对于那些不能依赖Chronometer的人，我从其中一个建议中创建了一个实用程序类:

public class TimerTextHelper implements Runnable {
   private final Handler handler = new Handler();
   private final TextView textView;
   private volatile long startTime;
   private volatile long elapsedTime;

   public TimerTextHelper(TextView textView) {
       this.textView = textView;
   }

   @Override
   public void run() {
       long millis = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
       int seconds = (int) (millis / 1000);
       int minutes = seconds / 60;
       seconds = seconds % 60;

       textView.setText(String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds));

       if (elapsedTime == -1) {
           handler.postDelayed(this, 500);
       }
   }

   public void start() {
       this.startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
       this.elapsedTime = -1;
       handler.post(this);
   }

   public void stop() {
       this.elapsedTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
       handler.removeCallbacks(this);
   }

   public long getElapsedTime() {
       return elapsedTime;
   }
 }

要使用..，只需这样做:

 TimerTextHelper timerTextHelper = new TimerTextHelper(textView);
 timerTextHelper.start();

…

 timerTextHelper.stop();
 long elapsedTime = timerTextHelper.getElapsedTime();

如果您还需要在UI线程上运行代码(而不是在计时器线程上)，请查看博客:http://steve.odyfamily.com/?p=12

public class myActivity extends Activity {
private Timer myTimer;

/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
    super.onCreate(icicle);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    myTimer = new Timer();
    myTimer.schedule(new TimerTask() {          
        @Override
        public void run() {
            TimerMethod();
        }

    }, 0, 1000);
}

private void TimerMethod()
{
    //This method is called directly by the timer
    //and runs in the same thread as the timer.

    //We call the method that will work with the UI
    //through the runOnUiThread method.
    this.runOnUiThread(Timer_Tick);
}


private Runnable Timer_Tick = new Runnable() {
    public void run() {

    //This method runs in the same thread as the UI.               

    //Do something to the UI thread here

    }
};
}

这是一个定时器的简单代码:

Timer timer = new Timer();
TimerTask t = new TimerTask() {       
    @Override
    public void run() {

        System.out.println("1");
    }
};
timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(t,1000,1000);

你也可以使用动画器:

int secondsToRun = 999;

ValueAnimator timer = ValueAnimator.ofInt(secondsToRun);
timer.setDuration(secondsToRun * 1000).setInterpolator(new LinearInterpolator());
timer.addUpdateListener(new ValueAnimator.AnimatorUpdateListener()
    {
        @Override
        public void onAnimationUpdate(ValueAnimator animation)
        {
            int elapsedSeconds = (int) animation.getAnimatedValue();
            int minutes = elapsedSeconds / 60;
            int seconds = elapsedSeconds % 60;

            textView.setText(String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds));
        }
    });
timer.start();

如果你只是想安排一个倒计时，直到将来的某个时间，并在此过程中定期通知，你可以使用从API级别1开始可用的CountDownTimer类。

new CountDownTimer(30000, 1000) {
    public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished) {
        editText.setText("Seconds remaining: " + millisUntilFinished / 1000);
    }

    public void onFinish() {
        editText.setText("Done");
    }
}.start();

您需要创建一个线程来处理更新循环，并使用它来更新文本区域。棘手的部分是只有主线程可以修改ui，所以更新循环线程需要通知主线程进行更新。这是使用处理程序完成的。

查看这个链接:http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/dialogs.html# 点击标题为“Example ProgressDialog with a second thread”的部分。这是一个你需要做什么的例子，除了一个进度对话框而不是一个文本框。