When it rings, three reels spin to the verdict. Early gets Snooze. Late gets “I'm up!” and a 60-second hustle timer.

  • History

    Bankroll, minutes won, win rate and streaks, plus a chart of your last 14 mornings.

  • Scoring

    Chips reward getting up fast when you're late, and punish snoozing past your target. Every bet size is winnable if you hustle.

Status: alarms are mocked for now. The plan is AlarmKit on iOS 26 and AlarmManager on Android, so it rings through silent mode and Focus, and the snooze ends exactly at your target time.

View the app on GitHubExpo SDK 58 · React Native · Expo Router