Count down timer (on the waist belt)
 

Looking for recommendations for a quality count down timer that fits on your waist belt. One that can provide vibration and/or buzzer sound for the 25 sec. clock expiration. The back judge in our crew has been unable to ID one so I said, the guys on this site will know if anyone knows where to get one. Right now he has to keep looking on/off at his watch and it really looks like 'bush' league when he's doing that. Help us get him to the next level.
Thanks guys.

The Ready Ref? www.ready-ref.com

www.ready-ref.com is the site

I have one of these and also a Casio watch that vibrates like both of them

My back judged learned the hard way last night. In a down pour which lasted from warmups thru the entire game, if it gets wet it may quit working properly. When we got back in after the game lo and behold it buzzes as it dried out

This is why you use the protective cover. I have had several games in the rain with and the cover keeps the device working.

Peace

ugh... 70 bucks. dang! :P

I agree that the unit is way over priced. Seeing how they seemingly have little to no competition, they have a reason to charge so much money.

There are other timers. Lacrosse officials use something similar but with different time intervals. One thing I don't like about the other timers is the toggle switch. The Ready Ref has a much better design.

I think the Ready Ref is expensive and clunky. I have the Casio watch and love it. Not sure where you can find it now, but it has a vibrating feature that you can program to warn you before the play clock expires.

I too use that Casio watch, and I SWEAR by it. Basically what I do is set Interval 1 for 15 seconds - so the watch vibrates when there are 10 seconds remaining - and then I set Interval 2 for 10 seconds - so the watch vibrates when the 25-seconds has expired. I absolutely love this watch, thanks to whomever originally suggested it on this board.

You may need to look around to find it though, because I don't know if it's available anymore.

That would be me. You're welcome!

You can find it here for $40: LovelyWatches.com (but they seem to be out of stock).

The watch sounds interesting.

I loved the ReadyRef I used last year as a back judge. It wasn't mine, though, it belonged to my crew chief, but I would use it and I loved how easy it was to use.

If I was to buy one for myself, it would mean I was a back judge again, and that would mean I was doing varsity games because this state doesn't have back judges below the varsity level. So I'd probably make the investment then.

Problem is that without the cover, it fits sturdily on your belt, which would have to tear in half to fall off because of the metal clip. The cover has a cheesy plastic hook that falls off if you breathe on it in my experience. Maybe I just got a bad one, but the cover is poorly designed.

I agree.

I've started to get games as a back judge (normally line judge). I have a Timex watch with a countdown timer. I set it for twenty seconds. When it has counted down twenty it will start to beep. When it beeps I start my five second count. It is loud enough for me to hear but no one else can hear it.

The great thing is I never have to look at my watch. If I want to give more than a 25 second clock it's easy to reset. I also don't have to worry about rain.

There are 2 problems with the ordinary Timex Ironman watches (which I have worn forever): first, you don't want an audible beep -- particularly if you are on the line or working the 25 as R like I did yesterday (no clock; had BJ run the clock). If its late in the game or a team is way up and I don't want to flag the 25, the beep will go off and might be heard.

The second, and more serious problem, is that the start/stop button are different AND the stop button and reset are the same. Since the reset will reset the time without holding down the button for a few seconds, this is a terribly flawed design. I have lost the time before because I accidentally hit the stop/reset button twice when I only wanted to hit it once. Don't use the Timex to time the game.

You're right on the second problem. It took my a while to get used to the flaw. I reset the clock in a few little league games before I got the hang of it.

No one but me can hear the beep on my Timex when I'm at BJ so I don't really see the problem with an audible beep.