Setting the visible attribute to false, the timer will render but it will be hidden. Then you can
use the ontimerstep client callback to change your view accordingly to the timer. In this example we see
how to make a Knob to act like a Timer.
Source
<script>
window.sync = function(t){
PF('knob').setValue(t.current);
}
</script>
<pe:timer
visible="false"
ontimerstep="sync(intervalData)"
ontimercomplete="alert('BOOM')"
timeout="100"/>
<p:knob
min="0"
max="100"
widgetVar="knob"
disabled="true"
value="0"/>