Bought the watch in spring of 2007 and worked great until a small problem occurred later in the summer when I had forgotten the watch in the car for 10 mins. The problem was the small rubber piece that wrap around the buttons on both sides had deformed slightly(wave like feature) under high temperature(~40C or 104F). The rubber piece was deformed and the watch was still functioning so I decided I would wear it for the next hiking trip. Unfortunately for me, the rubber piece got caught on my jacket and the rubber piece completely tore right off. That rubber piece is not very durable against temperature change and I think the design could of been designed better. The connection holding the rubber piece to the watch is so small and not strong enough that I am surprised that I don't hear more complaints about it. In the end, after losing the rubber pieces on both sides, the main "function" button on the left side got caught and has completely broken off from the watch. Now I have a watch that is useless and collects dust on my desk. I am disappointed by the quality but think the problem is more related to the design and the material used. My only advise is to avoid this watch. I don't have personal experience but the "axio max" loos like it is designed better as the rubber piece is one continuous solid piece surround all the buttons instead of the two separate piece like the "alterra". Acutally, I just remembered that a co worker had the same watch with the same problem with rubber piece deforming. Now I have to remind him of the problems before it is too late.

I can't say much about how good the product is if it gave me some bad blisters. The cause of the blister is in the heel due to the lapping of the stitching of the plastic heel around the back of the boots. There is not much padding and as my foot slides up a little it rubs against that seam (which is in a very bad spot) I got blisters on both heel after skiing for 10 kms total while wearing fairly thick wool socks, . I was feeling it coming on around 5 kms and if I didn't have that thicker wool socks, I would of been in more discomfort. Definitely would not recommend this to anybody. To improve the boot, I would add more padding inside and lap that seam the other way.

This jacket is the best softshell that I own and I use it all the time for xc skiing, and scrambling in Canada. The hood works well when its windy with snow blowing around but a hard shell is too much. I have the The North Face Apex Bionic and Sentinel jacket in a size small but ended getting a medium in this jacket. The fit is nice with an athletic trim but the jacket is really stretchy too so I can wear the Sentinel or a 300 fleece jacket underneath without restricting movement. The only thing I would change about this jacket is maybe having a cord for adjusting the hood to cinch it up.

Other thing I would mention is that the description here says fleece weight of 200 but this is the thinnest jacket out of the 3 TNF softshells I have. I would say the Apex Bionic feels like a 200 and that is the thickest one I have. Its a really thin jacket and its windproof but has no real insulating properties if you are standing still. However, this jackets really shines when you are working hard going up a steep hill in the open.

Overall, I like this jacket so much that I would get another one if this one started to fall apart but so far after 8 months of use, the jacket still looks good.