Sports Watches & Timers

Should you get a stopwatch or a timer?

While stop watches generally only count up, timers can also count down, making them the obvious solution when it comes to timing sporting events such as netball, footy or basketball matches.

Timers are not designed for use where it is necessary to achieve an accuracy of a tiny fraction of a second, such as when timing an athlete or swimmer. A further distinguishing feature of timers is that they will let you know when the time is up in no uncertain terms, using vibration, a loud audible alarm, a flashing light or possibly a combination of all three.

Timers

The CL302 is a 24 hour timer clock which normally sits on a desk or table. It can count up or down and gives the time. Because it times in hours, minutes and seconds it is ideal for sporting events of longer duration such as marathons and cross country events. It is not suited to situations where it is necessary to time to fractions of a second and is ideal for events such as car rallying, classroom timing, in the home etc.

A Minutes/Seconds countdown timer such as the CL307 is ideal for timing most team sporting events. Highly portable, this unit can also be used for many other purposes including as an egg timer. It has a built-in memory to save resetting and a clearly audible beeper. The CL307 times in minutes and seconds and has a timing capacity of 99 minutes 59 seconds.

The top of the range CL306 is  count up or down timer. It is ideal for a broad range of sporting events and in particular team sports.  Importantly, it can signal time through vibration, a flashing light, an audible alarm or a combination of all three.

Stop Watches

For serious individual competitors such as swimmers, athletes and their coaches, there are a number of stop watches available, each with their own features. For swimmers it is essential for a stop watch to be water resistant. 

For both athletes and swimmers a stop watch needs to be able to time accurately in minutes, seconds and 100th of a second.

Most will demand stop watches with a memory function allowing for the recall of lap times and cumulative lap times. Some will also insist on a stop watch with a split time function. This allows a coach to time two competitors in an event.

The ST1002 Water Resistant Stopwatch has a rugged shock resistant case, a two lap counter and an extra large easy to read digital display. It features an alarm and hourly chime and a cumulative split time function, allowing the coach to write down lap times on a cumulative basis. This makes it ideal for time trials, swimming laps and laps around an oval. The ST1011 is similar but is not as water resistant.

The ST1005A has a 30 lap memory and can count both up and down. It is especially suited to events such as cycling but is also used in other competitive sports. This watch offers the additional benefit of recording each lap time individually as well as on a cumulative basis.

It also has a pacer function allowing cyclists to set the pedal rates they wish to achieve and rowers to set how many strokes they wish to adhere to per minute. Once set, each stroke is communicated to the rower via an audible signal. In other words it is very much like a pianist’s metronome.

Combining all these features with a 100 lap memory is the ST1004 Lap Memory Water Resistant Stopwatch.

Then there are a number of more basic stop watches which are less costly yet perfectly adequate for use in industry, schools and around the home and which have features of varying degrees of sophistication.

	CL302 24 Hour Electronic Timer-Clock Ideal for cooking, meditation, sports and meetings Easy to Read - Easy to set Displays Hours - Minutes - Seconds
	CL307 Countdown Timer in minutes and seconds Clip, magnet and easle stand Run by one LR44 button battery
	CL306 & CL306G Countdown or up timer in minutes and seconds Alarm for countdown either/or Vibrate Flashing Light Sound Alarm Run by two ‘AAA” batteries included
	ST1002 Water Resistant Stopwatch Extra Large Digit 2 Lap Counter Alarm, Hourly Chime, Time & Date
	ST1011 Digital Stopwatch Big Digit 2 Lap Counter Alarm, Hourly Chime Time & Date
	ST1005A 30 Lap Water Resistant Stopwatch Hour, Min, Seconds Daily Alarm & Hourly Chime
	ST1004 100 Lap Memory Water Resistant Stopwatch Stroke/Frequency measurement Time, Date & Calendar Display
	ST1007 Professional Quartz Timer Small Digit Lap counter, Alarm, Hourly Chime Time & Date
	ST1010 Professional Stopwatch Metallic Stopwatch 2 Lap Counter Alarm, Hourly Chime
	KR9952 Vibrating countdown timer keyring Time Alarm Countdown Function
	ST1008 Pager style stopwatch Day/Date Alarm Count up Run by ‘AAA” battery not included
	P203 Body Fat Monitor Measures body fat in 6 seconds Easy to use Memory storage for up to eight personal profiles