A watch with tides, compass, temperature, barometer, etc

[djlewis]

No it doesn't paddle for you. ;-))

Are these kind of things worth considering? A bit pricey, of course. Seems like there are better ways to get most everything but the barometer part. For one, you presumably know the tides before you go.

--David.

http://www.campmor.com/images/watches/larger/83864_l.jpg

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...ductId=30944036

[traction]

i think it's cool

i love gadgets

and i found it cheeper

http://etailelectronics.com/Merchant2/merc...duct_Code=02689

[scamlin]

David:

Yes, I think it is worth it, but only--as you indicate--for the barometer. I base the recommendation on getting an earlier version of the Pathfinder. Opinions follow:

1. The important function is the barometer. The Casio has the very useful feature of sampling atmospheric pressure every 2 hours and graphing it over the past 18 hours, so you can see the trend line. The sampling rate and period are about right in my opinion: the Timex watches do it every minute or two (unnecessary and way too much battery drain)and while they store data, you have to retrieve it reading by reading. The key thing on the water is the trend, which indicates changing weather. A barometer really becomes necessary on an expedition in an area where you do not have access to radio weather forecasts. I use it regularly but really to educate myself on the weather: with it, I can correlate what I see with trends and levels of pressure.

2. I find the thermometer is useless when worn: body heat throws it off by 5-15 degrees, depending on air temperature, what what you are wearing, and whether you are dunking it into the water as you paddle. The worst is you don't know the size of the error so you can't compensate. It is accurate only when off your wrist, which may have some value.

3. The compass could be useful in a pinch and maybe convenient, but I question how much. It seems you'd have to stop and hold it steady and level to work accurately. More importantly, if my experience with my GPS is any guide, enabling the compass feature comsumes battery life rapidly. I wouldn't want to depend on this as my backup compass or for that matter anything electronic. You should have a compass mounted on your deck for travel anyway and a cheap backpacker compass in your PFD pocket that would provide backup (and doesn't need batteries to work).

4. Tides might actually be useful on a longer trips but you'd have to know how accurate it was and how many places are covered. For day trips, you can look it up before you leave home. I wouldn't pay much for this feature.

5. The most important feature is: telling time. Knowing the time and the elapsed time can be useful and in some cases critical information for safe travel. Examples: time of tide and current changes, navigation (dead reckoning), estimated speeds, time before it gets dark, time to turn around, estimating position of lost paddlers, search and rescue information, coordinating radio calls, getting weather forecasts, identifying lights, meeting other parties, etc. Frankly, telling time is the only really critical function you need on your wrist.

6. When buying watches for kayaking, look at a waterproof rating of at least 100 meters. You can find them starting in the $50+ range when discounted. Some last only a couple of seasons before the water catches up with them, but I have others which are still going strong after 3-4 seasons. I would not take a chance on a 50 meter watch like the Timex offerings: they are barely adequate for washing dishes. On anything beyond a day trip, I carry an inexpensive spare watch in case the one on my wrist fails.

7. I like an analog watch for time with an LCD/digital alarm and other functions. Analog watches usually come with a crown, which is vulnerable to water intrusion. The expensive watches solve this with screw down stems, but watches in the $100 range do not have this feature. The LCD analog hands on the Pathfinder David found may be a good compromise, but if you regularly need the backlighting to see the hands, it will consume a lot of battery life.

As for Casio watches, I've had relatively good luck with them: relatively cheap with lots of features and you don't cry too much when it dies or you lose it. I've bought four over the past 7 years of kayaking and two are still working.

Two more tips:

First, rinse your watch religiously in fresh water (no soap!) after every outing, especially if it has sensors such as a barometer. I slosh vigorously and blow the water out of the little screened place on the sensor. I can often taste a little salt coming out, evidence that the crud you don't want in there, gets in there and could build up.

Second, get your batteries changed before long trips. I had one die the first day on a three week trip in Canada. (I burned a half a day trying to find batteries and ended up buying another watch when they couldn't find the second battery in the watch case). I had another die a few days before the trip to Shetland this year and was lucky to have a chance to replace it here. When you get your batteries changed, make sure to get a real watchmaker who knows how to open and reseal the case on a waterproof watch. This is not an operation for a drug store clerk. You can have the seal tested after the battery is replaced, but it costs about $10 where I go.

My concern with the power consumption of fancy features is not so much the cost (although it ain't cheap) and the hassle (of getting to the watch store) to replace batteries. Rather it is reliability: not having the watch go dead in the middle of a trip or compromising the waterproof seal by frequent replacement of the battery.

One last tip: if you are over 40, bring reading glasses as some of the labels and LCD symbols are truly microscopic. I am reminded of this every time I can't figure out what mode it's in and the damn alarm goes off at 2 AM.

Scott

[alex_L]

David- I have this watch, and like Scott I think the most useful feature is the barometer. The tide function is fairly limited in that there are not all that many reference cities and no really good way to correct the tidal time to your specific area. I ended up futzing with the lunatidal interval until I got one that worked for the tides in this area.This was a totally different interval than the one recomended in the manual. It is reasonably accurate, but there is a weird correction as the tidal times advance during a given time period which doesn't add on the approximate 47 minutes per 24 hrs, and I haven't figured out exactly how their algorithm works. Works fairly well for a crude estimate, which is all I ever really needed it to do anyway. It is also a REALLY big,heavy watch, and while I don't mind that some do.

Overall happy with it.

Alex

[Brian Nystrom]

...will any of us "over 40" types be able to read it???

[djlewis]

Thanks Scott, Alex, Brian, Brad for the responses. Scott, you practically have a magazine article there -- it's terrific!

In keeping with Brian's question about the over 40 crowd (not to mention subsequent decimal milestones) how readable is the barometer curve or tracking? And how easy is it to call up with the "user interface," especially with gloves on?

In general, I wonder if it makes sense to concentrate on a watch/barometer, not worrying about those other functions, and get one that has good characteristics (interval, readability, other?). Might be cheaper that way too. Any recommendations?

Alex: I understand that these multi-function watches are bulky, but I can see how this one woule be especially so. I plan for it to live on my PFD strap, where my time-only 100-meter submersible watch does now, so I'm not that concerned. Does that tmake sense?

--David.

[glenn]

I don't know anything about this model, but I can report that my experiences with a Nike compass/temperature/barometer/altimeter watch match Scott's notes exactly:

- a barometer with a trend graph is interesting, and may help you do a better job of gauging changing weather than you'd do without it

- it's very useful to have a thing on your wrist that keeps time

When hiking I find the altimeter (which is really the barometer in disguise) to be a lot of fun as well, but since it doesn't sample often enough to measure wave-height, it's not quite as interesting on the water...

The thermometer is OK if you're camping and can hang it somewhere, but useless if it's on your wrist.

The compass on mine is total junk, and needs to be calibrated so often that I have to bring a regular compass with me anyway.

If I were buying a new gadget in this general realm, I'd be looking for a GPS with a barometer.

[djlewis]

Yes... a GPS with a barometer! Great idea -- gets my GPS juices flowing again. Maybe it's finally time to buy one.

On our Rowley Marsh trip, Daniel Fabricant was able with a GPS to demonstrate conclusively that we had taken a wrong turn up a cul de sac, which was not immediately obvious from the visual cues. Of course, that same GPS also told us for a while that we were travelling on the shoreline road off Jeffries Neck rather than in the water hugging the shore. That did not accord with our sensory observations, of course. But we suspected there's some kind of built-in assumption that, if you are near a road and going parallel to it, you are on it. Oh well.

At the risk of starting a long thread, what do people recommend for GPS's? The Magellan Sporttrak Pro Marine looks made for us kayakers and isn't too pricey (low $200s). The Garmin 76S has a bigger screen but costs more too.

Also, do the barometers on GPS's give you an automagical sampling and a graph, they way that fancy watch does?

[dan_f]

Hi David,

On that Rowley Marsh trip when I thought the GPS was showing us to be on the road, I was misinterpreting the screen. This was the first time I had used the GPS in the kayak. Our travel path was shown in a light line, but a much darker line showed the direct path back to where we started at Pavillion Beach. The dark line crossed over land and roads. This does highlight two important GPS features: an experienced operator and a readable screen. If you feel like spending the money, the new color screens might be more readable.

Check out gpsinformation.net for many reviews. These guys know a lot about GPS but not much about web site design, so you'll have to be patient.

Dan