Budget sailing watches

After the annual laser open at our club I have realised the importance of a good start. Usually in club racing because there are normally less than 10 boats on the start, a bad start doesn't cause you to get practicaly becalmed, as I was in 3 of the 4 races. The one good start made me realise that I could more or less keep pace with the leaders if I'm not fighting my way up from the back.  Therefore I am looking for a cheep easy to operate sailing watch, any recommendations? are there any to avoid?

IMHO any cheap waterproof stopwatch capable digital watch will do. I've used various £20 Casios/Timexes for racing for years, and manage to get pretty good starts most of the time. (My boatspeed after starting is another story...)

To be honest, getting some training in starting will be of more use than whether you've got a flash watch or not. I was lucky enough to do the youth scene in the days of the great Jim Saltonstall, who used to make his ferrets do 20 or 30 practice starts in training sessions, which made us pretty slick at starting.  Once you get to a few seconds before the start you really need to stop watching the watch anyway and work out where you are vis a vis your competitors and the OOD !

I'll third/fourth/whatever the Casio.

I have to use the optimum time because it's the only one where I can read the numbers without my reading glasses!

Seconded, the pathfinder is great, and cheap, but these days I really require something that is easy to read without having to peer and squint - and then end up taking a close look at the water! So it has to be Optimum Time, though it doesn't really get into the cheap category.