Most use of my phone’s clock app usage is setting 5/7/10/15 min timers for various things and setting alarms to varying times when I need to get going to catch a train or whatever.

I’m looking for a watch that has an easily accessible timer complication so that I don’t need to get out my phone to do those things. An alarm complication (alert at absolute time rather than relative) would be nice too but is not required.

I am not looking for a chronograph or diver’s watch. Chronographs go up, not down, and don’t alarm me when the time is up. That’s the most critical feature to me.
Something like a diver’s watch could be workable (using a rotating bezel to set the timer/alarm would be great) if they alarmed me when the time was up but that’s not how divers work to my knowledge.

I don’t need a luxurious watch or anything, a basic one is fine. I actually don’t want to spend too much. I’m not looking for “collector pieces”, I actually want to wear and use this thing.

Most of what I found online were either chronographs, alarm watches that are not convenient to set (might as well get out my phone if I need to fiddle with it for a minute) or digital watches.

I did find two candidates however:

  • Timex Explorer Easy Set Alarm. It was discontinued a decade ago and they don’t appear to have been very high quality to begin with, so the remaining ones sadly don’t have much life left in them I figure. Also practically unavailable.
  • Seiko “dancing hands” watches. They’re pretty old (1992) but appear to be rather high quality, so probably okay? I’d still prefer something a bit newer. Feature wise they fit the bill but the timer might be a little hard to set efficiently? Unsure how practical these would be for my use-case.

What do you think? Can you recommend a series or have pointers to look into?

  • Curious CanidEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    The Seiko looks like a very nice solution. They are well built, nice looking, and reliable.

    The best timer/alarm option for easy access would be a smartwatch, but the level of overkill, given what you want, would be silly.

    My personal experience has been that analog quartz watches often have some of those features, but are a serious pain to set. Digital quartz watches are far easier to set, but don’t give you the analog time. You would probably do best with a hybrid that has both kinds of display.

    Here’s a link to a page of Casio Hybrid Watches. Any of them would be good choices, but the one I have used and very much liked is this one Casio LF20W. It’s a strange approach, but the watch is readable, easy to set, light, thin, and reliable. It was originally introduced in 1984 (as the Twin-Graph) and was recently brought back. Mine is almost forty years old and still works perfectly.

    • Atemu@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      10 months ago

      smartwatch, but the level of overkill, given what you want, would be silly.

      That and I actively do not want a smartwatch anyways because at least three of these apply:

      • Doesn’t show the time all the time (huh?); you need to do weird flick motions or whatever
      • Has heavy batteries and still extremely short runtime
      • Is a privacy nightmare
      • Is likely to become a paperweight in 5 years

      while even one of these properties would be a no-go for me.

      My personal experience has been that analog quartz watches often have some of those features

      Do you know of any other models with a count-down timer? I’ve actually had a hard time finding even just the Seiko ones.

      You would probably do best with a hybrid that has both kinds of display.

      At this point, I’m considering that aswell.

      While presenting these functions via the analog display the way the Seikos do is just so incredibly neat, using a little LCD panel for these wouldn’t be too bad either.
      These might have the option to be be radio controlled or solar-powered too which would both be a medium boon to me.

      I also simply haven’t been able to find these old Seikos in good condition anywhere here in Germany. Physical shops usually either only carry expensive show-off watches (Rolex etc.) or newer Seiko models and listings on after market sites usually don’t look very good or are only sold for parts. Although you did just prompt me to look again and I found an insert on Kleinanzeigen that looks very promising…

      So thanks a bunch for your comment either way! :)

      • Curious CanidEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        The first two of your four objections to smartwatches don’t apply anymore, but the last two are certainly still issues. I love mine, but I don’t think they’re a good choice for a lot of people.

        Here’s a link to a whole lot of Casio watches with countdown timers on Amazon. As is always the case with Amazon, some of the search results are incorrect, but the majority are fine and there are hundreds of them.

        I haven’t found any way to get an equivalent listing for Seikos. A lot fewer of their watches have timers and no one seems to have a good filter for it.

        Here is another Amazon link to watches with countdown timers of all brands.

        Finding a used watch in good condition over the internet is tricky. There are some deals, but there are also a lot of ripoffs. eBay is about the only suggestion I have for that.

        Best of luck!

        • Atemu@lemmy.mlOP
          2·
          10 months ago

          Here’s a link to a whole lot of Casio watches with countdown timers on Amazon. As is always the case with Amazon, some of the search results are incorrect, but the majority are fine and there are hundreds of them.

          Sorry, I meant analog watch face ones.

          There’s obviously lots of digital watches with this complication and anadigis aswell as you mentioned.

          • Curious CanidEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Ah, sorry. I would start by putting something like “analog watch timer” into Amazon and see what you get. A lot of them will be wrong, but a fair number won’t be.

            There should be a database for this kind of thing, but if there is, I don’t know about it.