I shipped For Time, the one feature I said I wouldn't add

A few weeks ago I posted here about WODrounds, my minimal pay-once CrossFit timer, and someone made a sharp point in the comments: the interesting question isn't whether pay-once "works", it's whether pricing is actually why people choose the app over the alternatives. It stuck with me, because it's really a question about the wedge: what is this app actually for, and what does it refuse to be.

So here's a good test of that. I just shipped 1.5, and it adds For Time: a count-up timer for classic "finish the work as fast as you can" CrossFit WODs. It's on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple TV.

The thing is, in my launch post I explicitly listed For Time as something I would NOT build, right next to AMRAP, workout tracking and social features. So why did this one earn its place when the others didn't?

Because For Time is still just a clock. It counts up instead of down, you press Stop when you finish, and it saves your time. That's it. No reps, no logging, no account, no history. It fits the wedge ("minimal, private, Apple-first timer") instead of stretching it. AMRAP would pull me toward rep counting. Tracking would pull me toward a database and a backend. Social would pull me toward accounts. For Time pulls me toward nothing new. That was the whole test, and it's the test I'll keep using.

The build had one genuinely interesting wrinkle. The timer engine was written around a fixed total with count-down math. For Time inverts that: the headline is elapsed time, and the uncapped variant has no total at all. The naive version finished instantly, because every "elapsed >= total" check is true when total is zero. So the uncapped mode had to short-circuit those checks everywhere, and I added an explicit "finish" that freezes the final time so the Done screen and Apple Health don't keep counting after you stop. Small feature, a few real landmines.

One product decision I like: instead of a separate "cap on/off" toggle plus a value picker, there's a single stepper where the zero position reads "No cap" and steps up to 60:00. One control, both cases. Fewer things on screen is the whole point of the app.

Pricing hasn't changed: still a one-time 2.99, no subscription, no ads. And to close the loop on that comment: I still don't think pricing is why people pick WODrounds. I think it's the product being narrow and native and quiet, and pay-once is just the same promise applied to the wallet. For Time is me betting on that wedge again rather than on feature count.

I'll come back in a few months with actual numbers on whether adding a long-requested mode moves downloads, or whether the minimal crowd was always going to be a minimal crowd. Curious either way.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/wodrounds/id6759229877
Site: https://wodrounds.iamjarl.com/for-time-timer.html