SeaJay
Contributor
How do I tell everyone how cool this thing is?
I went and spent less than $20 at Wal-Mart and bought a new watch. I wanted it to be cheap so that I don't feel bad about beating it up.
The store's got to have 250 different styles of watches for less than $20. In fact, I bought one of the more expensive ones. The mass number of that 250 sold for only $6 or so.
The particular model I got is an Armitron, waterproof up to 50 meters (165 feet, good for all OW, AOW, and nitrox dives). It has, among other things, the all-important stopwatch feature that is necessary to properly gauge your bottom time so that you can stick to your dive plan. It's also got a coundown timer with alarm so that I can set it to let me know when to get out of the water (on my second dive). The numbers are big and bold and easily read underwater. The bezel and surrounding structure is thick and protective, helping to prevent unecessary sratches on the face. The inside light in electroluminescent, and is plenty bright enough to see underwater. The watch even has a band that goes all around my wrist so that if the watch breaks, I don't lose it.
And it matches my wetsuit. I know, silly, but hey, this thing's damn cool looking.
(Here's a picture: http://www.islc.net/~bayne/images/58.jpg )
And if I destroy it, it's less than $20 to replace.
The actual model that I have is the Armitron M525, and I highly recommend it. Like I said, there were tons of different styles available, but none had quite the face protection, bright el lighting, decent depth ability, and large numbers quite like this one did. It helped that it also had no velcro in the band and that the band was rubber instead of cloth for quick drying. It even has oversized buttons, perfect for working with gloves on.
My point? I've got a new toy cool enough to recommend, and it's less than 19 bucks. I'll go out and beat it up for the next hundred dives or so and see what happens. If it survives (and it looks like it will) then I'll be thrilled. If it doesn't, then I'll spend the $50 and get the Casio G-shock, built even heavier-duty and good to 200 meters (600 feet!) but with a wimpier internal light, much smaller and harder to read numbers, and buttons that are much more difficult to operate with gloves on. Oh yeah... And the thing's plain ol' ugly, too. The one I bought is something that I'd leave on after the dive and go out with.
For less than $19. I feel like I ripped somebody off.
This thing's cooler than the bottom timer that I've been using that my buddy lent me... That was more than $100.
I'd actually rather use a computer, but heck, for $18.98, I couldn't resist.
They even had a ladies' version so my significant other can tell me that I'm calculating my pressure group wrong. :lol:
I went and spent less than $20 at Wal-Mart and bought a new watch. I wanted it to be cheap so that I don't feel bad about beating it up.
The store's got to have 250 different styles of watches for less than $20. In fact, I bought one of the more expensive ones. The mass number of that 250 sold for only $6 or so.
The particular model I got is an Armitron, waterproof up to 50 meters (165 feet, good for all OW, AOW, and nitrox dives). It has, among other things, the all-important stopwatch feature that is necessary to properly gauge your bottom time so that you can stick to your dive plan. It's also got a coundown timer with alarm so that I can set it to let me know when to get out of the water (on my second dive). The numbers are big and bold and easily read underwater. The bezel and surrounding structure is thick and protective, helping to prevent unecessary sratches on the face. The inside light in electroluminescent, and is plenty bright enough to see underwater. The watch even has a band that goes all around my wrist so that if the watch breaks, I don't lose it.
And it matches my wetsuit. I know, silly, but hey, this thing's damn cool looking.
(Here's a picture: http://www.islc.net/~bayne/images/58.jpg )And if I destroy it, it's less than $20 to replace.
The actual model that I have is the Armitron M525, and I highly recommend it. Like I said, there were tons of different styles available, but none had quite the face protection, bright el lighting, decent depth ability, and large numbers quite like this one did. It helped that it also had no velcro in the band and that the band was rubber instead of cloth for quick drying. It even has oversized buttons, perfect for working with gloves on.
My point? I've got a new toy cool enough to recommend, and it's less than 19 bucks. I'll go out and beat it up for the next hundred dives or so and see what happens. If it survives (and it looks like it will) then I'll be thrilled. If it doesn't, then I'll spend the $50 and get the Casio G-shock, built even heavier-duty and good to 200 meters (600 feet!) but with a wimpier internal light, much smaller and harder to read numbers, and buttons that are much more difficult to operate with gloves on. Oh yeah... And the thing's plain ol' ugly, too. The one I bought is something that I'd leave on after the dive and go out with.
For less than $19. I feel like I ripped somebody off.
This thing's cooler than the bottom timer that I've been using that my buddy lent me... That was more than $100.
I'd actually rather use a computer, but heck, for $18.98, I couldn't resist.
They even had a ladies' version so my significant other can tell me that I'm calculating my pressure group wrong. :lol:
