I am running another chess club now, and the world of digital clocks has expanded since I was an active coach. I have looked at all the clocks in the USCF catalog that are digitals with increment and/or delay. I want to recommend tournament-legal clocks. I have no idea which clocks are sturdy for use by students. When the first inexpensive digital clock came out years ago, some of my students bought it, and I found it broke easily after normal kid use (dropping it, throwing it at your sister, etc.). Can some of you with recent experience recommend a sturdy, easily-set digital? I will stick with Chronos for my personal use, but setting it is challenging, and it is expensive for a first clock.
Opinions vary wildly, of course, but my two favorites are the Saitek Pro and the DGT NA. Skip the Saitek Scholastic (aka blue clock) as it is limited in functionality (no increment, for example) for only $10 less. Between those two I have no particular preference. I have noticed, though, that the DGT NA seems to be gaining in popularity.
The Chronos would indeed make quite an impression on one’s sister, however.
The DGT North American can easily be had for around $40. (A quick check of perhaps the world’s best known Internet-based retailer shows the clock is readily available for less than $43.) My personal opinion is that the DGT NA is the best value for the money at this time.
My recommendation would be the DGT North American, for the best combination of price, functionality and durability. Your players can invest about $40-45 and get a clock that can be used for essentially any tournament. In the alternate, I’d probably recommend the Excalibur GameTime II.
Unfortunately, the Excalibur GameTime II and all Saitek clocks are no longer being made and sold as new.
This brings us to the DGT North American as the best clock for scholastic play.
I recently, last month, did a hunt and search for a local gifted school that had $500 total to spend on chess clocks. In talking with the manager of US Chess Sales, Scott, he agreed the DGT NA was the most appropriate clock to have at this time.
Raphael who runs The Chess House agrees. Also, there was one seller, we’ll call him Shelby, that does not sell DGT clocks but he also agreed the DGT NA would be best for this purpose.
Our group of kids have used a number of clocks. For ease of use, ability to set quickly, quietness, and ability to see if you are on move across a room - the DGT NA is their choice. You can get them for about $39. A 7 year old learned to set it by himself before his engineer dad finished reading the booklet. The booklet is readable, though, unlike some other manuals. Don’t worry about the clock being sturdy. None of the clocks on the market are sturdy enough to withstand child use. If something goes wrong it is cheap enough to get another one.
If you can find them, a GameTimer II with the mushroom buttons is a good second choice, and at the same price as the DGT NA. They are not as noisy as some make out; that was a problem of the original GameTimer clocks. Their displays show more information and the clocks have more presets. Our club has four DGT NAs and four GameTimer II clocks to use in tournaments to make sure every board is using a digital clock.
The school club I run, I bought 14 Saitek Blue clocks and have 4 Excalibur GameTime II clocks. In our regular club on Monday nights, we have something like 5 or 6 Excalibur clocks for those that do not bring their own clocks to use. The Excalibur clocks are indeed the best for this type club use.
The problem is these clocks are hard to find on sale, anywhere. For instance eBay has 4 or so Excalibur clocks. The best one is $64. But with only 4 or so clocks on sale there, it is very difficult to stock a club with these. They’ll run out pretty quick.
There definitely is a place in the market for a clock like the Excalibur GameTime II, Saitek Competition Pro, and DGT NA that is lower priced, at or under $40.
