The nursing school watch
By Abby Turner, Melbourne ยท
Half my graduating class bought one of these the week before our first placement, me included. Someone told us we needed an analogue watch with a seconds hand, and the Weekender was cheap, easy to read and sold pretty much everywhere. Fair enough.
It's 38 mm across and 9 mm thick, on a 20 mm fabric strap, with a big white dial, clear black numbers and a proper seconds hand. That's the best thing about it. You glance down and you know where the seconds hand is straight away, which is exactly what you want when you're counting a resp rate on a patient who keeps talking to you.
Indiglo is the other good bit. Press the crown and the whole dial lights up blue-green. In a dark room on nights, it's perfect, and nobody wakes up.
Now for the realities. The ticking is loud. Like, properly loud, and on a quiet ward at 3 am someone will notice. The case is brass, not steel, and the plating can wear through over time. The fabric strap soaks up sanitiser and smells after a while, so I'd swap it for a cheap rubber one. Only 30 m of water resistance, so don't swim in it, though hand washing is fine.
For US$45 to $65 it's a brilliant first work watch and I'd still recommend it to students. Just know you'll probably move on to something tougher once you've been doing it a while.