Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I am required to get a digital watch for my sailing trip w/ SEA Semester to synchronize time with the crew/staff/students. I'm wondering if ya'll have any recommendations of watches you've found to be useful. I found some at a local marine store that I thought would be handy. They are shock proof, water proof, programmable, and likely re-salable after use. total cost for one of them new: $60. (I'll likely get one used of course)

For that kind of timekeeping, it doesn't need to be sailing specific. Sailing specific usually means race specific which means that it can do a particular 5 minute audible countdown that then automatically switches into a timer (google regatta timer).

If you must, just get a timex ironman or a casio g-shock ... but pretty much any water-resistant watch will do. It's not like you're going swimming with it.

Personally, I used a cheap e-Trek GPS unit to get satellite time which is what everybody uses anyway.

Add: Since boats tend to get real dark at night, a good back light is very useful. [The lack of] Light is a big issue on small boats. Basically, if you've also been advised to pack a white/red headlight, you'd want a back light in your watch. Cheap luminescence is not going to cut it.

I don't know anything about sailing. But the Casio G Shock DW5600E is a wonderful watch. IMO, this is THE watch.

The UI (buttons, menus, display layout) are nearly perfect. It has everything you are likely to need* and actually use and no bullshit, no gimmicks, no fad features. It is light and comfortable and durable and pretty inexpensive.

*again, no idea how a watch is used for sailing

I got a Timex Ironman at Bimart for 15 bucks. Waterproof, of course. I got a ladies one as I have thin wrists and those giant men's watches look stupid. I never thought about it, but it's odd I have such small wrists when I'm 175 pounds.

jacob wrote: It's not like you're going swimming with it.

If he's going out on a boat he has to consider it possible that he'll be swimming with it.

Thoughts on these two? (Please don't bid on it, feed the sans income college student )

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UMBRO-DIGITAL-C ... Swc3ZUoWh9

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-US-Pol ... Sw9mFWGr9v

The first is waterproof, aesthetically simple, black/silver neutral colors, has a back light, and is relatively inexpensive. (that said, it's in GB, so it comes at a great fossil fuel and shipping cost).

The second is waterproof, less aesthetically simple, more colorful, has a back light, and is most inexpensive.

Aesthetically ugly if you ask me. Also, it looks nowhere near the recommendations above.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/casio-G-SHOCK-D ... SwI-BWJv7T

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Casio-G-Shock-D ... 2104417117

Now that I compare my choices to the G Shock, I think the G-shock looks better and has a better re-sale market. Looks like I'll bid on the G Shock, now onto sun glasses.

For more nerdy picks, check out
Casio F91W (apparently the preferred choice of IED manufacturing terrorists, so maybe not travel internationally with such!!)
Casio F81 (actually my very first digital watch, so only wear if you desire to demonstrate extreme geekiness)

Ahh I forgot about the F-91W. Zalo - if you're not sure that you want the wear the watch for many years, that's a much cheaper option than the 5600, with, I believe, all the same functions minus the backlight and the impact protection (but for a lot less $)

The watches we talk about in the most recent podcast were

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C9F8XLL/ Casio F91W
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GAYQKY/ Casio DW5600E

It's really hard to choose, but if I had to pick one (as per the podcast that's obviously not what I did), I'd go with the F91W. The strap sucks for me. This is possibly because my (12yo girl-sized/ectomorph) wrist is just so that it's either too tight or so loose that it wants to rotate around. This could be fixed. However, this being a cheap watch, it doesn't even use spring bars but friction pins. (See youtube for mods). I've yet to make the mod but I expect once that happens, I'll wear this all the time. It goes well with office wear (dress shirt+sweater). People under 35 might confuse it for a smart watch. You can tell them how it's "the latest in battery technology" because it runs for years without a charge and how minimalist it is because it automatically prevents push notifications.

The DW5600E is more of a "tool watch"(*). The strap is integral to the design but it is so much better. The button layout is unintuitive/idiosyncratic as far as I'm concerned, but maybe it's because I grew up with the F81=F91W button layout IIRC (see above). The buttons also require some "nail power" to work. I've actually found it hard to push the adjust button when my nails were trimmed too much. How's that for mission critical?!? It also has a rather indestructible feel to it. In fact it holds several records for being indestructible. You also get an "auto-countdown" which means you could use it for Tabata intervals (the auto function restarts a new countdown over and over). However, it occupies quite a bit of real estate on the wrist, especially on mine. Business casual is as far as it can be pushed.

(*) Also the official watch of SG-1 during the first season until they replaced it with some Suntoo thingy. Also seen on the ISS. It's the only "other" watch certified by NASA beyond the Speedmaster.

Add: For sailing, I'd be fine taking the F91W for one-week daylight sailing. It might get destroyed if I had to spent a year on a boat. For nighttime, the F91W only had LED side illumination whereas the DW5600E has the full ELP(?) green backlight. Also, if you go overboard or broach, the 5600E will live, the 91 maybe not.

As of today, I’d probably pick the 5610 over the 5600
https://www.amazon.com/Casio-G-Shock-GW ... B007RWZHXO
Main advantage is it’s solar powered, so you get the same “indestructible” feeling without the need to change the battery.
Otherwise a still inexpensive step up is the pro trek prg series.
I like this model in particular as its not huge (the main drawback with most casios in my opinion) https://www.amazon.com/Casio-Quartz-Res ... B07DGN769Y
These add a barometer, altimeter and compass that are surprisingly accurate.
An underrated advantage of these watches is they can be easily found second hand and eventually flipped for the same price on watch forums (the biggest being watchuseek), which makes cost of ownership close to zero as they need no maintenance.

..

I am with what other people here mentioned. The Casio DW 5600E or just the 5600 (a little cheaper I believe) are wonderful watches you can use for everything. It doesn't look massive on your wrist like other G shocks might do, it has a back light and it is basically indestructible.

Another watch you can consider is the Casio W800H. It is very similar to the Dw5600. A little smaller but still a good size. It is also 100M WR. I bought it for surfing and it has worked great for me. It is also cheaper, you can find it for less than $20

jacob wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:50 am

It's really hard to choose, but if I had to pick one (as per the podcast that's obviously not what I did), I'd go with the F91W. The strap sucks for me. This is possibly because my (12yo girl-sized/ectomorph) wrist is just so that it's either too tight or so loose that it wants to rotate around. This could be fixed. However, this being a cheap watch, it doesn't even use spring bars but friction pins. (See youtube for mods). I've yet to make the mod but I expect once that happens, I'll wear this all the time. I

Okay, strap replaced.

Picture of the watch + tools used (minus scissors to cut the strap). I made a jig to hold the watch while knocking out the pin with a filed down thumb tack. The NATO strap was ~$1 from China. Note that the pin holes are too wide to replace with spring bars. Not sure why Casio did it that way. The nickel makes the perfect curve for shortening the strap. The soldering iron prevents fraying.

I bought the F-91W on the advice of this thread and am happy with it. The strap is small for me, I use the very last hole in the strap. The security loop does not work, but maybe I will stretch it so it slides over the buckle and the strap. I thought about putting another strap on it, but it seems OK for now.

It is nice to have a watch so I don't need a smartphone for the time.

I've been wearing this for the past few months. Did the same thing with an ebay nato strap.



Failure points (at least for me) for the cheap nato straps are the holes that widen to the point where they become unusable. I have started reinforcing them with super glue to extend the life.

sky wrote: ↑

Wed May 05, 2021 12:15 pm

The strap is small for me, I use the very last hole in the strap. The security loop does not work, but maybe I will stretch it so it slides over the buckle and the strap.

The distance between the buckle and the last hole on the NATO strap I bought is 7.5". I forgot how much I cut the strap down by, but I'd expect using the last hole, you wouldn't have to cut at all. A NATO has two security loops which are 3/4" and 1.5" behind the hole.

Or I suppose you could get 18mm webbing and make your own?

Also on second thought, building a jig is probably overkill. Freehanding risk wrecking the pinholes (it's resin and thus easily enlarged if the tack is driven too deep or off center). However, taping three 1/8 dowels onto a table to support the watch and using a handscrew or spring clamp on its side to keep it vertical would probably work too.