This annoying alarm clock project - lack of inputs.

lost_and_confused:
florinc,

A rotary switch - to call it - would need two inputs, right?

Not that I am going to use one, but I am thinking back to how they work.

They use quadrature modulation don't they? Similar to mice, etc.

They don't have to. A rotary encoder can be as many bits wide as you like.