GPS watch Suggestions

[hastimo]

Firstly, sorry if there is another discussion on this topic, I searched and could not find any.

My husband is currently in St. Jean in Officer training and I have heard him speak of this GPS watch. He's a gadget person, where I am not, and I was hoping there are a few people with experience in this department who would be willing to help me out. I can go out and buy a Sunnto, but I have no idea what specs/brand I should be looking for.

Thanks!

 

[Sf2]

I highly recommend a Garmin Forerunner.  Not only are they good for running etc, but I use it on operations all the time.  The GPS time is spot on with other military equipment and it has a nice, large display that can be easily read at a quick glance.

It has a nylon strap with velcro fastening, not a rubber strap with conventional "peg and hole" fastener, so its very strong.  It also has an extension strap so you can wear it on the outside of clothing.

 

[DirtyDog]

I've borrowed a Suunto X9 and thought it was pretty handy.  There's an X10 (military) out now.

10 fig MGRS grids and bearings in mils.  I could be wrong but I don't know of any other watch that does that?

http://www.botachtactical.com/sux10migpswa.html

 

[Vimy_gunner]

I've borrowed a Suunto X9 and thought it was pretty handy.  There's an X10 (military) out now.

10 fig MGRS grids and bearings in mils.  I could be wrong but I don't know of any other watch that does that?

http://www.botachtactical.com/sux10migpswa.html

Wow, that's a nice watch.  Think I'll be picking one up myself

 

[Farmboy]

Careful with the Suunto, as I know a few guys who had theirs $hit the bed after they changed the battery.

 

[Rheostatic]

How so? It didn't work correctly, or just stopped working altogether?

 

[Miko]

I currently own a Suunto X9Mi. I've owned it for more than a year and a half now and have been experiencing problems with the product. To list a few the battery will crash on you with no reason, going from semi-full to dead. Buttons on the side of the watch are attached very poorly and will literally rip right off leaving the insides, and probably the waterproofing compromised. The GPS itself isn't to bad for tracking you, however if you plan on adventuring in anything more then a field in the prairies don't expect it to track like your gamin. I've hiked to the top of mountains only to see the "no signal" rectangle flashing, as it states in the manual for this watch mountain tops is where I should receive my best signal from. This is (or was at least) the worlds smallest GPS, compromises must be made somewhere. The watch itself is fairly bulky, and more and more I find myself going with my ironman.
The Suunto X9Mi is a nice product to see in the market however like I've said previously it is seldom needed for anything more then a bike ride where it is nice to see my progress, speed and a bunch of other cool gadgets associated to the watch.

Suunto should also consider that a military user is more interested in other things then a red light for a night function. For that reason I would not recommend a purchase to a military member just because Mi is attached to the end of their product. You'd be better of going with another brand for a hardcore outdoors watch.

In the end my Suunto is a watch that I find leaving behind as it is to bulky, not reliable, not durable, and can't track me in anything less then farmland. My uncle owns an outdoor store in Kingston and he finds that he gets quite a few of returns on the product mainly for battery problems. As he put it, Suunto has great technology but lags behind in more then one area. After the initial high received with the buy of the product and going through all its cool little functions, its cool factor quickly goes downhill.


My mileage with the watch shows that I would not recommend it, however yours may vary as I am not the end all expert. $300 is a fair amount to be experimenting on a watch... I learned my lesson.

(I doubt very much that the x10 has resolved these problems.)