Camping watch, full stop
By Abby Turner, Melbourne ยท
Our camping kit lives in two plastic tubs in the garage, and if I owned this it would live in the tub with the head torches. That's not an insult. It's the most useful watch in this whole batch for a weekend in the bush, and possibly the least useful on a ward.
Let's get the size out of the way, because it's the first thing anyone notices. It's 56.2 mm across and 14.3 mm thick. That is enormous. On my wrist it looks like a hockey puck, and I wouldn't even try to get a gown sleeve over it. The resin case keeps the weight down, so it's not as heavy as it looks, but it's still a lot of watch.
What you get for the bulk is the full ABC sensor kit: altimeter, barometer, compass and thermometer. The barometer trend is the bit I'd actually use. When you're two days into a trip in the Grampians and the sky is doing something odd, a falling pressure graph is a good hint to get the fly on the tent before tea rather than after. The compass is handy as a backup, not a replacement for a proper map and baseplate compass, and you'll need to calibrate it now and then. The thermometer reads warm when it's on your wrist, so take it off and leave it on the table if you want a real number.
It's solar, so no battery swaps for ages, and it's radio controlled, so it sets itself when it can pick up a signal. Worth knowing that signal coverage depends a lot on where you live. 200 m water resistance means you can swim, wash it under a tap and forget about it.
US$250 to $320 feels fair against a Garmin Instinct that needs charging. The mineral crystal is my one real worry, as it'll scratch on rocks eventually. The buttons are also stiff, and the menus take a bit of learning. Give yourself an evening with the manual before the trip, not by torchlight in a tent when you want to know if rain is coming. The 24 mm resin strap is soft and comfy, but on a smaller wrist the case hangs out past both edges, and that's a lot of surface area to whack on a car door or a tent pole. If you're after the same sensors in something you could wear to work as well, there isn't really one at this price. That's the trade.
Buy it if you spend real time outdoors. Don't buy it as a daily watch unless you have big wrists and a sense of humour about how it looks with a nice shirt.