The Salubrion Enso Clock is a digital clock/timer specially built for those who meditate or do yoga. While I know nothing about yoga, I use the clock to time my meditations twice a day in my home office. Conventional stopwatches and alarms just don't cut it. They let out a loud beeping noise that startles me out of my meditative state (or I end up worrying about when they'll beep). On the contrary, the Enso uses soothing chimes that sound like actual Japanese and Tibetan rice bowls. Instead of startling you out from a meditative state, these gently bring your awareness back to the world around you.

My favorite function of this clock is how it displays time elapsed or remaining by drawing a ring along the display, instead of counting down the numerical indication of minutes left. Previously I meditated with a wall clock, opening my eyes to glance at the clock when the time felt "right." I've found the Enso's ring to be a great help in my meditation -- when I occasionally open my eyes to glance at the clock, I find myself undistracted. Other nifty features I use include the setting of intervals.

When I'm not meditating the Enso is elegant enough to be used as a desk clock on my table. The size is very suitable for travel --- The clock face is slightly larger than the top of a tea cup, and there is a travel pouch included with the clock. I've seen other meditation clocks -- haven't tired them; they look a little bulkier. Also, with this clock, there are no moving parts to be concerned with as it's 100% digital. In all, it's perfect if you are a fairly serious meditator...

-- Yeo Feng

$99
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Salubrion

NOTE:

If you own a Palm handheld, the freeware program PocketDoan does exactly the same task, can use any sound you want for start/stop/change, can be programmed with many different phases of meditation or yoga, and like the Enso uses a visual (in the case a progressive pie chart) to indicate time remaining in any given phase. My current PocketDoan install has timer sessions configured for "Cleaning Kitchen," "Tidying House," "Meditation," "Hacking Run," "Workout," and "Boggle." The last is for the word game and lasts three minutes; my youngest daughter lost the timer a while ago.

-- Elf M. Sternberg

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

World Time Clock

Analog Atomic Wall Clock

Run to Cadence Recordings