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Highgear Summit Altimeter Watch

Highgear Summit Altimeter Watch description

Mad style, mad data, but no mad squinting trying to read tiny little numbers. The Highgear Summit Watch is a precision altimeter/compass watch with a large readable face and enough style to masquerade as a dress watch. The altimeter can store up to 20 altitude points with time and date data and tracks accumulated altitude. The barometer tracks trends for the last 24 hours, and provides a forecast based on that data in case millibars just make you scratch your head. Both altimeter and barometer are tied to the digital thermometer to keep them honest when things warm up or cool down. The compass is declination adjustable and works with the same rotating bezel that lends the watch its unique style.

Had this watch for about a year now and it has been a great help whenever and wherever I happen to be. My biggest complaint is that you can't set the alarm in the dark. The set button also activates the light (which you need for setting the alarm), so once you get to the alarm function the light is activated when you hold down the set button but it doesn't stay on long enough for you to reset the alarm. In order to have light again you have to hit the set button again which saves the time you weren't able to see to fix into the alarm. *Ugh* just use your headlamp! After hitting the default reset buttons on accident last winter the compass has not worked right since. Unfortunately the directions weren't that much of a help with recalibration. Not a big deal as I prefer my manual anyway. Altimeter is delightful and accurate, but needs to be recalibrated every once in a while. Barometer worked amazingly well during ski season, but for some reason hasn't worked that well since - not sure if it's me or if the weather is getting smarter. The watch has never faultered once, but I don't think the build quality is the greatest. Oh yeah, it's FREAKIN' HUGE!! If you ever get lost you can easily use this thing as a signal mirror or dinner plate (if you lost that too).

This is a very good watch. It has a very durable case and strap. The compass works great and is very accurate. The altimeter is not that accurate, at least on my watch. It has been known to change altitudes when youre standing still. The barometer is extremely accurate and very helpful with a little knowledge of predicting weather using barometric trends and the trend chart goes back a whole 24 hours. The watch is kind of bulky compared to most average sized watches. Definitely a steal compared to Suunto watch with the same features.

This watch is awesome I have had it for just a few weeks now, and I especially love the Barometer. 2 weeks ago we were up in the Wind Rivers, and it was perfectly accurate. As we got into the cirque of the towers I thought for sure we were going to get pounded with rain but the watch only said cloudy, and it didn't rain. The next day it did say rain, and it was clear in the morning but a few hours later we had some severely rainy weather. This is the easiest weather gage there is. Most other watches you have to track how the numbers are changing and figure what kind of weather that will bring.