Great Watch and a hard worker

By Dave Ranked #1079 - Running Watches April 28, 2009

I have had this watch for a couple of years and it has joined me to Death Valley, San Gorgonio and 5 countries overseas. As a barometric altimeter, you have to expect it to vary with temp and weather, but if you keep this in mind and recalibrate sensibly, the watch will do a great job. This thing is massive and is probably readable by some satellites - I recently went diving and took another watch, and realized just how blind I actually was. It has been my favorite "go-to" watch and has performed well in my job as a firefighter - many assignments in the mountains and actually has outperformed my suunto. Just don't get it too wet (submersing it will probably kill it due to the field servicable 2032 battery door). Folks that need high accuracy altitude should also carry a good gps, but for me, this honkin watch has been great when everything else gets left behind or shows up with dead batteries. If you only have the chance for one tool on your wrist, this is a pretty good choice. The compass is a real pain to recalibrate, is major battery hog and doesn't get used often. I can't really shoot a bearing with it anyway and prefer a lensatic compass (and it uses no batteries). Temperature reads high if it is on your wrist, but given 5 minutes carabinered to your pack, it'll come around and be fairly accurate. Since I have had this watch, I have used it in parallel with gps, kestrel, and belt weather kits (you should never really rely on only one method if you can avoid it) and I have learned its peculiarities, expected accuracies and know what it will and will not do well. For the price it has been a real winner and a great companion in work and play.

View Details: Highgear TerraTech Altimeter Watch

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