The Mrs. and my new Chess clock.

So.... I broke it to the Mrs. that I just spent ~$50 on a North American DGT chess clock for the blue moon that I have our friend who is a challenge over to play.  I'm hoping that its so cool that the kids decide to play each other with it.

Oh, the things we go through for chess.  The Mrs. was not happy. But I was. 8)

Now.. the point.  I expect chess clocks have gone through some iterations over the years.  I got the North American one because I want to be able to set for a wide range of options.

That said, why on Earth are clocks $50+ ????  I really liked the ZMF-II but i read too many bad things about it not keeping good time in a few forums. It just looks COOL like a big explosives timer.  That said, how many people just play without a clock?  Prison style.

And... was anyone ever clever enough to engineer a clockwork only (no electronics) Fischer time clock? 

And... WHY ARE THEY SO EXPENSIVE?  I know there's a $35 version of the clocks out there that will work for chess.  I ended up with the $50 model in large part out of mistrust for the variety of models.  Plus I read some stuff about the older models not rememering settings between power cycles and that sounded aggravating.  At home I could see 10/30 games a lot for instance. 

You can get a chess clock app for your iphone, or tablet for free

I think the sellers make a huge profit. There are (or used to be) $100 clocks.

Just cover one side and tell your Mrs. it's a normal clock - she won't notice the difference.

lol, I'm real happy with my $100 clock. 

re thread title: I was sure the first post was going to be: One of them makes an annoying noise every five minutes, and the other one is a chess clock!

Anyway, if $50 is an issue, try Craig's List or a similar local site.  There's always a few used clocks on the market. 

@nartreb, yes, the Mrs. does make annoying noises. ;-)  I'm just shocked that clocks are so expensive.  I think i know why.  How many do you think a manufacturer can sell?  10,000?  At a profit of $30 each, that's a whopping 300,000.  Over what? 4 years? 5 years?  Not to mention the time involved in engineering and finding a manufacturer and negotiating it.  And that's just the successful ones. I'd probably charge $50 /clock too.  That said, some prominent game company with the resources and contacts could put a great chess clock together for <$10/unit and sell it for $20 / unit and just sit on the inventory they make or just make small batches.  Yet, noone has done it. 8)  Anyway, I will love having the new clock.

Could be worse , you could be addicted to golf ! How much do golf clubs cost these days ? 

Has anyone ever heard of a mechanical clock designed so that it can keep fischer time? 8)  I'd love to see one.  Nothing electronic in it.  Just somehow setup to run flywheels on 2 other clocks from one spring, only one at a time.  Both would have to be tuned. 

It would probably be cost prohibitive to do fischer time on a mechanical design.  They could probably make one........but you wouldn't be able to afford it.

Awsmith61, the ZMF clocks had some timing issues when they first came out, but the manufacturer fixed that issue long time ago.