I have a couple of times changed my timer from a few minutes down past zero to 59 or so to time out about an hour. But the timer, while still showing minutes count down seconds. 
This image is a captured screen shot as it is counting down seconds. But when I cancel the timer, I get 
which shows the 59 minutes I expected to get. If I press Start at this point, it will count down seconds. If I attempt to reproduce conditions, by going to 8 or 9 minutes, then canceling and going to 59 minutes, it works. It may be that you have to run the timer down to alarm and then try the lower setting.
