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Watches for outdoors (1 Viewer)

Seamoor

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Hi I am looking to get my husband a watch that he can use when out walking, birding etc. for our 40th Anniversay. One that includes a Compass as he walks a lot on Dartmoor. I have looked at Solar ones and am not sure about how long the battery etc lasts I have read that it has to be replaced aafter about 2 years back at the manufacturers at a cost of £45. As they cost a lot to start with I don't think he will get same replaced. I was looking at a Suunto but am not sure about this. Can anyone help
 
Hi Seamoor

Could you elaborate as to what features you would like?

Is it just a compass or are you looking for altimeter, barometer and temperture etc etc?

And have you set a budget?
 
Hi Seamoor,

Just a thought, but you could get all you have asked for plus navigation in something like a Garmin 60csx hand held GPS which can be bought for less than £250. It is waterproof and ideal for the moors. Two AA batteries will last all day or use rechargables. Only downside is it cannot be worn on the wrist!
 
I have a Suunto Core and it's great.

It has a compass, altimeter, barometer and a range of time related options.

It takes a normal watch battery and it s user replaceable and supposed to last three years.
 
I have a Casio Pro Trekker watch with altimeter, compass, barometer, and thermometer and am very happy with it. Oh, and it tells, the time,too:)
 
Hi Seamoor

I would say hold on and do a bit more research first. I own the Suunto Observer and have owned Casio Pro trek.

If I am honest they are an expensive gadget (observer at least) that may not quite work like you think.

Firstly the barometer is not accurate as you gain or lose altitude air pressure is affected so it gives a reading going off air pressure that is not entirely from a static point.

Secondly, the altimeter is again not accurate as the the air pressure measured is affected by decline or ascent not always a physical movement of up or down.

You constantly have to adjust the distance above sea level against a point of where you know this figure which begs the question if you know how far above sea level you are why do you need a watch to tell you?

I find it accurate over short periods and not as an accurate reading over a period of time ie when you set the correct distance above sealevel and climb it is accurate but over a couple of days the accuracy has gone.

The Suunto has the ability to lock either the altimeter or barometer so that only one reading is used and not a combination of pressure and ascent/descent. The idea of when at base camp you use the baromter only leaving the altimeter locked and then when climbing you use altimeter therefore locking the barometer.

The temperature onboard only reads the temp of your wrist. The compass needs regular calibration.

The Suunto is better than the casio by a mile but if I am being honest I find them useless as a day to day watch that you would like to know the weather with or to tell you how far above sea level you are as chances are they will be wrong.

To be honest I would look further into the GPS others mention as this has to be more accurate and is something I will be doing in the future when I get round to reading up on them.

To summarise
Not accurate over a period of time and needs resetting regularly. If using watch as a day to day watch and find it intereting to know how far above sea level you are or what the weather is doing forget it!

If you use it whilst climbing for a day or so it will be very accurate as an altimeter and as a barometer anything much longer than this and your guessing with it.

I know it's negative but it is my (very disappointing) feelings even though I really wanted them to work how I hoped.
 
Altimeters/Barometers...
Barometric altimeters of the type found in watches are considerably more accurate than GPS over short periods.
However they have no way of telling whether the air pressure has changed because you've gone up or down a hill, or because the weather has changed. Because of this they have to be set to the actual altitude whenever you know what the actual height is. In settled weather it could remain accurate for 3 or 4 days, but if the weather is wet and windy you may have to set it every hour or two.

GPS altitudes are accurate if averaged out for a considerable period, but are subject to sizeable short term fluctuations. This is why most of the better GPS units have a built in barometric altimeter. As an example, I once had to give up trying to calibrate my barometric altimeter off a friend's non-barometric GPS after the height had drifted up and down by 40-50m 4 times over 15 minutes. GPS units are quite heavy on batteries, so want recharging after every couple of days use.
 
Having had a Suunto Vector for eight years (until I killed it) then now a Suunto Core, I would say yes you have to reference them. It takes a matter of seconds.

I know the altitude of my house, so when I get up in the morning I can see whether the reading has gone up or down and thus what changes have been made to the barometric pressure, and then re-reference it to the known altitude. The same goes when out hill walking, you get to a spot height on the top of a mountain, check the indicated altitude against the given one on the map and reference it.

I find it a very useful device and the altitude adds a third dimension to ones navigating and assists in location finding in poor visibility.

The new Suunto Core has an automatic function that can switches between altimeter mode and barometer mode depending on rate of change of air pressure, changes due to climbing or descending will always be orders of magnitude faster than those due to weather changes.

As Andrew said below GPS altitudes are notoriously unreliable, and GPS units eat batteries.
 
I had a Casio G Shock (same one as Hanno mentioned, I think) and it works quite well - no batteries needing replacement and fairly reliable altimeter (I've checked it a few times against known altitudes in the Himalayas, and it has been close enough for my purposes).

I lost it somewhere and was now considering one of the Suuntos - possible the Core or whichever has a HR monitor as well. My Suunto dive computer's compass has an automatic alignment function, which works very well - I presume that so would these, so compass reliability should not be an issue.

Vandit
 
Thanks for all your help. Lots to thinks about. He has GPS so really watch with compass etc, as he does not always take his GPS with him when going on short walks
 
Thanks for all your help. Lots to thinks about. He has GPS so really watch with compass etc, as he does not always take his GPS with him when going on short walks

That's the thing really, and that is why I like my watch. Sure, it will not replace a GPS for accuracy, but a watch I wear 24 hours a day without worrying about charging it or lugging it around.
 
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