When using the stopwatch in portrait mode the numbers of hundredths of second always remain of the same size and the preceding numbers get smaller when there are more numbers and space is needed.
It’s illustrated here:
Thanks to @ff2u who originally pointed out this issue (on my request, I only signed up for this forum a couple of months later). In the meantime I had switched to Clock | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository which didn’t suffer from these small bumps in the road and used it ever since.
However, now that I upgraded to Android 12 and inspired by Which preinstalled app do you really use? I had a look at the default clock app again and found that it has improved in both the seconds|milliseconds and the minutes|seconds|milliseconds display:
I have gotten used to Deskclock quite a bit by now, but I can say that at least the default Clock is more competitive with me now. Will see if I stick with Deskclock or go back.
P.S.: If you folks wonder why the hell someone would care about the stopwatch in panorama view … I’ll just say it’s good assistance next to the bathroom sink 2-3 times a day