I was curious so I read about how that one works. It does exactly what one would need for a sailing race. It is the only mechanical watch I've seen which has a "sync" button to lock on to the race pre-start signals. That's extremely important.

There were digital watches with this feature sold by Optimum Time and Gill, but they have been unavailable since 2021 or so: https://www.tradeinn.com/bikeinn/en/gill-race-watch/1330814/...

I tried using a Garmin smart watch instead. It had a race start app, but it was way more fiddly than a non-smart race watch, to the point of not being usable for serious racing.

So while I would never buy the Yachtmaster, I appreciate its dedication to a function which is essential to racing sailors and poorly supported by other makers.