Abstract: A talking timepiece which has two operating modes is disclosed. In a first mode, a power supply provides power to a computer and speech processing circuitry and the computer responds to the switching of a keyboard voice/tone switch for controlling either the speech processing circuitry to produce voice messages at predetermined times or tone alarm generator circuitry to produce tone sounds at predetermined times. In a second or power supply failure mode, a battery backup, which is connected in parallel to the power supply, provides power to only the computer and not the speech processing circuitry when the power supply fails. During this second mode, a switching circuit bypasses the keyboard voice/tone switch and the computer automatically controls only the tone alarm generator circuit. The tone alarm generator circuit is independent of the speech processing circuitry.