Depends on how tired you are...if I’m up late at night watching movies and set the watch at 7:30am...then no. But, most of the time, sleeping regularly and waking up to the watch is the norm. I usually lay the watch on the dresser(wood surface) and the alarm sound is actually louder than on the wrist. Something to do with the way the gongs are striking the case and reverberate onto the wooden surface. The gong mechanism is actually unique due to the water resistant nature of the watch and the alarm mechanism needs to strike the case for the alarm sound.