Creating independent stopwatches for each item in array. Setting the stopped time, based on data returned by the API

What you need is to create two instances of stopwatches one for each list item. I have made changes to the link link you provided. I added stopwatch in your list array to each object with a unique key for React to know that they are a different component. Now, I am simply rendering all the list items with stopwatches and to maintain the state of each stopwatch even after the switch I am just using a simple display none technique rather than removing the component altogether. Check the code and let me know if it works for you?

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { render } from 'react-dom';
import './style.css';


class Item extends Component {

  render() {
    const selectItem = this.props.items[this.props.selectIndex]
    console.log(selectItem);
    
    return ( 
      
        <li onClick={() => this.props.select(this.props.index)}>
          <div>
            Name:{this.props.item.name}
          </div>
        </li>
    )
  }
}

class ItemDetails extends Component {
 
  render() {
    const selectItem = this.props.items[this.props.selectIndex]
    console.log(selectItem);
    let content = this.props.items.map((item, index) => {
      return (
        <div className={this.props.selectIndex === index?'show':'hide'}>
          <p>
              Description:{item.description}
          </p>
          {item.stopWatch}
        </div>
      );
    })
    return (  
      <div>
        {selectItem ?
            content
          :
          null
        }
      </div>
    )
  }
}

class App extends React.Component {
  constructor() {
    super();

    this.state = {

      items: [
        {
          name: 'A',
          description: 'Hello',
          stopWatch: <Stopwatch key={1} />
        },
        {
          name: 'B',
          description: 'World',
          stopWatch: <Stopwatch key={2} />
        }
      ],
      selectIndex: null
    };
  }

  select = (index) => {
    this.setState({
      selectIndex: index
    })
  }


  render() {
    console.log(this.state.selectIndex)
    return (
      <div>
        <ul>
          {
            this.state.items
              .map((item, index) =>
                <Item
                  key={index}
                  index={index}
                  item={item}
                  select={this.select}
                  items = {this.state.items}
                  selectIndex = {this.state.selectIndex}
                />
              )
          }
        </ul>
         <ItemDetails
            items = {this.state.items}
            selectIndex = {this.state.selectIndex}

        />
      </div>
    );
  }
}


class Stopwatch extends Component {
  constructor() {
    super();

    this.state = {
      timerOn: false,
      timerStart: 0,
      timerTime: 0
    };
  }

  startTimer = () => {
    this.setState({
      timerOn: true,
      timerTime: this.state.timerTime,
      timerStart: Date.now() - this.state.timerTime
    });
    this.timer = setInterval(() => {
      this.setState({
        timerTime: Date.now() - this.state.timerStart
      });
    }, 10);
  };

  stopTimer = () => {
    this.setState({ timerOn: false });
    clearInterval(this.timer);
  };

  resetTimer = () => {
    this.setState({
      timerStart: 0,
      timerTime: 0
    });
  };

  render() {
      const { timerTime } = this.state;
      let centiseconds = ("0" + (Math.floor(timerTime / 10) % 100)).slice(-2);
      let seconds = ("0" + (Math.floor(timerTime / 1000) % 60)).slice(-2);
      let minutes = ("0" + (Math.floor(timerTime / 60000) % 60)).slice(-2);
      let hours = ("0" + Math.floor(timerTime / 3600000)).slice(-2);

    return (
      <div>
      

    <div className="Stopwatch-display">
      {hours} : {minutes} : {seconds} : {centiseconds}
    </div>


    {this.state.timerOn === false && this.state.timerTime === 0 && (
    <button onClick={this.startTimer}>Start</button>
    )}

    {this.state.timerOn === true && (
      <button onClick={this.stopTimer}>Stop</button>
    )}

    {this.state.timerOn === false && this.state.timerTime > 0 && (
      <button onClick={this.startTimer}>Resume</button>
    )}
    
    {this.state.timerOn === false && this.state.timerTime > 0 && (
      <button onClick={this.resetTimer}>Reset</button>
    )}
        </div>
      );
    }
}


render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
h1, p {
  font-family: Lato;
}

.show {
  display: block;
}

.hide {
  display: none;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.6.3/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.6.3/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<div id="root"></div>


Your stopwatch does not update as your render method always returns <Stopwatch />, so even if selectItem changes react does not render a new <Stopwatch /> component for you, it shows the old one.

return (
  <div>
    {selectItem ?
      <div>
        <p>Description:{selectItem.description}</p>
        <Stopwatch />
      </div>
      :
      null
    }
  </div>
)

For react to render a new component for you you need to pass a key property to your component.

return (
  <div>
    {selectItem ?
      <div>
        <p>Description:{selectItem.description}</p>
        <Stopwatch key={selectItem.name}/>
      </div>
      :
      null
    }
  </div>
)

Now react renders new component for you when you switch between stopwatches, but every time you do that stopwatch resets, as the component itself it re-rendered initializing your state variables.

This is where state management pops in. You can use REDUX to manage your component state. You can also write a simple service to do it for you if you want your stopwatch to run in the background.

Demo: stackblitz.