Implementing a Countdown Timer in Objective-c?

You can do it like this(ARC Enabled):-

@interface ViewController()
{
UILabel *progress;
    NSTimer *timer;
    int currMinute;
    int currSeconds;
}
@end


@implementation ViewController
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    progress=[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(80, 15, 100, 50)];
    progress.textColor=[UIColor redColor];
    [progress setText:@"Time : 3:00"];
    progress.backgroundColor=[UIColor clearColor];
    [self.view addSubview:progress];
    currMinute=3;
    currSeconds=00;

    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
}
-(void)start
{
    timer=[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:1 target:self selector:@selector(timerFired) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];

}
-(void)timerFired
{
if((currMinute>0 || currSeconds>=0) && currMinute>=0)
{
    if(currSeconds==0)
    {
        currMinute-=1;
        currSeconds=59;
    }
    else if(currSeconds>0)
    {
        currSeconds-=1;
    }
    if(currMinute>-1)
    [progress setText:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%d%@%02d",@"Time : ",currMinute,@":",currSeconds]];
}
    else
    {
        [timer invalidate];
    }
}

I know this is old question, but I want to share my way to achieve this. We have method (timeIntervalSinceDate:) to calculate the interval and have fixed amount of seconds to count down. In my case 300 s.

UPDATE JULY, 2015 SWIFT

@IBAction func startTimer(sender: UIButton) {
    sender.selected = !sender.selected;
    //if selected fire timer, otherwise stop
    if (sender.selected) {
        self.timer = NSTimer.scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval(0.1, target: self, selector: Selector("updateTimer"), userInfo: nil, repeats: true);
        self.startDate = NSDate();
    } else {
        self.stopTimer();
    }

}

func stopTimer() {
    self.timer.invalidate();
}

func updateTimer() {
    // Create date from the elapsed time
    var currentDate:NSDate = NSDate();
    var timeInterval:NSTimeInterval = currentDate.timeIntervalSinceDate(self.startDate!);

    //300 seconds count down
    var timeIntervalCountDown = 300 - timeInterval;
    var timerDate:NSDate = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: timeIntervalCountDown);

    // Create a date formatter
    var dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter();
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "mm:ss";
    dateFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone(forSecondsFromGMT: 0);

    // Format the elapsed time and set it to the label
    var timeString = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(timerDate);
    self.timerLabel?.text = timeString;
}

Working github swift sample project

Objective-C

- (void)updateTimer
{
    // Create date from the elapsed time
    NSDate *currentDate = [NSDate date];
    NSTimeInterval timeInterval = [currentDate 
                                   timeIntervalSinceDate:self.startDate];
    NSLog(@"time interval %f",timeInterval);

    //300 seconds count down
    NSTimeInterval timeIntervalCountDown = 300 - timeInterval;

    NSDate *timerDate = [NSDate 
                         dateWithTimeIntervalSince1970:timeIntervalCountDown];

    // Create a date formatter
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"mm:ss"];
    [dateFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneForSecondsFromGMT:0.0]];


    // Format the elapsed time and set it to the label
    NSString *timeString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:timerDate];
    self.stopWatch.text = timeString;
}

- (void)stopTimer
{
    [self.stopWatchTimer invalidate];
    self.stopWatchTimer = nil;
    [self updateTimer];

}

- (void)startTimer
{

    if (self.stopWatchTimer) {
        [self.stopWatchTimer invalidate];
        self.stopWatchTimer = nil;
    }

    self.startDate = [NSDate date];    

    // Create the stop watch timer that fires every 100 ms
    self.stopWatchTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:1.0/10.0
                                           target:self
                                         selector:@selector(updateTimer)
                                         userInfo:nil
                                          repeats:YES];
}

UPDATE:

it is extremely expensive to create a NSDateFormatter each time you pass through updateTimer. Far better to create the NSDateFormatter outside the loop and reuse it. Credits: @siburb

In .h file

 IBOutlet UILabel* lblTimer;
 NSTimer* gameTimer;

In .m file

-(void)viewDidLoad 
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [self createTimer];
}

- (void)createTimer 
{       
     NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
     NSRunLoop* runLoop = [NSRunLoop currentRunLoop];

   gameTimer = [[NSTimer timerWithTimeInterval:1.00 target:self selector:@selector(timerFired:) userInfo:nil repeats:YES] retain];
   [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] addTimer:gameTimer forMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode];
   timeCount = 20; 
   [runLoop run];
   [pool release];
}

- (void)timerFired:(NSTimer *)timer 
{
    if(timeCount == 0)
    {
         [self timerExpired];
    } 
    else 
    {
         timeCount--;
        if(timeCount == 0) {
        [timer invalidate];
        [self timerExpired];
    }
 }
   lblTimer.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%02d:%02d",timeCount/60, timeCount % 60];
   self.title = lblTimer.text;
}

Bind the above Label Outlet with Label in View.

It is working correctly with Me