I really like the looks of the Excalibur. It has everything I would want … presets, custom setting, buttons, you can tell whose move it is, … I like it. I don’t have one … yet. But I think I’ll get one. Good discussion!
The best price on the Excalibur is presently at American Chess Equipment, amchesseq.com
They currently have this clock on sale for $24.99. At this price, the clock is unbeatable.
This dinosaur prefers an analog clock 
I hope the dinosaur gets into a locked K+B+P vs K+B+P ending, with B’s of opposite colors, dead drawn, with 2 seconds left on his analog clock vs 5 minutes for his opponent, and the TD declines his ILC claim.
Bill Smythe
One cool bonus to having a chronos clock: You can sand the paint off, and repaint to whatever color you want. Even flourescent lime green or orange.
Just don’t forget your “sunnies” when you play with that on the table. Also, you might not have too many friends wanting to use your clock in that case. 
I think one of the best looking clocks is the Light INSA Mechanical Chess Clock.
I might get that someday, just cause it looks so nice. It would go with my wooden chess board and ebony chess set.
Reviving this thread because the question has become practical for me rather than merely theoretical: I just went 2.0 in a four-round tournament, and the reward I’ve designated for this accomplishment is a digital clock, since 5-second delay is now ubiquitous and my Rolland analog gets no love at all anymore. (If I ever go 3.0, I’m getting these.)
Having spent more time at tournaments and had a chance to play with the different brands and models, I feel my decision comes down to either the Saitek Competition Pro or the Chronos. (I disdain the look and feel of the Excalibur Game Time. People say that clock isn’t as cheaply built as it seems. That strikes me as faint praise – it seems really cheaply built. If I were looking to buy a clock from KB Toys, that’s the model I’d expect to find.) Aesthetically and budgetarily, I strongly prefer the Saitek. But there’s still the byo-yomi issue. Do others concur that I’m better off buying a Saitek and continuing to use my still perfectly good analog clock for go, or does anyone have a case to make for buying the more expensive, harder-to-program, Apple ][ peripheral–looking but byo-yomi-enabled Chronos and putting Rolli out to pasture?
I use the Saitek Pro and it is wonderful. Easy to use, well built and aesthetically nice to look at. A kind of funny story. At the NE Class in Sturbridge this year, I had black in the last round against a middle school girl from NYC. She wanted to use her Cronos and I politely refused as was my right as Black. She and her mother went to complain to the TD who gave them no satisfaction. She played with my clock and did all sorts of distracting things like playing and banging captured pieces, getting up and down frequently, etc. We drew, but i was afraid that she would accuse me of cheating due to my frequent trips to the bathroom–prostate issues when sitting for too long a time over several days; a not uncommon phenomenon I discovered at tournaments.
I would go for the Chronos. Yes it’s more expensive, but it’s not as hard to program as one thinks. Spend time with the manual to find the settings you need and program them in. You can have 4 preset time controls that take you one to 4 button pushes t get to. I have blitz, g/xx with 5 second delay, 40/2 G/60 with 5 second delay, and g/10 no delay on my presets. I can quickly change any of those settings to what I need for what ever tournament I’m playing. If you play a lot of go you can have the byo-yomi setting as one of your presets.
My two biggest gripes about the Saitek are that you don’t get minutes and seconds until under 20 minutes, and when the delay is counting down it replaces the actual game time. At a glance it’s hard to tell a 5 second delay versus having 5 seconds of game time remaining on your clock.
Chronos $98.99
Saitek Pro III $38.99
Saitek 3 user modes, easy to adjust.
Chronos 4 user modes, allegedly easy to adjust. 
Saitek 23 pre-set modes
Chronos Can’t really figure out how many presets from the manual w/o spending a long time going through the manual. Sorry.
Saitek Plastic case. Not suitable for use as a blunt object for striking.
Chronos Metal case. Qualifies as a deadly weapon.
Youtube instructional availability:
Saitek—no
Chronos–yes
Is it really worth $50 more? It all depends on who’s willing to pay. IMO, it’s not worth it. But then I love my INSA Analog clock, light wood. The amazing thing with all of them is------they all tell time.
Well the Chronos best price to date is at CajunChess.com Their price is $88.95 for either the standard button model or the Chronos II with the touch sensor.
I prefer the button model.
I agree with Polly about the Chronos being the best clock. I use the first memory set for Game 5 with a delay, or any single digit number minute time. I use the second one for 2 digit minute time control from Game 10 to Game 90. I use the 3rd memory slot for Game in Hours, as in 2 hours minimum. This way all I need do is hit the red center button once for blitz, twice for longer and three times for occasional 2 hour game. I do have a 2 time control setting in the fourth slot, but hardly use it.
This really is the easiest clock to use.
Comparing the Saitek with the Excalibur is a close one. I know the Saitek appears a better built clock, but I have people in my club that own both. The Excalibur really does hold up as well or even a little better to the Saitek.
Also the Excalibur is really inexpensive at American Chess Equipment - amchesseq.com Dewain Barber has it priced at $24.95.
If you want value for the dollar spent, the Excalibur is the winner. I actually bought a couple of these in the last year for backup clocks and for use with my chess club.
Polly is right that the Saitek and Excalibur don’t show the seconds until under 20 minutes is on the clock. And she is right about the Saitek blocking out the time left display while the delay counts down. I agree that this is annoying at best.
Anyway, if you can have the bigger budget I feel the Chronos is the best clock to own.
Forgive my obtuseness, but why is this an issue? I don’t start caring about seconds until well under 20 minutes. 
If I were buying twelve for my club, I would get the Excalibur. If I were buying one for myself, I would get the Chronos. You won’t go far wrong either way.
The Excalibur apparently stands up better to being dropped, while the Chronos (especially the touch-sensitive model) is reportedly more resistant to button-bashing.
Oogh. This could be a serious distraction. Apparently the Saitek Pro has a three-and-a-half digit display (four digits if the first digit is 1, three digits otherwise). Better (perhaps) would have been to simply blink the top and bottom halves of the 1, alternating each second, during the 5-second delay, while having the rest of the display show the main time.
I’ve never used the Pro, but I dislike earlier Saitek models. Too much pressure required to press the buttons, and occasionally in blitz games the buttons would freeze, running one side of the clock continuously regardless of whose move it was.
Bill Smythe
The new Saitek models have a much better (firmer) push action. The old game timers had rather springy, smallish buttons, but I never found them to cause a problem functionally. Those older buttons were probably still bigger than the buttons on a BHB analog clock.
IMO, the rule should be changed to allow Black the choice of using an analog clock. You certainly do see quite a few still in use at tournaments. But, this is a different issue, of course.
One of the things I like about the Saiteks is that their buttons give me the same satisfying shunk feeling when I press them down as my analog clock does. The chywing of the Chronos pushbuttons gives a whole different vibe, to say nothing of the discreet mip of the touchpad.
One fellow in our chess club has a touch sensor Chronos. It is interesting that you can change the pitch and tone of the sound that emits when the switch is activated for a move. So, it could be a mip. Or it could also be something like a uurp, depending on your personal taste and preference.
The Saitek Pro does have a nice button/action feel to it. I also really like the green LED light in each button to show who is on the move. I bought one of these in a buy our club made, when they first came out. I liked the clock for casual play. I sold it to one of the novice players in my new club, and he is happy with it. Performance wise though, I do find the Excalibur to give a slightly better quality display for play longer than G/15. A number of people have the Excalibur and in our club. It offers a better view of the time in a game for spectators.
One fellow in our Peoria club has a Saitek. He uses it, but it just doesn’t “play” as well as the Excalibur models that others in the club have. I use a Chronos myself in club, as do others and this clock is still the preferred one.
I used to make time notes on my score sheet during the game. I always found it interesting to have minutes and seconds. Since I use a Mon Roi now I don’t take time notes anymore since it would necessitate having another piece of paper to write that information on. The Mon Roi has limited time tracking as it only recording time from tthe input of one move to the next. So If I don’t record my opponent’s move right after it’s made the time for his move will appear to be longer then it is. I do record the final times and result of the game in a notebook.
Some of the later models Chronos have a feature that keeps track of each move time. I don’t use it, but I remember an addendum to the manual about it.
When I checked it out on one of my clocks, I found it to be really nice. It kept accurate track of each move by each player. After the game is over is when you can retrieve the information.
I have used that feature. The problem is once you play another game you lose all the information from the previous. For awhile I actually would go write down all the times, but it was too much like work
Well, I finally went with the Saitek . . . the plethora of settings on the Chronos was just overkill, and I couldn’t justify the expense (or decide between buttons and touchpads). Plus, I decided, I don’t play enough face-to-face go for byo-yomi capability to matter, and if I don’t know whether I’ve got 5 seconds left or 5 minutes, that’s my own damn problem.
But for anyone who is interested in the Chronos, buy one right now from Wholesale Chess – it’s running a 10 percent off Father’s Day promotion (discount code: DADSAVES), which means you can get one for just $80.