Altimeter watches

“I searched the past threads for this subject because I'm sure I've read about them here, but no luck.
So who owns one? What brand? What do you like about it?

I've heard Suunto's are the best, but they are pricey. Some of the models have built-in compasses (which I've also heard are not very accurate and can be screwed up by RFI and EMI). Casio's are cheaper, but maybe not as accurate.

What do you think?”

“Kleetn, I have the Casio Pathfinder. It cost ~$100 or so, if I remember right. It works pretty good. Best if you calibrate at a known elevation (i.e a pass you are crossing). Then it seems to measure the elevation fairly accurately. If I set at say 5000' (elev in Cody) and go to 10,000'. It doesn't seem real accurate. Depending on the barometric pressure, it can vary.

Go to Casio.com and check out what they have.”

“Cheif the Pathfinder can be purchased at any Walmart right now for 60.00 . At least they are in NC”

“skiracer has a suunto and it seems to work great! he only got us lost a couple of times. LOL!!!!”

“I bought Max the Sunnot last year. He loves it. You can log trip info into it.

Buddur has it too. I'm sure he'll chime in to tell you how great it is.”

“It is the most used piece of gear I own...goes with me on every trip. It's kind of nice having a compass (which I've not had problems with...yet) on your wrist. I use the altimeter LogBook to log all my hikes, and keep an Excel spreadsheet of the date, duration of hike, total elevation gain, total elevation loss, and where and who I hiked with.

You should (re)calibrate the altimeter at every locaton when you know the elevation to ensure *relative* accuracy. Of course, you have to do that with EVERY altimeter to compensate for local and regional barometric changes.

With contour maps having a Contour Interval of say 10, 20 or 40 feet, the altimeter may show your elevaton to be off somewhat. But on maps with countour intervals of greater than 50 feet you can pinpoint your elevation if your altimeter is calibrated. Of course, it's due to the smaller scale, but still, it helps.

The only thing I use from the barometric pressure indicator is the graphic box showing relative pressure trends for the last 6 hours (in two 3hr incrememts)...it the arrows point up, pressure is increasing and good weather is coming...if the arrows point down, pressure is dropping and bad weather is soon to come.

Check Ebay for deals.”

“Slaughter, Thanks for making my day. Not only did I pay too much for my watch, I am battling the insurance company. Because of how they process the claims, I will be paying an $1500 more than I should have to.”

“I have the Suunto Vector, kleetn. It is suposed to be one of the most accurate of the wrist computers. Mine works great and it's extremely durable. One downside: There are only four buttons with about 50 zillion combinations of how you can press those buttons to access all of the functions. Unless you have a photographic memory, chances are you won't use all the bells and whistles. But for time, alarm, compass, barometer, and altimeter it's easy.”

“arc, what is the maximum elevation change in Florida?? sea level to say what?? 345 feet up near Paxton?? Is the vector that accurate?? LOL.”

“Suunto Vector... awsome!

Just two check the accuracy, I set the altimeter at sea level near the weather station at YVR. Two hours later, I was at 6069 ft at the Whistler Roundhouse and the Vector was off by 30ft!

For skiing, you can set the log to record elevation every second, which is great for checking descent rate (ft/sec) as well as total vertical for the day.

It takes a while to find your way around all of the features, but once you get used to it, it's a great piece of equipment. One of the few that I strongly endorse.

P.S. It doesn't feel as big as it looks. It's surprisingly light and well shaped for your wrist.”

“What does it measure altitude increments in?”

“The beauty of these altimeters is that if you know your elevation and which trail you are on and have a decent topo map you know exactly where you are. I find it much more informative to know that I have gone up 800 feet of 1000 than to know that I have gone 4 miles out of 5. In other words elevation gain info is better than distance info. When I go to sleep and the campsite elevation reads 5200 feet, and I wake up and it reads 5500 feet, I know that if the Casio got fooled into thinking it's higher, the air is thinner (low pressure). Time to reset it to 5200 and look for my raingear.”

“I actually got to hike north of the Florida border one time, ya smart-arse

Nice feature on the barometer: It tells you whether the pressure has gone up, down, or stayed the same from 6 hours ago to three hours ago and from 3 hours ago to current time. That way you can better tell if there's a storm coming.”

“Roseymonster -the altimeter, barometer and thermometer can be set independantly to imperial or metric, which is great for those of us that use the 'impetric' blend.

The thermometer is inacurate while you are wearing the watch, due to body temp, but gives you C of F

The barometer will measure in millibars, which is the same as Kilopascals (sp) with one decimal shift.

The altimeter measures in 10ft or 3m increments

Bluebelch - Ya it's nice to have the third dimension for those days when you don't move much on the map... just up.

When I'm hiking on the coast, the barometer is great. The elevation doesn't change much, so a sudden drop in the pressure is a sure sign, of some of that beautiful BC weather”

“I have the Avocet Vertech. I bought in mainly for skiing, as it will automatocally calculate vertical descent and decscent rates. It will total for the day and for the season, if you make sure and reset the daily vertical descent to zero. It is extremely important to set to known barometric pressure and known elevation. That is difficult to do since the only way I have to check the baromatric pressure is to set it before I leave the house on a trip.

The fastest vertical descent rate I've had is 1,450 vertical feet per minute. That's over 20 vertical feet per second. Calculating for a slope of maybe 30 degrees, I must have been flying down the hill!

It is definitely helpful in checking your elevation and coordinating with your map when hiking. Just know that baromatric pressure changes will affect the elevation reading.”

“I had given serious thought to a Sunnto but I have come to the conclusion that if I drop another $100 I can get the whole shootin' match in a GPS. It just wouldn't be quite as handy as a watch.

I could duct tape it to my wrist Dick Marchinco style! LOL!”

“I use the Nike Ascent watch (without the compass). It's as accurate as anything out there and has all kinds of features like the others. I find that the only ones I really use are the altimeter, the time and the temp when I take the watch off.

The Nike is a bit smaller than the other models. Even with a GPS I would just assume have the altimeter watch for quick checks.”

“X-lander. Very acurate altimeter, barometer, compass, thermometer, stop watch, altitude and ascent/descet alarm, log book, rear made of carbon fiber, and sort of a polished titanium feel to it. Very light. Yes, it's pricey.



Nigal, one of these days someone is going to get a GPS on one of these wristop computers. Maybe a race between Garmin and Suunto.”

“Casio have a 3 channel gps watch.
Get with the times guys. Check out the NEW Suunto Observer. Elevation Measurements in ONE metre increments and if you are stopping at a place for a length of time you can lock in that altitude so barometric pressure variations wont affect the altitude.
It comes in TITANIUM too!

HHMMMMMMMM TITANIUM HHMMMMMMMM.”

“"Holy chit is that watch HUGE!!!"

That's all I ever hear.

Someday soon, ALL items such as GPS, altimeter, barometer, compass, thermometer, stop watch, altitude and ascent/descet alarm, log book INCLUDING telephone will be on our wrists. You just wait and see!”

“I've got a Pathfinder and think it's a great watch. It has the temp, Alt, baro, as well as an altitude alarm to warn you when you reach a set altitude. It's accurate to 40 ft or so. Yea changin pressure will throw it off some, but pressure usually doesn't change that fast in the time you are hiking, and if it does you can aproximate by checking the pressure trend. The thik I like about it over some of the Sunto's is that it keeps a 12 hour pressure history instead of just showing the trend as rising or falling. The only bad thing about it would be that it will only take alt readings automatically every 15 min, which is fine for hiking, but not so great for faster sports.”

“Oh yea, my version has an analog face (you know, hands) with the other info displayed on a transparent LCD overlay. Looks really cool and makes the face a little smaller. Also lets you see more at once.”

“Pathfinder - who makes that one, dm99?”

“Casio”

“I have both the Pathfinder and the Suunto vector......from the two it's the suunto hands down”