I am looking to upgrade from my analog clock, and am wondering what brand of digital clock people like to use (or wish they had, instead of the one they bought). I was at USATE and noticed a lot of Chronos clocks, and they do seem sturdy, but only having one button to set up all the time controls seems unwieldy. This seems like a good reference; does anyone have better: chess.about.com/cs/productequipm … b_dclk.htm
I am a big fan of all the Chronos clocks, but have recently started purchasing the smaller Chronos Blitz (I own 2). They are simple to use and have only 12 settings which is all you’ll ever need for a chess tournament player.
Fast (1 - 4)
Tournament, with move counter (2, 3, 4, unlimited time controls)
Tournament, without move counter (1, 2, 3, unlimited time controls)
The instruction sheet is a two-sided piece of paper.
- Enrique
Having heard so from people whose judgment I respect, I am sure that the Chronos is an excellent clock from a functional viewpoint. But it is unbearably ugly. Its design is brutal and inert. It looks more like a suitable instrument for bludgeoning someone to death than anything that belongs next to a chess board.
I am loath to give up my beautiful old Garde for such a monstrosity, but my Garde is mechanical lacks the necessary modern features. Does anyone have an opinion of Garde’s digital clock?
I own a Chronos and consider it the easiest to use and set, the best display etc. (just FYI, when you set the Chronos you use all three buttons.). However, despite its sturdy appearance, I have found it to be rather fragile. Twice, I have had them break after dropping less than four feet onto a carpeted floor. The second time, it was in a padded case and it still broke.
I still prefer the Chronos but if I had to make a second choice, I think one of the DGTs would be next.
– Hal Terrie
I made my choice for the Chronos because it allows for very easy set up of odd time controls, which is especially important these days because traditional tournament time controls seems to be a thing of the past. For instance, we see 30 moves in 90 minutes with a SD of 30 mins. quite often in amateur circles, but what do you do if you’re in a tournament that uses 25 or 40 moves in 90? Some clocks do not have a default setting for odd time controls like that, but with the Chronos digital clocks this is easily accomplished.
I know there are other clocks that will allow for this also, but the Chronos was simply my preference.
It seemed to offer the best package of I.) Good Display - Easy to Read II.) Easily Configurable III.) Memory Function - Stores many different settings so you don’t have to keep redoing it each time.
Hope this helps…
I, too, am a big fan of the Chronos, but the Excalibur GameTime is an excellent cost-affordable alternative. Recent Excaliburs are a pleasure to use, with a much improved look and feel (especially feel) compared to the earliest specimens. Don’t buy a used one, though, as it’s likely to be one of the early versions that had a lot of problems.
I reject the common argument that the Chronos is difficult to set. 30 to 60 minutes spent with the manual, when you first buy the clock, is time well spent. You will quickly learn to “speak fluent Chronos”, and will retain the knowledge indefinitely.
Much is made of how sturdy the Chronos appears, but I suspect the Excalibur may actually stand up better to abuse. Yes, the Excalibur has a plastic case, but it’s sturdy plastic. Chronos clocks do not fare well when dropped.
As for appearances, that’s just a matter of personal taste. Al Lawrence once said the Chronos looks like a shop project, and I guess I agree, but it has never bothered me.
If you mean their digital-analog hybrid of a few years ago, forget it. I bought one at a National Open, but never used it. One big problem is that the minute hand moves in increments of a full minute, rather than continuously. This could make the opponent think he has a full minute remaining rather than just a few seconds. If you use such a clock, you should warn your opponent about this feature before the game, and suggest that he rely only on the (dim and tiny) digital readout near the end of the control. I don’t know whether this clock is still available, nor whether it has been improved.
Bill Smythe
If you want an elegant looking digital clock then opt for the Duel Timer. It has a beautiful wood case. My only complaint with the clock, and maybe they fixed it on later versions, the delay was hard to set. I did finally swap it for a Chronos.
I actually like the black chronos with the silver touch sensor buttons. It has a sleek and modern look to it. The red and yellow are too loud for my taste, and the original beige is boring.
The small blitz version is very handy for travel, but I don’t like how it handles two time controls when the 1st control is over 99 minutes. It starts with h:mm then once it goes under 100 minutes it switches to mm:ss. When the additional hour is added for the second control it will revert to h:mm if over 100 minutes. It’s confusing if one is not aware of it. I’ve had more then one opponent get rattled by the display chnage and ask me about during the game. If I try to explain it ahead of time then I get blank stares.
So do the smaller “blitz” Chronos clocks not have all the functions of a regular one? I was wondering if there were any differences besides size.
I have an Excalibur, and as mentioned, it’s a pretty good, cheap clock. I played someone who had an early model of it, and I can understand the complaints. The “plunger” buttons were VERY stiff. The newer ones are much better, though, and at one quarter the price of a Chronos.
–Fromper
Being an average casual player, I really like the Excalibur. I find it so easy to set with its labeled buttons, display prompts, and extensive menu of presets right on the back. No need to memorize menus, button sequences, which eye to cross when pressing the left button with your right hand, etc. I’ve had to refer to the manual only a couple times in 3 years to check on unusual (for me) settings, such as a 30-sec increment at the end of each move vs a delay.
Grant Neilley
I’ve noticed more and more Saitek Competition and Competition Pro clock being used. I picked up the Competition and Saitek has done a great job simplifying the controls. With the Competition you have 10 presets and one user determined. The Pro has 22 pre sets and 3 user programmable modes. Both are priced under $40–the Competition is available for under $25 and some places have it for <$20. Both are well made.
Chronos and Duel are nice, but, IMO, there are now terribly overpriced compared to what is now on the market. I do agree that they are ugly by comaprison–perhaps utilitarian is a better description.
I have trouble figuring out how to set VCRs, so I needed something that was childishly simple to set. I chose the Excalibur, which is half the price of the Chronos, and have been quite satisfied. People who, like me, are mechanically challenged can find the Excalibur manual on line, or at least they could two years ago when I bought mine. They can decide for themselves if they understand it. I had no trouble.
Hey, it’s the official clock of the USCF. 
The only thing I don’t like about the design is the buttons you push. Too springy. Other than that, it seems to be nice and is certainly a good value.
“Springy”? As I said earlier, the older model seemed to be VERY stiff (you had to really make sure you pushed the button down all the way), but the newer ones don’t have that problem. My big complaint is that they added functionality for FIDE time controls (increments instead of delays, and capable of more than 19 seconds on the increment, unlike older versions), and mine is old enough not to have that functionality. I’ve only ever played in one tournament where this was a problem, but I’d consider getting a different clock eventually just for that.
–Fromper
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No offense Bill, but I consider this statement to be self-contradictory. If it takes more than 5-10 minutes to master a little clock, the clock is poorly designed in terms of human factors. Nearly an hour to learn is the absurd truth about Chronos.
It taking an hour is the definition of being difficult. The word ‘quick’ does not belong next to ‘an hour’ to learn a little clock.
I have had multiple people who own a Chronos ask me if I can set their’s for them: in my judgment that is automatic proof the Chronos is ill-designed.
I own a Chronos, and I do not regret buying it. But it did indeed take too long to learn to set it. After I did not use it for a three month period I found myself sitting behind the black pieces unable to remember how to set it. We borrowed an analog for the game (which took 0 minutes to learn).
The next day I decided to understand what was at the heart of the Chronos design flaw. I decided it was that there is no way to magically know which of its dozens of main mode values did what.
Crude analogy: Imagine that each typical car had 72 keys, and to make the car run you had to pick which key best matched the speed and turning you would need for the roads you would be driving. Here is the bucket of 72 keys, good luck.
So I made a small cheat-sheet of the few Chronos mode values I cared about. I taped it to my clock. Without that cheat-sheet, and without the time and energy to re-study the Chronos manual, the clock is impractical to use. I believe a chess clock can be designed to be SELF-DOCUMENTING, with little need for an accompanying manual.
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Good idea.
That will have to wait for the Smythe Dream Clock, I guess.
Bill Smythe
I think the Excalibur clocks do a pretty good job of being easy to program without having to look at the documentation. You might have to skim the documentation when you first get the clock, but it shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes.
So does anybody have, or has anybody seen, one of the Schach Silver clocks? The look nice, if that means anything.
Also, how about DGT? I am very reluctant to go with a DGT device, since I recently spent $400.00 in scholastic chess club money for 12 of these, and they are absolute crap. One malfunctioned right away; we now (one year later) have about eight timers that actually work. Also they are very difficult to set.
Yep, we have the Exaclibur GameTime and like it a lot: easy to set, and it’s got sturdy buttons that go “thunk”. None of this touch-sensitive stuff. It has survived a few unintentional crash tests. It’s also cheap. If the kid loses it at a big scholastic, we weep less.
We needed another clock, so we just got a Saitek Competition Pro. It’s harder to set, but otherwise we like it–particularly the big, readable display. Oddly enough, it uses C batteries, instead of the usual AA. Perhaps they did that so the clock would be heavier.
Thus, good digital clocks with delay can be had for under $40.
I can sympathize, with anyone having a problem buying one of the new time delay clocks. I have yet to buy one, just not knowing which will be the most efficient, easiest to operate.
I have often wondered as I glanced though catalogs, what could cause the price differential, seeing one clock at $39.00, and another seeming to be similar at $ 400.00. Now I find reading this thread, there appears to be as many opinions as Chess Players 
. I guess I will purchase the Excalibur, and hope for the best. It is either that or start a movement to revert back to the “Good Old Clocks.” Funny how as age creeps up, I find the expression “Good Old” having a more prominent place in my vocabulary.
I own 6 DGT XLs, 6 Excaliburs, 5 regular-sized Chronos timers. These are my opinions of the timers:
I use the DGTs because they work with my DGT eBoards, otherwise I wouldn’t use them for a regular game because they use Bronstein time instead of delay and even though the rule book says that they are equivalent, I hate, I mean I REALLY hate the Bronstein method. However, I definitely prefer them for 5 minute blitz with no delay!
The Excaliburs are great for about a couple of years then they can break. You can push the plunger down and the display will still show it to be your move. This has happened on TWO of mine. Coincidence? I doubt it. They have a great sound in sudden death time pressure, it really gets everyone’s attention. BTW, is that good?? Maybe for kids, but I don’t think adults appreciate it.
The Chronos is by far the best choice for reliability, flexibility and UGLYNESS. We have dropped them, thrown them into a box, spilled a soft drink on them and they still keep on ticking (like a Timex.) If you want a workhorse, it is the only choice. My youngest son prefers the Chronos with the push-down black buttons instead of the metal sensors because he can grab a piece and use the piece to push down the plunger, you can’t do that with the metal sensor. Something to consider…