How do I launch a race?

You have many possibilities for creating and launching a race:

First, create a watch for each participant in each race (see How Do I Add People to a Race?). Then to launch the race, you can use the following features:

Staggered Start

If Staggered Start is turned on in the Settings, each watch is launched X seconds after the previous watch. It also puts the person's name and their countdown in huge letters so you can simply show the participants the screen. (But, note you can shrink the launcher if you want to see the watches during the start.)

Big Start Button

In Settings, you can also choose to have a very large Start button at the top of screen. Depending on whether you're already started the race and whether you're using Staggered Start, the button will vary between All Start, Staggered Start, All Stop, or if a race is going and you've added any new watches, New Watch Start, or Stagger New Watches. After you've started, the button will shrink, allowing either All Stop or Cancel Staggered Start.

Volume Control

To avoid having to look at the screen, you can use your phone or tablet's physical volume button to. At the beginning and no watch is running (or you've added new runners), start the race by pressing Volume Up. When a race is going, the Up bottom marks a Lap, and the Down button marks a Stop.

If you have only one watch running, then that Lap or Stop naturally applies to that watch.

BUT if you have multiple watches going, then you have a choice. Depending on your Volume Button Control setting, Watches will EITHER apply it to the first person on the list (useful for Auto-Sorted races), OR it will create a temporary Lap or Stop button at the top of the screen remembering that moment. Later you can drag it to the appropriate watch (or tap to select from a list). So … if you have two people crossing at the same moment, you can just create two Laps and then drag them when you have time.