Description
Every pomodoro timer has the same failure mode. You forget to press start, you forget to come back from the break, and after a few days you stop using it. CHIME removes the button you would have forgotten.
THE CLOCK IS THE TIMER. CHIME does not count from the moment you press something. Its alerts are fixed to real clock times - in the default 50/10 mode, breaks begin at :50 and work resumes at :00, every hour. Because the schedule is the wall clock, you always know where you are in it without looking, and there is no timer state to lose. Prefer shorter cycles? Switch to 25/5 and the alerts move to :25, :30, :55 and :00.
BOOK THE DAY, NOT ONE INTERVAL. Press UP to add a block (1 h; 30 min in 25/5), The watch shows the end time of the whole session (END 17:50) and how far into it you are (5/8). UP and DOWN keep working while a session is running, including during a break, so you can extend or cut the day as it goes.
A REAL CLOCK FACE, READ AT A GLANCE. The main screen is an analog dial where the break window is a quiet dotted band on the rim. One look tells you how close the next break is, in the same way a wall clock does. The countdown, the current time, and the session position all have their own place on the screen and never move.
TWO SMALL GAUGES, NO INTERRUPTIONS. SIT shows how long you have been sitting (full at 30 minutes), STR your Garmin stress level. They never alert you mid-block; they tell you what to do with the next break. After 30 minutes of sitting, SIT turns into a larger "SIT 30".
BREAKS THAT ARE HARD TO IGNORE, AND EASY TO OBEY. When a break starts, the screen inverts to white so the change registers in peripheral vision. For the first minute it asks NEXT STEP? - note where you will pick up. Then it says WALK and counts your steps. The countdown and the session end time stay on screen, because a break is exactly when you decide whether to add another block.
ALERTS YOU CAN SILENCE IN ONE PRESS. SELECT cycles the alert output through four states - vibration and tone, vibration only, tone only, silent. The new state is played back immediately, so you know what you picked without looking, and the first press always takes you to vibration only, the one you need in a meeting. Two small icons on screen show the current state. CHIME never alerts outside the session blocks you booked.
FOUR DIALS. Arrow (default), Full, Depth or Square, from the on-watch menu (hold UP).
Works with the app closed. The session keeps running after you press BACK. At each alert the watch shows a prompt asking whether to open CHIME; answering it opens the app and plays the vibration pattern for that alert. A silent notification banner is posted as well, so the alert reaches your wrist either way. Turn the prompt off under Wake Prompt if you only want the banner.
Note: Connect IQ does not let a background service vibrate or play a tone. That is a platform restriction, not a setting.
Keep Alive, for when it has to buzz. Turn this on and CHIME records the session as an activity, which keeps the app running so every alert vibrates on the clock grid whether or not the screen is on. The recording is discarded at the end, leaving your activity history clean. The trade: you cannot leave the app during a session, and it costs more battery. Off by default. While CHIME is open on screen the alerts vibrate and beep exactly on the clock grid; while it is closed, the prompt above is how the watch reaches you.
Buttons: UP add a block / DOWN remove a block / SELECT cycle alert output / hold UP settings / BACK close.
CHIME is designed around published work on fixed breaks (Biwer et al., 2023), interrupting prolonged sitting (Diaz et al., 2017; Duran et al., 2023), planning before an interruption (Leroy & Glomb, 2018) and short structured breaks (Albulescu et al., 2022). This is a productivity tool. It does not diagnose, treat, or prevent any condition, makes no health claims, and is not a substitute for advice from a healthcare professional.
What is new
VERSION 1.4.0
- New FULL dial: a full-screen 60-minute dial. Time to the break, the end time and the session sit in the four quarters of the crosshair, drawn in a quiet half-tone so the hands stay in front.
- In 25/5 mode, UP now adds 30 minutes (one 25/5 cycle) instead of a full hour. Switching modes keeps your end time.
VERSION 1.3.0
- New default dial, ARROW, and a new DEPTH dial. Choose Arrow, Full, Depth or Square from the on-watch menu (hold UP).
VERSION 1.2.0
- SIT and STR gauges, NEXT STEP? / WALK on the break screen, and a fix for a crash when the background service stopped.