Watch with compass recommendations

[stanw]

My diving instructor wants me to purchase a $40 compass for my certification course so I figured I would look to see what types of watches I could find that also had a compass that could be used underwater.

1. Does anyone have any recommendations?

2. How can you tell if a watch is really safe to take underwater? Some watches on the REI site advertise that they are Water resistant to 200m (660 ft.) I'm not sure if this is the same as waterproof? Any thoughts on this? Here is one:

Timex Expedition Trail Series Digital Compass Fast Wrap Watch at REI.com

Thanks for any input.

 

[Aspendiver]

The watch you posted is only 100m WR

I've been looking at this one:
Timex Fastwrap Shock Compass Watch from Campmor

I'd also be interested if anyone else has experience with this type of compass watch underwater...

 

[rstofer]

For your OW course, you will not be well served by a watch based compass. However, 100m will probably be adequate as you will only be diving to about 40' (probably less). Still, 200m would be a better choice.

A better idea for a wristwatch is to get an analog version with a rotating bezel. By setting the bezel index to the minute hand at the start of the dive, you can use the watch as a bottom timer. Given a bottom timer and depth gauge (usually on your console), you can skip the computer purchase for quite some time. Oh, and some computers have a compass feature. But this is a pricey solution to a non-problem.

The thing with underwater navigation is that you are not usually concerned with the numeric value of the compass heading. You really want to set the rotating bezel index to align with the needle when you take the bearing. Then you just swim and keep the needle pointing to the bezel index. There are two of these index marks so you use one on the way out and the other for the reciprocal course on the way back.

Even if you are given a compass bearing, it is common to set the bezel index so you don't have to read the numbers while swimming.

One last thought: the course material and the instruction itself are based on a standard scuba compass. Using the lubber line and the bezel index are taught but they won't apply to a wristwatch based digital compass.

Richard

 

[Tortuga68]

2. How can you tell if a watch is really safe to take underwater? Some watches on the REI site advertise that they are Water resistant to 200m (660 ft.) I'm not sure if this is the same as waterproof? Any thoughts on this?

You should be looking for something that is rated "Divers (depth)":

Diving watch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'd suggest you just get a good compass