What is the best way to implement a “timer”?

Use the Timer class.

public static void Main()
{
    System.Timers.Timer aTimer = new System.Timers.Timer();
    aTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(OnTimedEvent);
    aTimer.Interval = 5000;
    aTimer.Enabled = true;

    Console.WriteLine("Press \'q\' to quit the sample.");
    while(Console.Read() != 'q');
}

 // Specify what you want to happen when the Elapsed event is raised.
 private static void OnTimedEvent(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
 {
     Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
 }

The Elapsed event will be raised every X amount of milliseconds, specified by the Interval property on the Timer object. It will call the Event Handler method you specify. In the example above, it is OnTimedEvent.