LuckyStone Digital Water-Resistant Professional Stopwatch

Stopwatches are handheld timers used at sporting events like track meets, triathlons and swim meets. They are manually started and stopped by pressing buttons and are much more reliable for this purpose than the stopwatches you usually find on cellphones. Sports officials, coaches and athletes also use them for practices and training, and these watches are invaluable for measuring time accurately.

Old-fashioned stopwatches were analog, and today’s digital watches can be low or high-tech. Some stopwatches are still pretty basic, while others have running time and lap or “split” time to let users keep track of laps, events and cumulative time. Certain stopwatches can also store information, and some have more space than others. A countdown timer feature lets the user set a certain amount of time and then count down to zero. You can also see stopwatch functions on mobile phones, cars, handheld devices, clocks and wristwatches.

Stopwatches can also have alarms, times, dates and calendar functions. You can find decent stopwatches priced at under $10, but the high-performance ones are priced well over $50. Most get their energy from button cell batteries, but others use standard AAAs; these may or may not be included with the purchase. Good features to look for are a low weight, an included lanyard and an easy-to-read display. Some are shockproof, and others are waterproof; both are especially important for swim training and events.

• Swim stopwatches can have extra functions that are particular to the sport, like stroke rate calculators.
• A backlight display makes a stopwatch easier to read when the lighting is low.
• Some stopwatches can measure up to 1/1000th of a second but will cost more.
• Stopwatches come in different colors, and bright ones don’t get lost often.
• It’s always a good idea to have an extra stopwatch!
• If your stopwatch has a lot of functions, it should come with a manual; read it before using the product.
• Stopwatches aren’t only for sports. They are also used in research laboratories and classrooms.