The one I first heard and adopted personally looks like a combination of others mentioned:
“Dark o’clock.”
That, and a phrase I’ve pieced together from other sources: “If God wanted us to enjoy the early morning, he would have scheduled it for later in the day.”
Okay, I confess - I really am an early riser. I promise I’ll be quiet while you’re still asleep.
As a Ren faire participant, I’ve heard “gate o’clock” (when the patrons leave) and
“naked-thirty” (when you can remove your garb.) In real life, I am a night owl rather than an early bird, so I refer to those times I have to get up early as “oh shit o’clock” and those times I’m up too late as “It’s ten past stupid.”
Having pets who very much abide by routine, we in my household have noted that an alarm of sorts goes off at cat food o’clock, and it is wise to be punctual in releasing the hounds at poop o’clock.
“Not sure what time zone you’re in, but it’s beer thirty here.” I use that one either when I’m travelling on business or when I’ve got business visitors in town. Eg, about once a week
I’ve heard it, but I prefer “The crack of ‘Why am I awake?’” to describe early morning before I’m ready to get out of bed. 5am counts as this and “Oh-dark-thirty.”
O-dark-thirty here. Never really thought about it - just a more fun way of saying “I have to wake up earlier than any sane person would.” Dad is a vet.
another dark thirty user, here. had to have picked that up from all of my police officer friends. never heard of ‘beer thirty’ before, but of course i shall immediately appropriate it and use it as much as possible from here on out.
Oh dark hundred was popular in our family for a long time.
For those not in the know, the B-52 Strato-fortress bomber is also know as a “buff”. While some folks may think it’s a tribute to the camo color scheme, it’s actually based on the fact that a B-52 is one Big Ugly Fat Fucker!
Slight hijack, in Hebrew something like this is built into the language – times from 2 or 3 AM to <whatever is too fing early!!* for you> are, officially, X “pre-morning.”
This is especially useful when the night-owl at work is late for the 10 AM meeting, and when his absence is noted someone will always pipe up with “waddyawant? You set a meeting for 10 pre-morning and you expect him to be here?”