The Amazon Echo Wall Clock, announced today at Amazon's fall hardware event, sounds simple, but its appeal lies partly in its savvy integration with one of Alexa's most used features. 

For $30, you get a standard-looking analog clock. (It's US-only for now -- that price converts to about £23 or AU$40.) Tie the Echo Wall Clock to your Alexa voice smart speaker, and any time you create a timer with Alexa, a ring of 60 LEDs around the edge of the Wall Clock lights up and starts counting down in 60-second increments, adding a visual layer to Alexa's timer function. 

Because the Wall Clock connects with Alexa via Bluetooth, it sets its own time, and it also adjusts for Daylight Saving Time.

As an Echo Dot owner, a parent and a cook, I use Alexa timers all the time. They count down my kids' TV and phone time, and they spare me extra trips to the sink for a wash when my hands are gross in the kitchen. An LED countdown adds what sounds like a useful at-a-glance function to an already great feature. And the price makes it a low-risk investment.

The only major question I have about the Echo Wall Clock is when it will ship. Unlike most of Amazon's newly announced products, you can't preorder the clock. The page for it on Amazon's site will let you sign up for a notification when orders go live, and a note on the page indicates that Amazon is awaiting FCC approval for the Wall Clock before that happens. Amazon PR told us only that it's "coming soon," with no further details.

Amazon Echo event live blog: Catch all the latest news, pictures and updates from CNET.

Amazon's new device lineup: Here's everything Amazon unveiled today