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How good are GPS watches?

Original Post
Kristian Starheim · · StÃ¥rheim · Joined Apr 2014 · Points: 676

I'm looking for a GPS device for mountaineering, and I stumbled over these neat watches from Suunto and Garmin that has both GPS and altimeters.

My primary use is to load GPS-tracks for navigation, and to navigate during poor visibility in the mountains. I'll mostly use the device in Europe.

How good they are compared to a traditional GPS-device? Anyone who has experience with these watches?

Kristian

mark felber · · Wheat Ridge, CO · Joined Jul 2005 · Points: 41

Could you post a link to the watches you had in mind?

My concern with watches in general is that they tend to get buried under a few layers of clothing. I generally go with an altimeter / watch that I can hang on a lanyard around my neck. I would want my GPS to do the same.

Daniel Evans · · Phoenix, AZ · Joined Mar 2013 · Points: 80

My only experience using them is from deployments in Afghanistan. Honestly I would not recommend them for anything requiring serious land navigation. I wasn't a fan of mine and ended up resorting back to a simple garmin 401 wrist gps, map/compass. Since they didn't take batteries I had to wear a small solar panel attached to my plate carrier that charged it. Grids weren't exactly accurate either.

Daniel Evans · · Phoenix, AZ · Joined Mar 2013 · Points: 80

Check out the garmin wrist gps's. I used one on every deployment and never had an issue with them. Durable and reliable pieces of gear. I've never been a fan of relying on electronic compasses so I simply used it for the grid and used paper map/compass for azimuths and navigating.

Jon H · · PC, UT · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 118
Daniel Evans wrote:My only experience using them is from deployments in Afghanistan. Honestly I would not recommend them for anything requiring serious land navigation. I wasn't a fan of mine and ended up resorting back to a simple garmin 401 wrist gps, map/compass. Since they didn't take batteries I had to wear a small solar panel attached to my plate carrier that charged it. Grids weren't exactly accurate either.
That's one of the more legit reviews I've ever seen on this site.

Daniel - what would be your opinion on just using one of the GPS watches to lay down a track so you can find your way back to the FOB (i.e. the car at the parking lot)? Not for any true navigation, just a backup to get home.
Kristian Starheim · · StÃ¥rheim · Joined Apr 2014 · Points: 676

Hi Mark, I have mostly been looking at this one

suunto.com/en-US/Sports-Wat…

but also there are also others, such as the Garmin Fenix and the Suumo Ambit 3.
outdoorgearlab.com/Gps-Watc…

Daniel: thanks for your input. That was exactly the information I was looking for. I don't need a device that just tracks my mileage and post it to Facebook ;-) I need one that can acctually get me out of trouble.

K

Daniel Evans · · Phoenix, AZ · Joined Mar 2013 · Points: 80

Jon: I'm a big fan of the old traditional paper map/protractor/compass method accompanied by a solid GPS that has exchangeable batteries. I would say it couldn't hurt to have a watch that showed your footpath back to the parking lot, then if you have any doubts about the accuracy of it, you can stop and double check your position on your map with your GPS. If they coincide then great, otherwise you can switch back to the traditional method.

Brian C. · · Longmont, CO · Joined Feb 2010 · Points: 1,100

I have a Suunto Ambit 2S and I really like it. That said, it definitely has some major drawbacks on certain features.

Good for short activity tracking.

It really shines if you want to track outdoor activities that are under 6 hours long. The downsides are that the battery life is pretty poor unless you want to turn down the GPS accuracy (other models have better battery life but are much bigger on your wrist), and the navigation features are pretty bleak. The GPS does seem very accurate, even up in the mountains and between rock features though and when GPS settings are on high, the elevation seems pretty accurate as well (within 100' always).

Low GPS setting still is pretty accurate on the Ambit 2S, but some weird variations did show up.

The navigation features are very bare though. You can create detailed tracks to follow but they simply show up as a line on the blank screen. It is possible to follow and I have no doubt you could do simple navigation with it, but anything that required navigating complex terrain it would be very hard to do on the Ambit 2S. Using the navigation features while tracking yourself also makes the battery die much quicker than when not using navigation. I'm not sure if this has been improved on the Ambit 3.

I took this from the page on the Ambit 3. This is exactly what navigation looks like on the 2S.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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