Regatta Timer

Why it exists

Generic watch timers fail on a start line: the screen falls back to the watch face mid-sequence, wet fingers can't hit small buttons, and a missed start press can't be corrected. Regatta Timer is built around the three things that matter: the display never leaves the timer, everything works wet, and sync fixes your timing at the next gun.

🙋 Beta testers wanted

The beta is on Google Play (closed testing) — no sideloading needed. Google requires 12 testers for 14 days before the app can go public, so every tester genuinely helps. Sailors especially welcome:

1. Get invited — email play@johnhringiv.com the Google account email you use on the Play Store (closed testing is invite-only)
2. Opt in — once you’re added, accept at the opt-in page
3. Install from a computer — open the Play listing in a browser, hit Install, and pick your watch. Updates then arrive automatically. (The Play Store on your phone will say “not compatible” — that’s normal: there’s no phone app.)

Features

• 5-minute (RRS 26) & 3-minute sequences — toggle with a tap while armed
• Sync to nearest minute — tap at any gun: 3:22 → 3:00, 3:40 → 4:00
• Automatic count-up after the start for elapsed race time
• Haptic signals — double buzz at 4:00, long buzz at 1:00, ticks through the last 10 s, gun blast at 0:00
• Wet-proof — countdown, display, and buzzes continue even when water forces ambient mode; half-screen touch targets; reset needs a deliberate long-press
• Quick-launch tile — swipe from the watch face, tap 5 min or 3 min, pre-armed
• Watch-face complication — a ring where the dot is time remaining and one tap starts the last-used sequence, straight from the face
• Survives interruptions — an in-flight countdown or race restores at the correct time even if the app closes or the watch reboots
• Battery guard — an armed timer releases the screen after 10 idle minutes; any tap re-arms it
• Free, no ads, no tracking — GPL open source; no account, no network, no data collection, ~2 MB
• Fully standalone — no phone or companion app required, ever

On the wrist

The tile

Swipe from the watch face to arm a start in one tap. With a timer in flight, the tile says so instead of offering to arm a new one.

The complication

Put the timer in a watch-face complication slot: a ring where the dot is time remaining, a ticking countdown in the center, and a sailboat at the bottom (on faces that render ranged values, like the Pixel defaults). Armed, it shows the last-used sequence; one tap starts it.

Worth knowing: in always-on display, watch faces refresh complications about once a minute — the countdown on the face can read up to a minute stale until you turn your wrist, identical to the built-in stopwatch complication. Inside the app the countdown stays live to the second, even in ambient.

Install (sideload)

1. Download the APK from the latest release.
2. On the watch: Settings → System → About → tap Build number ×7, then Developer options → enable ADB debugging + Wireless debugging.
3. Pair once: adb pair <ip>:<pair-port> <code> (from “Pair new device”).
4. Install: adb connect <ip>:<port> then adb install RegattaTimer-v*.apk.

Needs Wear OS 5+. Full instructions in the README.