Trouble Shooter: I set the alarm on my Timex Triathlon Ironman Watch, now I can’t turn the thing off!

Ever had a scenario like this? You set your watch alarm one night, but it goes off EVERY single day after that and you can never figure out how to make the thing go away!!

Just hope you didn’t set it too early!! 

Of course you had nothing but the best intentions when you set your alarm for 6:30am. You were going to do that morning run if it killed you! Of course intentions are all good and well, but when 6:30am rolled around, your first reaction was predictable wasn’t it… at that moment in time, you wanted nothing better than to SMASH your Timex Triathlon Ironman watch into little pieces so as to get in another hours sleep before work!

Ok, so you probably managed to turn the thing off. Or maybe you just pulled your pillow tightly over your ears until the damn thing stopped, and that worked..

Temporarily…

But now the #@”! thing goes off EVERY single morning without fail at 6:30am!
Why do those IRONMAN watches have to be so darn efficient!??

While I’ve heard a sledgehammer is a simple solution to this problem, please don’t despair, for I show you a way to unset your alarm that does not involve mutilating your timepiece.

The standard Timex Triathlon Ironman watch looks something like the layout below:

Do note: I am attempting to keep this information as general as possible, however there are many Timex Triathlon Ironman watch models on the market and this information might not apply precisely to every single model out there. Although I do believe the ALARM function works in a similar way in many Ironman watches and what I say here will apply in most cases.

Ok, so when the alarm is going off, simply press START/SPLIT or STOP/RESET to disarm the alarm. To know when your alarm is armed, a clock icon  will appear on the face of your Timex watch, when disarmed, the clock will disappear. If the alarm goes off and you make the mistake of waiting it out in the hope it will go away, a back-up alarm will fire up five minutes later for further tormentation.

So there’s the quick fix, here’s how to turn the alarm off permanently:

• Press the MODE button until you are in ALARM mode
• Press SET/RECALL to configure the alarm
• Press STOP/RESET (-) or START/SPLIT (+) to cycle through alarms
• When you have selected the alarm you wish to erase, hold down STOP/RESET (-) to clear the selected alarm

So there you are. Peace of mind at last!

Tags: Alarm Mode

30 Responses to “Trouble Shooter: I set the alarm on my Timex Triathlon Ironman Watch, now I can’t turn the thing off!”

1. OFenby Says: April 8th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

Thanks, I tried that technique but when I hold down STOP/RESET all is does is cycle through the numbers really fast! Ugh! I can;t believe there’s not an easier way to unset an alarm on this thing.

2. admin Says: April 9th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

Hi,

Thanks for your comment. Try this instead:

* Press the MODE button until you are in ALARM mode
* Press STOP/RESET (-) or START/SPLIT (+) to cycle through alarms
* When you have selected the alarm you wish to erase, hold down STOP/RESET (-) to clear the selected alarm

And see how you go.
Cheers,
Rod

3. Jessica Says: June 15th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

The second way doesn’t work either, still just keeps running through the numbers really fast.

Any other ways to turn off the alarm?

4. Jessica Says: June 15th, 2009 at 11:01 pm

Just got it, pop the battery out and the alarm will be reset.

5. Mia Says: July 8th, 2009 at 2:38 am

oh thank god. i really wanted it just to be turned off. it went on at 5 55 for some reason this morning.

This really really helped

6. Lothar Says: August 15th, 2009 at 2:43 am

I tried the above. When I get to step 3 those buttons only turn alarm 2 on and off.

It defaults to alarm 2 then 3, but alarm one I set for 8am never shows up or cycles in to be shut off.

7. Cynthia Says: September 27th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

To Admin – THANK YOU, it worked! Why don’t they just put this in the manual?! What a blessing it was to find these instructions and not be interrupted every day.
Hint to others – you may have to hit the MODE button several times before it displays Alarm 1, 2, or 3, and make sure all of them are turned off if you really want no alarm.

8. rolan Says: December 1st, 2009 at 3:18 am

these steps didnt work for me. when i attempt to hold down the stop/reset button, all it does is says “on” or “hide”. Selecting “hide” does nothing. The alarm still goes off everyday! help ! lol

i have a Timex Ironman Triathilon WR 100M

9. admin Says: December 1st, 2009 at 8:42 am

That is strange, never encountered “on” or “hide” before, but not all Ironman’s are the same. These instructions are targeted at the most common Timex Ironman models. If you’re getting nowhere and all else fails you could try Jessica’s solution 
Rod

10. Teresa Says: December 3rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm

The watch manual available online from the Timex web site for this watch is practically useless. I made the same assumption as Rolan that the “hide” option would turn off the alarm. I finally figured out that “hide” meant “hide the ability to set the alarm!”

This is how I disabled the alarm on my son’s watch:

Press and hold SET/RECALL until it says “SET” and things are blinking.

Repeatedly press MODE as the blinking cycles through hour/minutes/date etc. It continues to cycle through CHIME, BEEP, CHRONO, TIMER, OCCASN and finally ALM 1 (and ALM 2 and ALM 3). If any of the alarms (ALM) say “HIDE”, press STOP/RESET to change it to ON. Press SET/RECALL to exit the set function.

Now you can press MODE repeatedly until you reach ALM (or ALM 2 or ALM 3) and press STOP/RESET to turn to OFF. Press MODE (not SET/RECALL!) to exit this function. (If you stumble upon the sequence for setting the time of the alarm, note that you can cycle between DAILY, WKENDS & WKDAYS but OFF will not be a choice!)

HTH

11. Jeff Says: December 14th, 2009 at 3:32 am

The instructions didn’t work for me either, but this did.
1) Press mode (lower left hand side)button until alarm appears on display
2) Press reset stop button (lower right hand side) and you cycle through the alarms until you find the one that is on
3) Press the start split button (bottom middle) and that changes the alarm setting between on and off. Choose off.

12. dd Says: January 8th, 2010 at 4:25 pm

thank you, thank you, thank you!

13. Paul Says: January 17th, 2010 at 3:03 pm

Teresa…. THANK YOU!!!! Your instructions hit the nail on the head for my watch.

14. Erik Says: January 24th, 2010 at 12:35 pm

Teresa, thank you…your instructions were perfect…and to Timex, what were you guys thinking…was it some kind of joke to torment your customers by making the alarm function completely abstruse.

15. Chuck Says: March 19th, 2010 at 6:55 am

THANK YOU!!! I found out “Hide” doesn’t turn it off the hard way!

16. ED Says: May 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am

I could not get to alarm mode. Only “OCCSN”. Removed battery, it reset, and I’m not waking up at 3am anymore…nor is my wife!

17. chaz Says: August 2nd, 2010 at 10:39 am

Disconected battery and it worked for me.

18. Diane Says: August 9th, 2010 at 9:07 pm

Thank you so much, i have tried so many times to turn the alarm off without much success until i reed this website. Excellent instructions!!!

19. mickadoo Says: August 18th, 2010 at 12:10 am

If the Mode button doesn’t get you to alarm mode, it means the alarms are hidden. To unhide them, press and hold the Set/Recall button. Now use the mode button to scroll, and scroll, and scroll. Once you get to the alarm 1, alarm 2, alarm 3, turn each of them ON, so they are not hidden. Now, go back out. You can now use the Mode button to get to the Alarms, and turn them off using the Start and Stop/Reset buttons. 3:54 AM, good bye!!!

20. K Says: September 5th, 2010 at 5:47 am

Thanks Mickadoo! All of the other directions didn’t help me bc I didn’t know how to unhide the alarms! Finally my watch will stop going off at 6am!

21. nzinga Says: December 12th, 2010 at 3:23 am

teresa, thank you! the other instructions helped me disable alarm1 and 3, but alarm2 was not visible and the stupid little clock icon would not disappear…your instructions helped me to easily find and disable alarm2, so now that annoying beep is silent. thank you!!

22. Michael Says: December 29th, 2010 at 2:47 pm

After messing with your directions and reading the other comments, I sorted it out. If I did these two steps–done and done. Easy.

* Press the MODE button until you are in ALARM mode
* When you have selected the alarm you wish to erase, hold down STOP/RESET (-) to clear the selected alarm

And I didn’t needed to hold it down (for any length of time), it was just pressing the stop/reset button.

23. Katie Says: March 28th, 2011 at 7:08 am

Go to the alarm mode, but not the setting mode, and simply hit start/ split. your alarm will reset with out having to hold an buttons, or pop out the battery!

24. Chris Says: May 2nd, 2011 at 7:10 pm

Jessica’s solution is correct ( bless her) but she should make it clear that step 1 of her solution begins in ” time” or ” normal” mode.

25. Chris Says: May 2nd, 2011 at 7:13 pm

Sorry, i meant Teresa’s solution

26. Kevin Says: June 21st, 2011 at 9:42 am

ok, there is a caveat to those of you who cant find the ALARM by pressing MODE.
it means (like I found out after going crazy) that you need to “UNHIDE” the alarm…

so first. press and hold SET
cycle through till you find ALARM
if it says HIDE, change to ON, by hitting “start”

now, go back to the orginal directions… remember there are 3 alarms, mine happened to be set on the 3rd one! which i have no idea how that happened.

27. ANDREW Says: July 3rd, 2011 at 10:35 am

Press MODE to cycle through desired Alarm
Once desired alarm is selected, press STOP/RESET to OFF

28. z1rodger Says: December 13th, 2011 at 5:24 am

GOD BLESS MICKADOO!!!!!!!!

My alarm has been going off every day for two years now at either 1230 or 1330! Finally got it stopped. Thank you sir, thank you!

29. James Says: December 14th, 2011 at 4:31 am

Okay, why on earth even let people “hide” alarms, it just gets to be frustrating and this serves no purpose! Come on timex, smarten up!

I had to go through till #26 (likely newer Ironmans) before I realized I had to unhide the alarm first!

Sheeesh, and remember removing the battery yourself removes the water proofing!

30. Sandy Says: February 19th, 2012 at 4:30 am

Thank you as well! I had the unfortunate experience of having to set my watch for 2:00am to catch a flight and not finding this site until a week later Thanks Teresa
Somebody should start a class action suit for them coming up with the stupid “hide” setting.