Amber Dial

Amber Dial is an interval timer built around a single ring. Sixty marks stand around the dial and go out one by one while the interval runs, so a glance from across the room tells you how much is left without reading a number. The colour says which interval you are in: amber while you work, red while you rest, mint during the short get-ready count before the first round. The countdown is worked out from the clock rather than from ticks, which means locking the screen, taking a call or switching to another app does not make it drift. Come back and the dial is exactly where it should be. Three controls sit at the bottom and nothing else is in the way. The wide button starts and pauses, reset puts the set back to the beginning, next jumps to the following interval when you finish early. A set is four numbers: get ready, work, rest and how many rounds. They are changed with plus and minus rather than a keyboard, and there is no save button — a tap is already saved. Four sets come ready to use, from a twenty-on-ten-off circuit to long focus blocks, and you can add as many of your own as you like and name them. Instead of beeping, the timer buzzes: a short pulse when work turns into rest, a longer one when the last round is over, and three short pulses in the final seconds if you want the warning. Every one of those can be switched off. Everything stays on the phone. No accounts, no sign-in, no network calls, no ads and nothing to buy. Features: - A ring of sixty marks that empties as the interval runs - Amber for work, red for rest, mint for get ready - Counts by the clock, so it survives a locked screen - Start, pause, reset and skip — nothing else on screen - Your own sets: get ready, work, rest, rounds, name - Four ready-made sets to start from - Buzz on every change, with a three-second warning - Counts how many sets you have finished - Works fully offline