Joseph Joseph Pie Timer - Kitchen Countdown Timer for Baking, Cooking, and Eggs | Perfect for Oven, Stove, and Microwave Use

What can I say? It's a timer. It works like any other kind of mechanical timer, except it has the clever "pie chart" dial face which shows you at a glance how much time is left.The faults it has are the faults of any mechanical timer. If you don't like loud ticking, well it's got a loud "tick-tock" sound. While the bell is loud enough to get your attention if you're in the kitchen or the next room, it only rings for a second so if you go away you've got remember to check the timer when you get back, just like any other wind-up. I haven't tested its accuracy, but it seems to work fine turned on its side, so it may be useful in classrooms.In this timer the face is stationary, but it "disappears" as time runs out. It's quite functional, showing you at a glance from across the room how much time is left. The illusion of the face disappearing is very good. You have to hold it in your hand and look carefully to see that the moving part is a plastic shade that disappears into a slit in the face.It's a well-designed device, and everyone who's seen it has remarked on how interesting and unusual it is. But in the end it's just a wind-up timer. It does what a wind-up timer does, but with a little more charm and style than most.Update: if you have trouble with this timer sometimes stopping or failing to ring, make sure you always wind it up to the full 60 minutes before setting the time interval you want. ALL wind-up timers work better if fully wound before use, but this one might not work at all on short intervals without a full winding.