Backpacking background: I started backpacking two years ago with my wife and two children (ages 8 and 10 at the time). We have been car camping for 20+ years. Most of our backpacking has been three season camping in the Sierras, 6000 -12,000 ft (1800 m - 3658 m) and on the Northern California Coast. We mostly do a combination of car camping and backpacking. Our family recently switched from one 4 person tent to using two 2 person tents. I usually carry most of the weight and my internal frame pack weighs between 40-50 lb (18-22 kg).

INITIAL REPORT

PRODUCT INFORMATION & SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: Freestyle
Year of Manufacture: 2009
Manufacturer's Website: Freestyle USA
MSRP: US$125.00
Listed Weight: None listed
Measured Weight: 2oz (57 g)
Other details: Watch face is listed as 40mm (1.57 in)and it measures in at about 40mm (1.57 in).

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

The watch arrived in an ordinary brown box via UPS. It was packed nicely and well padded. Inside the box was a smaller blue box with the word Freestyle on the side of it. Nice cardboard which when lifted up revealed the watch sitting in a display case that I often see at a store to present watches.

The case was well made and presented the watch well. It had a $125.00 price tag on the watch and I could tell that the manufacturer took pride in their product by the way they took the time and effort to properly package the watch.

The first thing that struck me when I pulled the watch off of the display was "wow this is a big watch." I am used to wearing a slim watch with a fairly small face. When I put it on my wrist I noticed that it looked big on me (I have slim wrist) but it did not feel heavy at all. It felt solid but not heavy.

The construction of the watch is very good. I have not noticed any blemishes or quality issues on the watch. The face is solid, well built and seems to be real glass. The dial around the glass is metal and has the compass directions on it.

Functions include:
Time - Shows current time, date, and day of week
Foreign time - Shows a time that I can set for a different location
Compass - For finding my way in the world
Chronograph - For timing laps
Recall - Recall lap time
Timer - Setting a timer
Alarm- Setting/viewing an alarm

The watch band is one piece and molded around the watch itself. It is pre-curved to better fit a wrist and seems to work well on my wrist. The "Free fit Technology" is pretty darn cool.

Four buttons are around the side of the watch face and serve various functions. The buttons are almost inset and look like they will not get accidently bumped.

Overall the watch and the material look well constructed and functional.

READING THE INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions came on 1 double sided 4x7 inch (10.16 cm x 17.78 cm) piece of paper. At first I thought that the instructions were lacking but I read them and was able to setup the watch in about 10 minutes. The instructions were clear, the buttons work well and the watch is well-behaved.

Included are instructions for setting the compass and the declination angle according to city. The compass was surprisingly easy to setup.

The thing I like most about the instructions is they came in little folded pieces of paper about the size of the watch face and they had a separate paper for each language instead of trying to cram all of the language onto one piece of paper. The website also had the instructions in PDF format in case I lose the paper instructions.

TRYING IT OUT

Do you own one of those watches where one setting is too loose on your wrist and the other setting is too tight and when you try to make a hole in the band between the other two holes it never works out? Well that seems to happen to me on most watches. This watch has what they call "Free Fit Technology" which is a strip of thin but strong material that allows me to adjust the watch band to the perfect fit. It is hard to explain and I tried to capture it in a picture below. The fact is that it works well and does what it promises to do. The watch fits my wrist well, does not loosen even while I am jogging and does not roll around my wrist until I can't see the face like my other watches do. A very cool feature.

Like I mentioned before the setup was very easy and the buttons work well. The buttons are flat against the side of the watch which takes a little more effort to push but I have not accidently bumped a button and changed a setting by mistake like I have with my other sports watch.

The time setting is nice and clear. It shows the time, date and day of the week which is great for me to have when I am in the back country, I often lose track of the date and day of the week and it can get embarrassing when I come back into civilization and have to ask what day of the week it is.

Chronograph has worked well for running and I find the recall of the lap times very useful. I coach a youth Cross Country team and the kids often want to know what their lap time is. Now I can let them know.
I have not used the timer or alarm yet but they were easy to run and set when I tested them during the setup of the watch.

The compass is a cool feature of this watch. It was easy to setup and very easy to use. I set the declination angle for my area, spun the watch around two times to calibrate it and now it is set. I checked it against my standard compass and it seems right on. Other than calibrating it and checking to see what direction my cubicle at work sits I have not put it to a real test yet.

TESTING STRATEGY

I plan to wear this watch daily in a variety of settings from sitting in my cubicle at work, running, hiking, backpacking, fishing and swimming. I plan on testing the functionality of the watch, the durability of not only the watch case but the band as well to see if it holds up and fits as well the first time I tried it to 6 months later. The testing period will run through the fall and into winter. The watch should get plenty of time in sun, rain, wind, hopefully snow.

SUMMARY

The Navigator 2.0 watch from Freestyle is a digital watch with a built in compass along with time, timer, chrono, and alarm functions. The unique band should provide a comfortable fit on my wrist for the life of the watch. The watch is lightweight yet appears durable and I feel is should hold up well to the activities I plan on putting it through.

Test Report by Sam Stamey

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