I may be mistaken but I’m under the impression that the Chronos was originaly developed as a Scrabble® timer called the Samtimer. samtimer.com/
then latter marketed to chess players under the name Chronos.
Also the Samtimer will do tournament chess, but the Chronos won’t time scrabble which requires the time to count up (as overtime) after reaching the original time limit.
I have a both Saiteks (blue and pro) and an Excaliber I prefer the Excaliber. I don’t yet have a Chronos, though the new smaller GX looks nice.
The Chronos does have a count-up mode, and you can even use it with a 5-second (or other) delay. On mine it’s called DL-UP. For example, with a 2-hour first control, you could set it to start at 4:00:00 (just like an analog clock) so that the first (or only) control would expire at 6:00:00. After 6:00:00, it just keeps running, so it is up to the player to call the “flag”.
It sounds as though this would work fine for that Scrabble-type “overtime” you describe.
That’s cool it would work, but in Scrabble® there is a 25 minute SD time that counts down,then it counts up. Scrable® players loose points for every minute or fraction of a minute of over time they use. For example you loose 10 points for 1 second over time as well as 59 seconds OT but you loose 20 points for going 61-120 seconds overtime and 30 points for 121 seconds OT.
The Saiteks and Excaliber both do this when set to word game mode, but the Saitek’s default word mode is 30 minutes which is not the standard time control for U.S. Scrabble Tourney’s .
The Samtimer’s default mode is set for 25 minutes and after it counts down it then counts up. This mode is removed from those sold under the Chronos brand. Also the Samtimer is sold in more color combonations than the Chronos.
My wife is a Scrabble® player and that is how I know these Scrabble® rules. Check out the Samtimer web site in the above post.
“Chronos” looks like a trademark to me. It might not be a company name, but it is a brand name and presumably belongs to someone. A Chronos manual I found online is copyrighted 1995, and the warranty directs users to DCI at a post office box in Mountain View, CA.
I was told the Chronos clocks were designed and made by a college professor out in California, and the clocks were assembled by hand . Shelby from the Rochester Chess Center might be able to enlighten us on the history since I believe it was him that told me. I’ll ask him when I see him at the National Open this weekend.
Chronos was developed by a Scrabble® player in California named Sam Kantimathi and called the Sam Timer, As I said earlier it was originaly a Scrabble Clock. The Scrabble function was disabled and it was marketed to Chess playes as the Chronos.
The Excaliber, the Saiteks, the DGTs, and the Duel Timers are all CHESS clocks that can also play Scrabble® but the Chronos is a Scrabble® clock that plays chess and no longer plays word games like Scrabble®
None of it matters any way b/c digital chess clocks are now ancient relics b/c people can now down load IPhone apps. that keeps time with OT periods for Chess, Go, Scrabble , Checkers, Othello, Shogi etc. and other apps that allow a player to keep score so there is no longer a need for score sheets or monroi’s
OK, then set the Chronos for 5:35:00 in count-up mode. Then the 25-minute period before 6:00:00 constitutes the initial control, and every minute after 6:00:00 represents a minute of overtime.
Better yet, set it for 9:35:00 initially. Since the Chronos displays only 5 digits in this mode, it will wrap around to 0:00:00 at the start of overtime.
By the way, does the SamTimer look the same as the Chronos? I’ve seen snatches of Scrabble® tournaments on TV news shows, and those clocks sure look like the Chronos to me.
Do you need one Iphone to be the clock and another Iphone to keep score? I can’t imagine being able to do both functions simultaneously. However a score keeping app is going to have to pass the same sort of certification tests that the new enote program did.
IDK I was just being sarcastic! i dont have an iphone, my cell phone’s only purpose is so my wife can call me an tell me what to get at the store before I come home. I don’t text or send pictures or anything else. I’m sort of old school. My mother constantly wants me to send her pictures of my kids (her grand kids) but I dont know how to use the camera feature on the phone. I’ve had had the same free phone that came with the plan since '04.