My Husqvarna Viking (Freesia) has a top loading bobbin, with a clear plastic cover, so you can see at a glance how much thread is left (it also starts to make a sort of rattle if it gets too low, but I don't think that's a design feature!) - a low tech solution? It doesn't have the needle up/down choice though, which is somewhat frustrating (a tap on the foot peddle gets it down again, but I am going to make sure my next machine has this facility!) although I think that others do have the feature. I love my machine, it's managed everything I have thrown at it so far...