Considering ditching smart watch for field watch for future backpacking trips

I have not entered the smartwatch world.  Most of the time I wear a mechanical watch. On the trail, I wear this. It is bomb proof, solar powered, and synchronizes with the atomic clock every day. I keep the compass clipped on the strap for simple route finding.

Yesterday I ventured on an all-day difficult hike in a national park over a remote section that gets little use (I was the only car at the trailhead on a beautiful Sunday).

Countless times the “trail” turned out to be a mere suggestion from a cartographer who had long since left the room.  Tons of featureless bushwacking without major waypoints to guide by, climbing over a decade of blowdown following a black line on my watch.

I loved every second of it and it would have been impossible without gps and a PITA using a smart phone.

The Garmin Instinct is becoming one of my favourite pieces of backpacking and hiking gear, and I’m able to explore so many new areas because of its accuracy and ease of use.

” Tons of featureless bushwacking without major waypoints to guide by, climbing over a decade of blowdown following a black line on my watch.”

If a smart watch could tell me how to avoid all that, I’d consider wearing one.

That said, gps when traveling over snow in winter; or over off trail passes in summer is truly helpful. Where I used to hike in the Sierra, such passes are well above tree line. No bushwhacking necessary, although in PNW and Alaska it often is.

So the terrain of a route may define which watch is appropriate. And of course blow downs are unpredictable and can go on for miles even on established trails. but then, we do have good ol’ paper maps…

If a smart watch could tell me how to avoid all that, I’d consider wearing one.

Nyuk nyuk.  Well, you’d be missing out.  I enjoyed it, but what I left out is that this led to the hardest and most satisfying hiking climb in the region, numerous beautiful vistas, and a long stretch following a beautiful stream that had to be crossed multiple times and featured the best tasting backcountry water I’ve had.  Some of the best places are the hardest ones to get to.

I’m now in planning mode, searching for more difficult to reach backcountry lakes requiring a lot of bushwacking to find.  Plan is to set up for a weekends of fishing that aren’t spoiled by pressure.  Its the backpacking equivalent of the canoeists “two portage” rule.

Its night and day difference fishing a lake that gets almost no weekend warrior traffic.  The watch will help get me there.

it would have been impossible without gps and a PITA using a smart phone.

Made it far easier for sure, but “impossible?”

Nothings impossible, sure, but very very difficult given the terrain (unpassable cliffs, marsh, completely overgrown bush).  Definitely not possible without a long night hike out under the same conditions.

I have a very old Tech’O – 10 – 15 years at least. A bit bulky and the strap limited circulation in the snow (one cold hand), so I cut the straps off at the body and threaded a loop of light cord through some holes I drilled in the root of the plastic strap. That lets me tie it inside a windshirt pocket so it can’ t get lost.

It tells me the time – so we know when its morning tea time, and when its time to camp.
It tells me the date, but so what?
It has a pressure sensor, which can be calibrated in metres of altitude. I find that the most valuable part of the watch. With altitude and a topo map, I know where I am in the mountains. Or how much higher it is to the top.
It can graph the air pressure for the last 12 hours, which is of limited use for forecasting the weather. But it does show me going up and down mountains – if I hadn’t noticed.

It has an utterly useless attempt at a compass: North depends on whether the watch is slightly tilted. It’s a gimmick: I do better with the sun. My advice is to never pay for such a gimmick.

It does NOT have any GPS or any comms, so the single flat coin battery lasts about a year or two. Fancy that!

Cheers

Countless times the “trail” turned out to be a mere suggestion from a cartographer who had long since left the room.

I do believe this might be my favorite description of a trail EVER!!! :)

Field watches are my favorite category of watches, so just seeing this topic brought me some amount of joy.

Not sure if it adds or detracts from my credibility, but it’s also worth mentioning that I fell into the watch rabbit hole for a while, and there’s a lot to say about that, but at least I got out on the other side rather unharmed, having gained some experience with a fairly wide variety of watches and a pretty good idea what my preferences are.

Also relevant for the direction my preferences has taken is the fact that I work in tech and as such there’s almost no aspect of my life that isn’t dependent on or overly exposed to computers, apps, connectivity and all that jazz. I didn’t stumble down that path by accident, of course. I’ve always been interested in technology. But maybe more so back before consumer tech had matured as much, and getting devices and software to actually do what you wanted required tweaking and technical insight. Now that almost anyone can satisfy more of their needs and wants than they even knew they wanted with a phone and a slew of apps and “free” services, some of the appeal is gone for me. But the main detractor is probably the fact that using tech has become less and less voluntarily, and is increasingly something you have to dedicate more an more of your time and focus towards, to participate in both work and social life.

All of this dependency on tech has made me identify and appreciate any little niche of my life where I can jump off the bandwagon, slow down, de-techify and enjoy simplicity. And watches is one such area. Not only do I find a dumb watch to distract me way less than a smart watch, but it also alleviates phone distractions as I don’t have to look at my phone to check basic info like time and date, which creates fewer opportunities to see my notifications and get sidetracked from what I’m doing.

So, back to the field watch. I certainly use them for hiking and they’re not bad at it, but admittedly it’s mostly because the simplicity and style of watch is so fitting for the act of being in nature and enjoying a simpler experience. And of course I really like field watches. But they are not what I consider best option out there, and as such not my most used for hiking/backpacking. That honor goes with a slight margin to my G-shock GBD-200.
It has mostly to do with how G-shocks in general sits on my wrist. The resin straps, cheap as they may be, are very functional. They don’t absorb sweat/moisture, are easy to clean and the rigidity of the resin material combined with a light watch head and the how the lugs are implemented allows me to wear the G-shocks (I’ve tried) quite lose on the wrist without the watch twisting. This is awesome for sweat management and comfort in general as wrists have a tendency to swell and shrink during a hike. The GBD also has a very legible MIPS display with large digits, it has the easily accessible front facing light button and the resin band does look and feel to be of a higher quality than you find on the base models. The GBD-200 is promoted as a G-shock with some smart features, IMO they aren’t any good, I never intended to use them and never have. I use it as a regular digital watch in airplane mode to conserve battery and only connect Bluetooth once in a while to sync the time. The step counter can’t be turned off as far as I know, but you don’t have to see it or be bugged by it. And it’s actually useful to have from time to time.

Whatever you choose, I suggest going with something you won’t worry too much about damaging or loosing, but still good enough to be a joyful experience.
A quartz movement is pretty much a given for this, though I’ll be the first to admit that wearing a mechanical contraption with spinning gears able to tell time can be quite enjoyable.
A decent water resistance rating, 100m or more and preferably a screw down crown.
Sapphire crystal to avoid scratches (not so important for G-shocks where the crystal is recessed).
And at least have a rubber or silicone strap for it. Doesn’t have to be your primary strap, but it’s nice to have an option that doesn’t absorb moisture when you know you’ll be sweaty and dirty.
Casio GBD-200:

Boldr Venture Mk1, quarts titanium field watch:

GWS G10 quartz tritium field watch:

Hamilton Khaki Mechanical 50m WR (also comes in quartz with same WR or auto with 100m WR):

Good watch hunting!