How to add a timer in views?
I think you were on the right track.

Check out this issue comment: http://drupal.org/node/685956#comment-4412688

It links to a GitHub repo, from which you can find a fork at https://github.com/blackice2999/jquery_countdown/tree/7.x-1.x that appears to contain a Drupal 7 port.

Try that.