I'am looking for a new thermostat that uses a timer rather than temp to turn on 2nd stage heating.  I did a search and climatouch seems popular, does it for sure use a timer?

all of the Climatouch stats that we have used have the time function

I've got the Climatouch CT03TS32 touch screen myself.  Each stage can be programmed for a certain temp threshold - ie, turn on first stage when the temp drops 2 degrees below the set point, second stage when the the temp drops 2 degrees below that point, and aux when the temp drops 2 degrees below that. I believe that the only choices for these thresholds are either a 1 degree or 2 degree drop per stage.

The timer function will turn on second stage in order to reduce compressor run times after first stage has run for a certain amount of minutes without the temp dropping below the second stage threshold or getting back up to the desired set room temperature. The timer can be set to 0 (disabled) to 59 minutes. I'm not entirely sure that I can say what the best compromise is between extended first stage run times for better efficiency vs. shorter run times for less compressor wear - there's an interesting topic for some discussion.

FYI, I had a waranty issue with my unit, and the response from the manufacturer and distributor was less than stellar. (both basically said "call the other guy, we don't handle warranties"). I ended up having to purchase a similar replacement unit called a "totalline" (identical, except for the name stamped on the front) from another vendor.