Aristotle has found his way onto numerous clocks, partly because his ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius in his Lives of the Ancient Philosophers (5.16) claimed that when the philosopher went to sleep, a bronze ball was placed in his hand with a vessel under it, in order that, when the ball dropped from his hand into the vessel, he might be waked up by the sound. He did not want to waste time he could be studying on sleep, perhaps because he believed it was impossible to practise virtue when unconscious.

Aristotle's scroll on elaborate 19th-century mantel clocks by Henri Picard (one sold at auction in 2023 for $2772) reads "La Bonheur Nait De La Vertu" (Happiness Comes from Virtue). Rather cheaper contemporary alarm clocks can be found today.