best watch

I love my Suunto Observer. It's easy to use (once one masters the many menus and submenus), easy to read and amazingly accurate compared to my earlier alti-watches. It's also not the size of a salad plate.

The new Core has a boatload more features, and I'm all for that!

I have the High Gear Summit, and I have not been too pleased with it. It is not that the quality of the watch is poor, I just find that the functions are not worth the effort to set them or for the price you pay. I currently have a St Moritz Pathfinder Ti and I find it to be the best watch I have ever owned. It is small, light and highly water resistant. In fact I never take it off, including in the shower (I am kind of a time freak when it comes to getting to work in the morning). With a carbon rubber band, a daily alarm and a screw down dial to seal off from water, I find it to be totally reliable and something I can wear in the woods and to the office

I was going to get a Brunton ADC Summit, but now I'm thinking maybe a watch instead. I really only need temp and barometer, not wind speed like the Brunton gives.

So maybe a watch? But how accurate are they? I don't need super accuracy, but I don't want some flaky instrument that has sacraficed accuracy for size (to fit in a watch).

I, too, have the Suunto Observer and have found it to be resonably accurate as far as an altimeter/barometer goes. I have found that, quite consistently, when reaching the altitude that the summit is supposed to be at, I still have a bit of climbing to do. This is after setting it to a known height at the base. It's not far off, just not perfectly accurate.

Do you have another 100 feet to go? 500 feet?

Based on about 35 mountains of at least 3000' I climbed in August I would estimate that it is about 3.5% to 5% off, or 70' to 100' off on a 2000' elevation change.

I don't have one so I am not really any practical help. I do have a geko 301 with an altimeter that does work very well for that feature (a gps adjusted altimeter is going to be better than a watch), and pretty good for the GPS stuff (I would like the new chipset). So for the price it is at least worth considering getting a regular watch and a GPS/altimeter instead.

If you want an altimeter watch, they do pop up fairly regularly on steepandcheap (not the observer apparently):

http://sac.gearattack.com/search?q=Altimeter&commit=Search

I am very happy with my regular casio g-shock as a watch; I have atomic and solar. Atomic and solar would be nice for an altimeter/compass watch, since then you would not in theory have to worry about draining the batteries with use. The 1300 is the thinest, but all the casio's might be like salad plates on the wrist, and my memory from the reviews I saw last year is that the suunto's were considered more accurate altimeters.

http://www.casio.com/products/Timepiece/Pathfinder/PAW1300_Series/

I use a Jeep Gents JP24 that is from the UK. It reads in Meters, but I keep a small conversion on the map to help. really I have started to use meters more anyway.

http://tvs.shopping.enclick.com/jeep-gents-jp24-altimeter-chronograph-watch-PXP1588749-recomendar

Tommy

Suunto X6 or X6HR. I have the X6HR. I really like the idea of the Geko 301 + regular watch (where was that advice 4 years ago :-)), as the 301 (and other GPSRs with built-in barometers/altimeters) will auto-resolve the altitude with the GPS data in an intelligent fashion. The X6 is "handy," has a great interface, and you can upload the data to your PC and the software will create the graphs and such (you can even overlay two or more graphs, which makes sense for the HR part, but I've used it for the altimeter to compare accuracy).

This technology is about 5 years old now (Geko 301 is about the same), and with the Suunto Core available now, expect the X6 series to push down in price (had happened already in some sales I've seen). The Core more-or-less replaces the X6 series, but what replaces the Geko 301? Something with SIIRF and a higher res screen (maps not necessary) would peak my interest.

How well does the HR function work in the Suunto X6HR? I need to replace an HR monitor and it would be nice to have a HR monitor with other functions.

Will there be a Suunto Core with HR functions?

Ive narrowed it down to the Core, or the S6, and am planning on ordering in the next few days,

ill do a few more side by side comparisons to get a better idea of which is right for me, but any advice would be appreciated

Most function for the least weight is the Brunton ADC Pro which gives you a super loud alarm, storm alarm, wind chill alarm, wind speed alarm (if you want all those alarms), high altitude alarm, etc. Plus it does 12 hour weather trend forecast based upon its own measurements and shows you an icon forecast alongside the time. It weighs only 2 ounces (without the lanyard), much less than any multi-function watch I've seen (many over 3 ounces), and this measures time, wind speed, temperature, altitude, humidity, barometer, water flow speed, wind speed, wind chill. Super amazing and much less than any watch, under $190.

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