long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    // do your work...
    long endTime=System.currentTimeMillis();
    long diff=endTime-startTime;       
    long hours=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(diff);
    diff=diff-(hours*60*60*1000);
    long min=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(diff);
    diff=diff-(min*60*1000);
    long seconds=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(diff);
    //hour, min and seconds variables contains the time elapsed on your work

手工划分，或者使用SimpleDateFormat API。

long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
// do your work...
long elapsed = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("HH 'hours', mm 'mins,' ss 'seconds'");
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT+0"));
System.out.println(df.format(new Date(elapsed)));

Edit by Bombe:评论中显示，这种方法只适用于较短的持续时间(即少于一天)。

嗯……一秒是多少毫秒?一分钟后呢?除法没那么难。

int seconds = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) % 60);
int minutes = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) / 60);

这样持续几小时、几天、几周、几个月、一年、几十年，等等。

我认为最好的办法是:

String.format("%d min, %d sec", 
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(length)/60,
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(length) % 60 );

这个答案与上面的一些答案相似。然而，我觉得这将是有益的，因为与其他答案不同，这将删除任何额外的逗号或空格，并处理缩写。

/**
 * Converts milliseconds to "x days, x hours, x mins, x secs"
 * 
 * @param millis
 *            The milliseconds
 * @param longFormat
 *            {@code true} to use "seconds" and "minutes" instead of "secs" and "mins"
 * @return A string representing how long in days/hours/minutes/seconds millis is.
 */
public static String millisToString(long millis, boolean longFormat) {
    if (millis < 1000) {
        return String.format("0 %s", longFormat ? "seconds" : "secs");
    }
    String[] units = {
            "day", "hour", longFormat ? "minute" : "min", longFormat ? "second" : "sec"
    };
    long[] times = new long[4];
    times[0] = TimeUnit.DAYS.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    millis -= TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.convert(times[0], TimeUnit.DAYS);
    times[1] = TimeUnit.HOURS.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    millis -= TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.convert(times[1], TimeUnit.HOURS);
    times[2] = TimeUnit.MINUTES.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    millis -= TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.convert(times[2], TimeUnit.MINUTES);
    times[3] = TimeUnit.SECONDS.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();
    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        if (times[i] > 0) {
            s.append(String.format("%d %s%s, ", times[i], units[i], times[i] == 1 ? "" : "s"));
        }
    }
    return s.toString().substring(0, s.length() - 2);
}

/**
 * Converts milliseconds to "x days, x hours, x mins, x secs"
 * 
 * @param millis
 *            The milliseconds
 * @return A string representing how long in days/hours/mins/secs millis is.
 */
public static String millisToString(long millis) {
    return millisToString(millis, false);
}

如果你知道时间差将小于一个小时，那么你可以使用以下代码:

    Calendar c1 = Calendar.getInstance();
    Calendar c2 = Calendar.getInstance();

    c2.add(Calendar.MINUTE, 51);

    long diff = c2.getTimeInMillis() - c1.getTimeInMillis();

    c2.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    c2.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
    c2.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);

    DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("mm:ss");
    long diff1 = c2.getTimeInMillis() + diff;
    System.out.println(df.format(new Date(diff1)));

结果是:51:00