Wilderness Watch

I had a Suunto Vector, which ive since sold. Good watch, but the compas wasnt accurate so i never used it. The altimeter was great as long as the weather stayed constant or you kept on resetting it at known altitudes, but in my part of the world the weather is anything but constant so it wasnt much use. The barometer was great and very precise, used it all the time to predict the weather. The Vector was rugged too and never failed me.
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Now ive got a Casio G-shock DW9052. Great watch thats pretty much indestructable. Has a stopwatch, timer, alarm and date so its pretty basic, but i dont need anything else.
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personally prefer carabiner style watches. when its cold out you can hang on front of coat-don't have to dig under sleeves with gloves on to find. when hiking i hang on front of shoulder strap for easy reach. this is one ive had great luck with.
http://www.thealtimeterstore.com/highgear.html.
though i do like the automatics too. would definitely switch if i could find one with the features i wanted in this style.
 
A Marathon GSAR for me.

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I must admit I do sometime miss having the barometer/altimeter function from my old Casio Pathfinders, which were great watches but I would go through about one a year, usually a break in the plastic where the band pins attach. It' a bit larger than carrying the Casio, but now I have a Kestrel 4000 weather meter when I need to see what's going on with barometric pressure (usually remote jobs when doing a lot of helicopter work).
 
Coyja said:
I'm sorry, but seriously? A watch?
I haven't worn one in easily 10 years...
Your "survival/wilderness watch" is called the Sun.
What more do you need?

Save your money and buy an Izula.
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What an enlightened reply. :jerkit:

Some of us actually need to know a more exact time frame then "some where between noon and two". Just like a knife, a watch is a tool. And while you might be prefectly comfortable in the bush without one, for me, I think my CERT and ARES folks might be a bit miffed if I wasn't on time during a SAR operation.

I tend towards low cost reliable watches, Victorinox mostly, or Timex Expedition. Current one is a Victorinox Officer's watch. Not fancy, but works great and I can read the damn thing without my glasses.
 
I had a Casio G-Shock die on me, big stainless steel atomic tough solar model. I wasn't surprised because I am hard on watches. My second hand Traser on the other hand does look like it's been abused but works fine. Old reliable. Battery, but it lasts for years.

I have a Suunto Vector but I haven't worn it much. Just couldn't get used to the look.

Since I got a Seiko Black Monster, that's all I wear.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I had a Casio G-Shock die on me, big stainless steel atomic tough solar model. I wasn't surprised because I am hard on watches.
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That is what it is like with me. I must have a sub-conscious habit of slamming my wrist onto concrete walls because I always scratch the heck out of the crystal face plats. I've also lost a bunch of watches into the Great Lakes because of my work, where I'm hauling in gill nets or dredgers, the watch catches on the rope and poof its gone. I try to remember to take the watch off before doing these activities but most of the time I'm in the thick of it before I know it and no time to remove the watch. Good news is that the watch pops off instead of carrying me into the drink with it (don't wear a wedding ring for that reason - so I tellz the wife)..

After buying a few Seikos and scratching their face plates or loosing them to the drink, I now just buy Timex expedition or the Iron-man. They cost between $50-$60 and their battery always outlasts the time period over which I eventually destroy them for reasons above.

My preferences are rather simple. A good looking watch with a scratched up face plate is worse looking than a cheap watch with a clean window in my books. I prefer an analogue face plate with a movable bezel (timer), but do enjoy the convenience of the the duel watches that have the little digital window and all the standard digitial goodies like timers, duel time and alarms.

I like black writing on a white or clear background. I love the indiglo light-up and have come to prefer it to luminous numbers. I don't like over-sized face plates as in the G-shocks (they get caught on things that much quicker). I like a simple band. Finally, I hate all the 'Sport gizmos' they try to load into watches. The crappy compass, altimeter, temperature gage etc etc. They all seem so cool when you purchase a watch and then you don't use them or find they are inferior to the better pieces of equipment you have brought with you, or they are so complicated to access (hit 2 buttons at the same time, while holding the third etc) that they are next to useless.

Thats my opinion....Now, I'm off to buy another Timex Ironman.....
 
I have a Rolex Submariner that was given to me second hand. It was my first automatic watch and I can't imagine using anything else now. They never need batteries and use the movement of your arm to store power. They are also completely mechanical and have a wonderful sweep movement to the second hand.

I had it cleaned up and calibrated by Rolex just to get it back in shape.
The watch is amazing. The nice thing is that as rugged as the watch is, it still looks great dressed up or out on the town, something which digitals are sorely lacking.

I have done just about everything you can imagine with it. Hiking, Climbing, Diving, Hunting, etc. The watch has been beat to hell and it brushes it all off.

If I was to buy one i wouldn't buy a new one as they are prohibitively expensive. In this economy, however, you can find almost mint ones on the second hand market for a fraction of their cost.

I picked up a LNIB Rolex Milgauss less than 1 year old for literally less than 50% of its new value last year. Some watch collectors went hog wild when the economy was booming and had to dump them to stay afloat. If you can find one for a good price (and you can if you hunt the boards) I wouldn't pass one up as they are also an heirloom item you can pass down to family.

Have a good weekend.
 
MrCoffee said:
What an enlightened reply. :jerkit:

Some of us actually need to know a more exact time frame then "some where between noon and two". Just like a knife, a watch is a tool. And while you might be prefectly comfortable in the bush without one, for me, I think my CERT and ARES folks might be a bit miffed if I wasn't on time during a SAR operation.
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"an enlightened reply" says the guy who puts a pic of a guy j.o.'ing in his own... classy.


I'm just saying that the Native Americans managed pretty well in the wilderness without a clock on their wrist, and you'd be better off teaching yourself the same. I still say he'd be better off buying another knife, or ONE specific good tool (like a compass), rather than try and mash a bunch of random gadgets on his wrist.

I'm done with this, and don't intend to hijack this with any more arguments.
 
This thread might actually make me go buy a better watch rather than the crap walmart one i use
 
solar g-shock
i have 2 and like them a lot
the light comes on automatically when you tilt your wrist
got 5 alarms,timer and atomic time
 
Marathon TSAR is my go to watch.
I also have a SS Luminox I wear alot.
Stay away from the plastic Luminox.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I had a Casio G-Shock die on me, big stainless steel atomic tough solar model. I wasn't surprised because I am hard on watches. My second hand Traser on the other hand does look like it's been abused but works fine. Old reliable. Battery, but it lasts for years.

I have a Suunto Vector but I haven't worn it much. Just couldn't get used to the look.

Since I got a Seiko Black Monster, that's all I wear.
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I'll take that Suunto Vector off your hands if it's burdening you too much:D

I had one and loved it!! I believe a Co-Worker stole it at my last job!! I beat that thing pretty good and it kept going! IMO for a wilderness watch you really don't want a mechanical watch. They need too much maintenance to keep going properly. I would stick with digital or quartz. But hey we all have our on opinion right?
 
I like my Casio Pro-Trek PRG-130 quite a bit. I don't think this particular model is available in the US though. I got mine in Korea.
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It's solar-powered, and has a compass, altimeter, barometer, thermometer, tide graph and does just about anything you could ask a watch to do. It's pretty big, but the case and fittings are titanium so it's not very heavy. It wasn't cheap.
 
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