Still not really convinced, but it might be useful to others. 
Committed, thanks.

We wanted to know when timers are being used and to capture any 
description that may have been given as the timer name. The "Notes" 
field seemed like a sensible place to stash this info. We can see it 
easily in the reports and it doesn't require any additional input from 
  the user.
OK - no problem.
Agreed - I had a similar idea, perhaps (re-)using the time entry form 
to initiate a stopwatch rather than a browser  pop-up box for the 
timer name only. What do you think of that idea?

I don't consider 1) very helpful, what do you use it for?

I committed 2) though, thanks.

Another improvement would be to allow to select the customer when 
starting the stop watch.

This patch adds two features to the stopwatch functionality:

1) Timer name is captured in the "Notes" time entry field
2) Elapsed time is displayed in the sidebar for running timers

Thanks for your consideration.

Tom Evans
Tachometry