Watch recommendation – something I won't break…

You see, now you’ve made me not want to wear mine again..

You’re right of course

Thanks all and count on STW to spark a debate 😀

I like wearing a watch. I like the look of some in the same way that I like some clothes. I wouldn’t ever spend silly money on something that’s purely a fashion item but I don’t mind spending what I consider reasonable on something that I want.

I also like being able to tell the time at a glance (and often in an inconspicuous way) without having to take a phone out to look at it or similar.

The Seiko is ok but I just can’t help but be reminded of the 70s when I see it – maybe just not quite what I want though I’m still considering it. The Uzi looks decent but I just couldn’t wear a watch with a gun manufacturer’s name on it – I’d just feel like the sort of person who wears leisure-wear with car / military logos on.

The Seiko is ok but I just can’t help but be reminded of the 70s when I see it

Yeah, but in a good way, you just know he’d wear one:

🙂

Spent £85 on a stainless Rotary at the local outlet place – sealed to 200m, spring loaded catch on the bracelet, and in a few years of work, snowboarding and MTB it still looks pretty much like new. Fine when your suited and booted and fine on the trail.
Downsides – not automatic so it needs a battery ever 18 months.

Has compass

If it’s an analogue watch, it already does – hold the watch horizontal and point the hour hand in the direction of the sun. Bisect the angle between the hour hand and the twelve o’clock mark to get the north-south line. Before noon, north will be the direction further from the sun; after noon, it will be the closer direction. Northern hemisphere only. In the southern hemisphere, reverse the further/closer directions.
And remember to use GMT/UTC

A NATO G10. Analogue, cheap and indestructible.

Have a Core – very tough watch, but I managed to dent mine and rip 3 straps.
now have this

tough as f*ck

With the Core, does stuff like golf (sudden sharp impact through the wrist) screw up the compass? Or is it fine ’cause it’s not an analogue compass?

Get a cheap Casio for on the bike and other manly activities then spend the rest on a swish watch for the rest if the time

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casio-F-91W-1YER-Resin-Digital-Watch/dp/B000J34HN4/ref=sr_1_10?s=watch&ie=UTF8&qid=1345141168&sr=1-10

that’s the whole point. I don’t want to have to change watches.

Fair enough, I used to just wear one until I scratched the hell out of my engagement present watch.

CountZero- not a trick question, i gave them up decades ago, as deadlydarcy says you soon learn how to gauge time, its an inbuilt sense we all have but neglect, i can usually get within five minutes any time day or night, besides there are multiple devices that have time on them all around us, so unless his job/situation required accurate timekeeping its all a bit academic ,non?

FTFY
You’re lucky to have that accurate time sense, I probably haven’t got enough life left to develop it. I need a means to tell time at work, for job timekeeping, the main area I work in does not allow mobiles to be switched on for security purposes, and most days I have zero computer access. So when I get a phone call in the middle of a job telling me I have to go and take over from someone else at a set time I have to be there at that time, not some approximation ten or fifteen minutes either way.

You soon learn the tell the time to within fifteen minutes. After around fifteen years of not hanging a timepiece off my wrist, I’ve now got it down to within minutes most of the time. I can’t really say how this skill has been developed, but you just get to a kind of oneness with your environment, with the sky and the position of the sun and stars, even when cloudy. Of course, unless you throw off your chains, you will never experience this. And that’s fine, a piece of plastic or whatever on your wrist can inform you.

Also, I never get phone calls from people telling me to be such and such a place at a certain time to which I have to dutifully report. Yessir. And long may that last.

Stick it to the man, DD! 🙂