If you’ve browsed around our website, you’ll have undoubtedly come across stopwatches described as having a “single display“, “dual display“, “triple display” or even a “quad display“. If you’ve never purchased a stopwatch before, or have only ever used basic stopwatches, this terminology may be confusing.

So, what do we mean by a “triple display” stopwatch, for example?

The answer is actually simpler than you might imagine.

Triple display stopwatch screen

A stopwatch with a triple display refers to the number of rows or lines of digits on its screen. A triple display stopwatch will feature three rows of digits across its display.

Sometimes you’ll see this referred to as a “3-line” or “3-row” display, but essentially those terms would all mean the same thing.

Similarly, a single display stopwatch (sometimes called a “1-line” or “1-row” display) will have just one row of digits across its screen. A dual display stopwatch (sometimes a “2-line” or “2-row” display) will have two lines of digits etc.

Examples of single, dual, triple and quad display stopwatches.

Single display stopwatches tend to offer fewer features and often lack the ability to store lap times in memory.

Stopwatches that feature multiple rows of digits however typically incorporate more advanced timing functionality. Dual, triple and quad display stopwatches allow for quick and easy access to current/previous timing information and take advantage of the greater range of information that can be displayed simultaneously on screen at any one time.