Best Stopwatches

If you're a gym instructor or sports coach, you'll find a stopwatch to be indispensable. It will help you easily compare times between different athletes at tryouts, or you can make a competition between the students in your gym class. Also, if you're an exercise buff yourself, you might want to time certain activities with a stopwatch: how long does it take you to run a certain distance, or to time your exercise session. Some stopwatches are simple to use and rather inexpensive. Others can have a lot of other features, called “complications”. But maybe those complications are something that you're explicitly looking for. Here is a guide to some of the best stopwatches on the market.

• Mechanical: These are familiar wind-up style watches. They work on the basis of a wound spring. There are several types:

  • Interruption type: These have two buttons: 1) Start/Stop, 2) Zero button, which resets the stopwatch to zero when the watch has been stopped.

  • Fixed distance: There are also stopwatches that are made to time distances. For example, Marathon's 6-second stopwatch was made specifically for timing torpedo launches. The face of the watch is calibrated in both seconds and yards.

  • Single-action/Instantaneous return: In this type of mechanical stopwatch, there is only one button. One press of the button will start the timer. Another press will stop the timer, and a third press will reset it to zero.

• Digital: Digital stopwatches typically will have a Start/Stop Button, a Mode button, and a Lap/Reset Button. The Mode button will toggle between Stopwatch mode, Alarm mode, and Time mode. Pressing Start/Stop will start the timing, and pressing it a second time will stop the timing.  

Based on all the consumers' reviews we've scanned, these are the top things they mentioned about their new stuff:

• Inexpensive digital models: The mechanical stopwatches are more luxury items. If you are interested in an inexpensive timepiece, it is recommended to buy a digital stopwatch. Despite the low price, they are typically accurate up to 1/100th of a second.

• Senior citizen/child-friendly: Digital models with only the minimal functionality are best for senior citizens or children. It's rare that people need any of the watch complications or extra features.

• Different from a timer or chronograph: A stopwatch counts up from 00:00, when you want to time someone running a lap around a track, or a 100-meter dash. That shouldn't be confused with a timer: A timer is used to count down a certain interval. For example, an egg-timer will count down three minutes and alert you, if you want to boil a soft-boiled egg. For cooking purposes, you'll prefer a timer to a stopwatch. Finally, a chronograph will display time and the stopwatch function on the watch face. There will be separate buttons for operating the stopwatch functions.

• Protection: There are some basic forms of protection on stopwatches: Some are water and dust resistant. Others also have an anti-magnetic feature, which others are also shock resistant, so that they can withstand being dropped or an impact.

• Total time register: This is the length of time that the watch can time. There are stopwatches that have a 60-minute register.

• Minimal time divisions: This is the minimal amount of time differences that the watch can time. For example, the Marathon Watch Interruption-Type Mechanical Stopwatch can measure up to 0.2-second divisions. Other watches will time at a small interval for the first 30 minutes, but then will time at larger intervals afterwards. The Marathon ADANAC 3000 will time at 1/100th of a second for the first 30 minutes, but then at 1-second intervals afterwards.

• Display Month and date: There are digital stopwatches that display the month, day of the month, and the day of the week.

• Split timing: There are digital stopwatches that also display a time for an individual lap, while the stopwatch continues to time the total time in the background. This is called “split timing”. You start the digital stopwatch as usual, with the start/stop button. But, instead of pressing “stop”, you hit the “split/reset” button to get the split time. You can now either hit “split/reset” again to get back the stopwatch screen, or hit “start/stop” to pause the total time. The ProCoach stopwatch has only one split timer function, while the Marathon Memory Digital Stopwatch can time up to 100 separate split laps!

• Additional features: One model of the Marathon Sports Digital Timer also includes an FM radio. Marathon's Memory Digital Stopwatch also includes a pacer: This is a clock that beeps at a preset interval (for example, anywhere from 30 beats per minute to 240 beats per minute) to pace your rate of jogging. 

Polder—was founded in 1976 in New York. The name of the company is derived from the Dutch word for “a plot of land reclaimed from the sea”. They make home goods to make daily tasks easier: laundry and ironing, kitchen storage, sinkware and food preparation, bathroom equipment, and measuring and temperature devices.

Travelwey—are makers of travel accessories. They strive to make quality products that are nonetheless affordable. Among their products, they make digital travel clocks, bedside night clocks, LED and analog alarm clocks, money belts and more.

Marathon Watch—was founded in Montreal, Canada, in 1904 as Weinstrum Watch, but was changed to “Wein Brothers” in 1939 by Morris Wein. They originally made timepieces for the armed forces, but now make all types of watches, clocks, timers, and stopwatches. They also make binoculars and measuring devices. They presently have their headquarters in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

ProCoach—are makers of stopwatches, with an emphasis on stopwatches for active sports and fitness training. They make four different types of stopwatches, with varying features.