Maybe I just haven't noticed, but what is the purpose of the stopwatch? I carry it around with me but my villagers have only played the hidden-item game with me a few times this whole time I've been playing!
Hopefully in the future we get more things to do online and more interaction possibilities with out surrounding and we might be able to use it more then
The Timer dates back to Wild World. So it's current usage has remained constant throughout the series.