"Aristo" Sport Timer for Basketball and Football, 1950s or 1960s?
Pocket-watch style timer for sports referees
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Hi, this is Alan. Thanks for reading. Contact information at the bottom. Here is a timing device by "Aristo," made in USA, for referees timing sports games, specifically American football, and basketball. The watch is 50 mm across, and has typical 3-part "pocket watch construction," with front bezel/crystal assembly, main body/case, and snap caseback. Acrylic is crystal, had light scratches which completely smoothed out. I obtained it for $12 in August 2019, and it runs well.
I have reviewed some other circa 1950s sports timers, and if you wish to have a look, here are the links:
Some of the photos, like the one above, are taken with the crystal/bezel removed, so that you can really see the dial features. The dial is bright and clean, with a white background, and mostly black dial markings, some red, including the most prominent feature, a red 5 minute sector labelled WARN. The dial is subdivided into two zones, one for American football, the other for basketball.
Football: near the approximate 11 o'clock position of what a normal watch would be, you can see a black line, and 15. This counts down 15 minutes of a football quarter. As the minute hand reaches the approximate 2 o'clock position, it reaches the end of the first quarter, and the next 15 minute countdown will begin. The last five minutes of this next quarter has a WARN zone, in red (more on this later.) This process completes a half game 15 + 15 = 30 minutes. The process is repeated for the other half of the game, after the "half time" break. (Note that high school football, the periods are 12 minutes, for a total of 48 minutes playing time, so this clock must be for either collegiate or professional football.
Basketball: US collegiate basketball plays two 20 minute halves. Professional (NBA) basketball plays four 12 minute quarters. The section of this timer for basketball counts down from 20 minutes (begins around 7 o'clock, and terminates at around 11 o'clock exactly at the beginning of the football zone.) So, it appears optimized for collegiate play, but note that there are hash marks in red at 10 and 12 minutes of countdown. The 12 minute mark would allow for timing fo the four quarters of the NBA and the 10 minute mark would allow for timing of the four quarters of the FIBA (Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur).
Another photo without the glass. Notice the sliding "button" around 10-11 o'clock. This turns the movement on and off, to stop the seconds hand. This allows the referee to "stop the clock" during official time-outs.
Notice that this dial includes a nothing zone, a sector where there is no timing scale, between 5 and 7 o'clock, where the subsidiary seconds dial is located.
Here is the movement. Mostly brass, except for the plate covering the mainspring barrel in steel or other metal. These were inexpensive non-jewelled movements, with loud ticking. Another good look at the sliding button.
Nice look at the seconds dial. But who was ARISTO? They've got a nice logo. I've found other timers, including boxy desktop type timers for sports, but no wristwatches or other standard clocks. They seem to have made exclusively timers.
Closer look at the balance. (Below pic is same, just larger) The balance spring shows up blurry, as the movement was running at the time of the photo. the FAST / SLOW lever and scale are well seen. Notice also that the sliding button, at the left in connected internally to a curved metal arm. This is best seen in the mag view below, where you can see a black colored metal arm very close to the right edge of the balance wheel. You can see currently there is a small gap, less than 1 mm, between this arm and the wheel. When the referee wants to stop the time for a "time-out," the button is moved, which then causes the arm to lightly contact the balance wheel, stopping it completely and stopping the clock entirely.
What is WARN? This is on the football register, and relates the the "warning" time before regulation play is ended. In American football, there is a "two minute warning," where the clock stops once two minutes are left, at the end of the 2nd and 4th quarters. (The length of time the clock stops is also two minutes.) From Wikipedia: "The origins are from the early years in the NFL when the official game time was kept by a member of the officiating crew, with the stadium clock being unofficial. Its purpose was a checkpoint to ensure that the teams knew how much time remained in the game. In the early 1960s the upstart American Football League made the stadium clock the official game time, a change followed later in the decade by the NFL. By then, television was an important factor in professional football, so the two-minute warning was retained as a commercial break and to serve as "tension building" time, and thus has become an important part of the game's flow." (Note that the Canadian football league has a three minute warning, Indoor American Football has a one minute warning, and the Arena Football League has a 30 second warning!)
But this register shows four minutes! That does not seem to work with any of the known football warnings!
This is not my clock, but appears nearly identical to mine, with some exception. The sliding button for starting and stopping time is shaped differently, and the WARN zone isn't all red, but has an initial pink zone for the first of the 2 minutes, and is then red for the last two minutes. I think this may be a more recent version of my watch, but I'm not 100% certain of this.
Here is a desktop ARISTO timer, for basketball and football, with features that are similar to my pocket watch.
Another ARISTO timer, counting up. No special registers, and the ad says for "sports, photography, science, time study." Neither of these desktop timers are mine.
Here is a very similar and probably older watch. It's not mine, but I wish it was. Made by Lowe & CampbeII, supplier of athletic goods. Same type of registers, 4 minute warning, etc. Nice cream colored background, and a red outer chapter (mine is black.) The minute hand is really nice, too.
Last pic, with the timer in direct sunlight.
Thanks for reading.
I hope you will like it.
Alan
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