Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Highgear Axis Altimeter Watch > Roger Caffin > Field Report

Field Report - Highgear Axis Watch
Roger Caffin

Product Information

Initial Impressions

My initial impressions of the watch are given in the Initial Report. They were a bit mixed. The first two units received failed in the compass section, and eventually a third rebuilt unit was received. The reasons for this are explained in the compass section. This report is based mainly on all three units except as indicated.
* The date code on the back of all three watches tested was 200308. Apart from the change to a slightly italic font on the last unit received, I couldn't see any other external differences.

Working through the Manual again

The Initial Report walked through the supplied manual in a 'read but do not do' manner. I will go through the manual again here, covering actual settings and calibrations. All worked as the manual indicated. As I picked up an understanding of the underlying logic, changing settings and values became easier. I will explain the details of changing the various settings and values first.

Changes to settings and values

Many changes are done with a 'Press&Hold' operation. This means a button has to be pressed and held for a few seconds until a symbol on the screen stops flashing. This 'Press&Hold' requirement seems to apply to starting all changes. Presumably it acts as protection against activation by accidental bumps - something another watch of mine is particularly susceptible to. This is good - in theory.

Some more complex values, such as Date&Time, are changed in the usual manner of stepping through each parameter in turn. To activate the change operation the Set button is given the 'Press&Hold', then the Mode button is used to walk through the various sections - days, hours, minutes, for example. The Start/Up and Stop/Down buttons change the value up and down by one for each short press. If one of these buttons is held down, the value slews very quickly: I usually had to use a single-press method to set the exact value I wanted. Pressing the Set button again ends the whole process.

However, while the Press&Hold method has advantages, as implemented it also has disadvantages. The delay time is significant, and frequently a little frustrating. For instance, to correct the sea level barometric pressure, it feels as though I have to wait for ages while the word 'barometer' very slowly scrolls across the screen, and it seems I have to wait until it has finished scrolling before I can make the change. The button which has to be held down is the one which turns the backlight on, and I wonder how much battery power is being wasted every time I want to correct the sea level pressure or some other parameter.

Time changes

The Time Zone symbol is in the top left hand corner and is changed while in the Time mode by 'Press&Hold' on the Set button.

The date and time are changed in the usual manner of stepping through each part.

The date and time are set separately for each Time Zone while in that Time Zone.

The display format can be changed between 12 hr and 24 hr modes as part of the time change process. The format seems to be the same for both Time Zones.

The Time display has three modes as I mentioned in the Initial report: Time, Barometer and Weather. The manual says you scroll through them with the Start button; I found the View button also does this, and is in my opinion the more intuitive one to use as it changes the 'view' of the screen.

Barometer changes

The manual says the pressure display is in mbar and this is so for the third, rebuilt unit. (The first two units displayed hPa, but these are effectively the same thing.) The watch puts an estimate of the sea level pressure in the centre of the display; the real absolute pressure is in smaller font in the lower display. Frankly, I do not agree with the priorities here: I would far prefer to have the real measured atmospheric pressure at the centre of the display and the extrapolated sea level pressure in the lower area, in smaller numbers. My reason for this is simple: the 'sea level pressure' shown in the middle is a guess made by the watch based on a guess at the altitude, not a real measured value of pressure. As such, it could be wrong, and in fact usually is slightly in error.

I checked fairly carefully a number of times, and it does seem that the displayed local pressure (the smaller figures in the lower section) is the actual measured local pressure. This figure is reliable: the 'sea level pressure' and the altitude are not.

It is possible according to the manual to alter the thresholds between the different weather icons. Pressing the Set button in the barometer mode will take the watch into the 'Set Current Weather' state. This message, 'Set Current Weather', appears on the screen at the start of this state. However, details of what is being changed are not given in the manual and I decided not to interfere with these settings. Anyhow, the predictions are not too bad as delivered, as will be explained below under Initial Use and Field Tests.

In this mode it is also possible to alter the current sea level barometric pressure, and this turns out to be essential for the altimeter function to be of any real value. The change can be done by taking the watch into the 'Set Current Weather' state, then pressing Mode again to enter the 'Set Sea Level Pressure' state. This message does scroll across the screen - a bit slowly for my preference, but it helps one get it right! The Start and Stop buttons then raise and lower the current sea level pressure. This can be a trap of course: what is set here is the equivalent sea level pressure, not the current absolute pressure. However, using the weather forecast on the TV I did correct the sea level pressure a number of times. It should be noted that the barometric display resolves pressure to 1 mbar, which is equivalent to ~8 metres (26'), while the actual altitude can be set to 1 metre in metric mode. It would seem therefore that finer corrections can be made in altitude mode, and this is how I normally correct both the altimeter and the barometer.

Temperature changes

The watch can measure temperature, and the display shows it to 0.1 degree, Centigrade or Fahrenheit. The units can be changed in the Barometer mode when temperature is displayed, by 'Press&Hold' on the Stop button.

I found that touching the metal back panel for more than a few seconds caused the displayed temperature to start changing. Wearing the watch gives a temperature somewhere between ambient and body. This is not a really useful function, at least while the watch is worn.

Altimeter Zero and Changes

Altitude can be displayed in Feet or Metres. The units can be changed while in the Altitude mode with the Stop button, the same as for temperature. The notes which came with the updated version do recommend that the altitude be calibrated each day. By this I think they mean the altitude zero should be reset to compensate for changes in the overall air pressure. This is perfectly normal for any altimeter which relies on air pressure.

The relationship between pressure and altitude is roughly 3 mbar per 25 m (1 mbar per 27'), at least around sea level. However, one has to remember that altitude is always calculated from an assumed sea level pressure: the watch can not distinguish between a weather change and a slow altitude change. To get an accurate altitude, one needs an accurate sea level pressure value.

The watch has a real problem here. It has to have an estimate of the sea level pressure to work out the altitude, but then it has to use this altitude to estimate the sea level pressure from the measured pressure. This simply cannot be done reliably. I believe the software in the microprocessor in the watch makes some sort of guess when it sees a pressure change: perhaps if it is 'very slow' it assumes it is a weather-induced pressure change, but if it is any faster it assumes it is an altitude-induced change. Obviously, mistakes are possible here, and this was monitored through a couple of abrupt storms. This is mentioned under Field Tests. It should be added that the problem of sea-level pressure changes applies to all altimeters, not just this watch.

One rarely has access to the current sea level pressure while in the mountains, but a good topo map has contours and should show the heights of mountains. Instead of setting the sea level pressure directly one can correct the current altitude to match the known value, and the watch will correct the sea level pressure to match. The current altitude can be changed by taking the watch into the CAL state by 'Press&Hold' on the Set button while the watch is in altimeter mode. Then the Start and Stop buttons can be used to alter the altitude display. Pressing the Set button terminates the calibration process. As I said above, this is what I do.

Once the calibration has been done the data memories for altitude can be cleared. There is room for a number of these, and they are stepped through with the Mode button as for setting the time. (The same process applies to the Chrono data mode.) I have not played very much with these as I found I had little use for the data after a trip: I could get it from the topo map.

However, on entering the Altimeter mode there is also a scrolling display in the top area, and this shows 'ACC xxxxx MAX xxxxx', where 'xxxxx' are numbers. The number after ACC is the sum of all height gains made since the value was reset while the watch is in altimeter mode. This does not count descents, just the climbing done. You thought that was a level track? Think again! The MAX figure is the maximum altitude sensed since it was reset. One can get this display any time by tapping the Start button. After those figures scroll off the screen a solid graph of altitude for the last eight hours is displayed. These values are reset before a trip by going through the CAL procedure: prompts do appear on the screen.

It would appear from both the manual and actual use that the altitude data is only collected while the watch is in the altitude mode. In the long run this turned out to be a problem, as I often wanted the watch in another mode for a while, and equally often forgot to put it back into altitude mode. Also, some times the watch was accidentally knocked into another mode, and could sit there for hours before I noticed. It may be that it takes a fair bit of power to monitor the altitude pressure sensor, but I would have preferred that the designers could have made it log the altitude once every (say) five minutes, regardless.

Alarm changes
Two alarm times (AL-1 and AL-2) may be set and enabled. The alarms may be in either time zone. The manual says a 20 second beep sounds the alarm, but I found it was really a set of four rapid short pips, repeated every two or three seconds. It isn't very loud, but I hoped that if I left the watch next to my head while I was sleeping it would be loud enough. I have to report that on the few times I relied on the watch to wake me, around 4:30 in the morning, I slept happily through it. I know the alarm went off as my wife says she heard it once or twice.

The watch can be toggled between AL-1 and AL-2 while in the Alarm Mode by pressing the Stop button briefly. There is no indication of which alarm time is activated on the main screen, although an alarm symbol is displayed in the lower section when it is enabled.

Setting up the alarm times is fairly straightforward from the Alarm Mode, and is done in the same manner as other changes. First put the watch into the AL-1 or AL-2 state, then enter the change state by 'Press&Hold' on the Set button, cycle through the various options (including which of the two time zones is used) with the Mode button, make changes via the Start and Stop buttons, and exit by the Set button.

One often wants to set or disable a previously defined alarm without changing the time. The state of the alarm can be toggled between On and Off by going into the basic Alarm Mode and pressing the Start button briefly.

It is also possible to turn on a 'Chime' mode while setting the alarm time. This makes the watch sound a little beep every time a button is pressed. I guess the code for this was pretty short, and they had to put the option somewhere. If you want acoustic feedback to button presses, this gives it. A bell symbol is displayed next to the alarm symbol when this is enabled.

Compass Mode

I mentioned in the Initial report that the calibration of the (?quadrature magneto-resistive?) sensor seems to be held in volatile memory: when the battery is replaced the compass must be recalibrated. If the user makes a major move around the globe it is probably a good idea to redo this calibration as the change in the tilt of the earth's magnetic field could affect the accuracy of the compass. The calibration process includes the vital provision for presetting the local magnetic declination, after the compass is calibrated.

If the calibration has not been already done, putting the watch into the compass mode will automatically start the calibration process; otherwise it is reached in Compass mode via the usual 'Press&Hold' on the Set button until 'CAL' has stopped flashing. The (latest) manual says to hold the watch level and rotate it slowly through three complete revolutions, then press the Set button. If this is not done properly it will show 'ERR' afterwards. It should be noted that it is not possible to see what magnetic declination value is stored in the watch without going through the calibration process (which is a pain).

The first watch sent to me simply would not calibrate at all. The second watch would calibrate, but then had huge cyclic errors which were consistent with some internal magnetisation. This was reported in detail to the manufacturer, and may have been influential in the subsequent decision by the manufacturer to suspend this Test while the watches were rebuilt. While it is obviously conjecture, it is my belief that there was some magnetisable material inside the watch, and I would make the spring steel battery clip my first guess (but see below under Battery). The revised version of the watch (the third unit) was much more reasonable in behaviour and calibrated easily. The rest of this section is based solely on the third unit.

After calibration I tested the sensitivity of the compass to tilt up and down (at the front) and sideways (left and right) while pointing magnetic N. The reading seemed quite stable until the watch was tilted up about 60 degrees, after which it started to change. It was stable as I tilted it downwards to about 15 - 20 degrees, when it veered all over the place. This sensitivity to a downwards tilt is more than I had expected, and more than I would have liked as well. Tilting the watch to either side caused a variation in the bearing within about 5 degrees of tilt: this is even worse. Making these measurements was difficult as the display only lasts for 10 seconds before blanking out. The manual explains this as being due to the high power consumption while in compass mode.

I had hoped the design of the magnetic field sensors plus the calibration by rotation would have been enough to handle a reasonable amount of tilt of the watch. After all, field use is never under ideal conditions. The lack of sensitivity to an upwards tilt is probably explained by the significant upwards local tilt in the Earth's magnetic field at my home near Sydney, Australia. That is, as the watch is tilted upwards, it becomes better aligned with the local magnetic field. The sensitivity to sideways tilt can be predicted from an analysis of the vectors involved: they would need a third sensor on the third axis to get rid of it.

My navigation needs involve careful orientation of the topo map with the compass: this often takes a little while. That is, we orient the map by the compass, look around us to relate the map with the complex terrain, then check back that we do indeed have the map correctly oriented. This often takes more than 10 seconds as the terrain can be complex. (OK, that's an understatement: sometimes we may be a little off-course and it takes some work to decide exactly where we have got to!) In some very complex areas with very thick scrub I actually carry my compass in my hand as we walk to make sure we do not veer off-course. This mode of travel can last for half an hour quite easily: far longer than 10 seconds. The 10 second limit is useless here of course, and I would not be game to keep restarting the compass mode for fear of flattening the battery.

Battery Life and Replacement

The manual says the battery is a "user replaceable battery CR2023", and that it should last 12 - 18 months. No guide is given to how the replacement is done, but the normal method for any watch is by removing the back shell. Indeed, there are four miniature Philips head screws there. However, what the manual does not explain is that the contoured wrist band has lugs and shoulders which make it impossible to remove the back shell even after the screws have been removed - unless one wrist strap is also removed. This is easy enough to do if one knows how these things operate, although the replacement of the strap and pin afterwards was very tricky. (I am not going to try to explain this in words: you have to actually see it being done.)

Anyhow, removing the back shell shows the interior of the watch, as shown to the right. Key items have been given coloured pointers. The white pointer (top right) indicates the O-ring seal which keeps water out. This should be kept clean and replaced carefully. A microscopic bit of silicone O-ring grease does not hurt. The two green lines in the middle indicate the springs which appear to connect to the back shell for the alarm. If you lose these I imagine the alarm won't work. The two red lines at the left indicate what I believe to be the two magnetic sensors, at right angles to each other. They have to be big to sense a reasonable amount of magnetic flux. The signal processing would be done by a microprocessor (out of sight under the battery). The blue line on the right points to what I believe to be the pressure sensor module. Now this is rather interesting: the O-ring seal keeps the water out, and should block air flow as well. Somehow, this sensor must connect to the outside world without letting water in, and I don't know how this is done. If the watch case and the backshell were really strong and there was no connection to the outside world, the internal pressure would not change at all - but it does. Equally, I have no idea where the temperature sensor might be: it may be integrated into the microprocessor out of sight under the central black plastic block, or it may be included in the pressure sensor (quite common). The battery is the big white thing in the middle with CR2032 writ large upon it. Replacing it looks easy enough. I assume the white plastic tag on the back of the battery stops it from touching the back shell: it might be a good idea to transfer it to the new battery when the change is done.

I did try to identify what part of the watch was the source of the compass problems in the first version, but this was not so easy. A compass needle did deflect about 10 degrees when brought to the region of the battery. Further disassembly was beyond the scope of this Test.

Initial Use

I put the watch on my wrist. The adjustments on the strap are fairly fine but the strap is wider than the buckle, and getting the strap to a comfortable tension was a bit difficult. The fixed strap angle appeared to be designed for a wrist slightly fatter than mine. However, this was not a serious problem. There are bumps on the strap at each hole and at the end, and there is also a small loop around the strap. I imagine that some of these bumps are meant to hold the little loop in place, while it holds the end of the strap in place. This worked some of the time.

I have now worn the watch for quite a while: I remain slightly conscious of the weight and bulk so far, although this is decreasing over time. Perhaps I am influenced by having only worn a very small and light watch before. More than once I have snagged my watch on the scrub while wearing it: this risks breaking the strap. When exercising hard my arm swells a little, and the non-elastic watch strap can become tight around my wrist, restricting the blood flow through my hand. I have had to resort to carrying the watch in a shirt pocket for comfort. However, the very bulky styling of the strap and the watch makes it a large and somewhat inconvenient lump in any pocket.

As indicated above, I altered some of the settings. It took me a little while to understand the logic, but this turned out to be fairly simple. What I did find was that writing this report made me read the manual, and this actually helped a lot. There is a human factors lesson here! Once I understood the underlying logic, the rest was fairly straightforward.

The View button at the 6 o'clock position is not used in any of the set-up operations. It alters the 'view' of the display, depending on which mode the watch is in. For instance, in the Time Mode it cycles the options in the upper and lower areas.

Switching between some of the display options with the View button is not fast. Part of this delay may be due to the watch checking to see whether the button-press is deliberate or a brief accidental bump. However, when I want to check something not currently displayed, the delay in switching can be a nuisance. A more sophisticated sensing of the buttons would be good. On the other hand, more than once I found the watch in some strange mode due to one of the buttons having been accidentally pressed for long enough that 'things changed'. This happened even when the watch was in my shirt pocket. The buttons do stick out: a more recessed style of button might have been better.

I tried to configure the watch in Time Mode to display the date at the top, the time in the middle and the pressure at the bottom. I thought this would be the most useful arrangement. I found that I could switch the bottom display using the View button, but the listed displays were the only ones available. Those are Time/Time mode with date, time & temperature; Time/Barometer mode with barometer graph, time and pressure, and Time/Weather mode with barometer graph, time and temperature. I could not alter just the bottom part. This was very disappointing. I can flick between the modes, but the View button must be held for a short while and then I have to wait while the readout stops displaying 'Weather' or 'Time' or 'Barometer'. It would have been nice if the watch had been programmed to respond to the View button quickly. It is certainly not very convenient as it is. Since the temperature display is largely useless while the watch is worn, I am left to wonder why the manufacturer did it this way.

At one stage I had the watch in Time/Weather mode. I was surprised to see both the sunny weather icon and the full cloud weather icon displayed at the same time. I thought this was an error, until I realised the watch was really showing the 'sunny with clouds' weather sign. I had assumed from the pictures in the manual that there would be four separate icons for the weather, but I was wrong. The manual could perhaps be just a little clearer on this.

The vertical scale on the pressure graph is not given. I suspect it is dynamic, meaning that it would be scaled to fit whatever variation has been seen, and with an offset to adjust to the local pressure range. This would be sensible. However, at one stage I noticed that the pressure graph went steadily up to the top of the display area and then went horizontal. This suggests saturation of the display scale, which would make the graph of limited use. Of course, it could be that the local pressure did go up to some value and then stayed constant.

I had dismissed the pressure graph and weather symbols as being of little value when I first got the watch. After all, if the weather bureau makes such a poor job of forecasting the weather with all the computing power they have, surely a little watch would have no hope? But there is a difference here. The watch only gives a short range forecast, based on the last 24 hours of pressure and pressure change (or so I believe). For instance, if the weather looks doubtful but the watch says the pressure is rising: it will probably fine up soon. On the other hand, if the weather looks sunny, with few clouds, but the pressure is falling: oops, duck for cover. This may be of use after all.

The temperature display appears so far to be of very limited use. I am sitting in a room at 19 C (66 F), my body is at 37 C (98 F), the watch displays 30 C (86 F). I understand that the software inside needs to know what the temperature of the electronics is in order to read the pressure sensor and the magnetic sensor, but claiming the use of this as a thermometer for ambient temperature is going a bit far. However, if I hang the watch up in the tent in the evening I can see how cold it was in the morning - provided I handle the watch only by the straps. Looking for the temperature in the morning usually means it was cold overnight!

I tried putting the watch on the table, but the fixed straps do not let it sit up in any useful manner. Since I often put my watch on the table during meetings, this is a small problem. I was able to get it to sit up by wedging the end of the strap under something.

Field Tests

Some of these field tests were done with one of the first two watches received, while other later tests were done with the third rebuilt watch. I was subsequently able to confirm (by running all three side by side for a lengthy period) that all three watches gave the same barometer readings for local pressure and that the altimeter behaved roughly the same. I concluded that there were no problems with any of the pressure sensors. Accordingly I have not indicated which watch was used for which test as I believe the results apply to both versions.

Gibraltar Rocks - Little River: Altimeter Zero
The weather was poor the night before but the pressure graph was rising, so we decided to go and see if the weather turned fine. We started from home at 188 m (617') with the sea level pressure at 1022 mbar (from the evening weather report on TV). The sea is only a few kilometres (or miles) from my house. I set the current sea level pressure the evening before we started.

Well, the weather did turn out fine for the two days. At the top of the Gibraltar Rocks about midday the topo showed a spot height of 1062 m (3484'); the altimeter showed about 60 m (197') higher. That would imply the sea level pressure had dropped in the last 12 hours by about 7.2 mbar. This would normally indicate a bit of a weather change coming, but the weather stayed fine for the next day at least. On return home the altimeter showed 271 m (889') and the sea level pressure showed 1022 mbar, the same as when we started. However, on checking I found that the sea level pressure had dropped to about 1010 mbar. I suspect the watch had decided that we were doing a serious bit of climbing and that the sea level pressure should not be changed. In fact, it did rain the night we got home, so the prediction was not too far off.

The question which then occurred to me was this: should I correct the altitude or the current sea level pressure? The latter would obviously give the right result, but what would the former do? Could it change the pressure/altitude scale factor? (Undesirable.) The manual does not give this information, so I checked with Highgear and received this reply:

This seems pretty typical of altimeter and barometer readings. I always suggest calibrating the unit as often as possible. If you know the exact altitude or barometer reading I suggest entering those numbers into the unit because the more information the user can provide the unit the more accurate it will end up being. There is drift in the units due to barometric pressure and changes in weather which will create the altitude to go up and down and cause it to be 200ft [60 m] off at times.

Also, when you are driving in the car over a variety of landscapes, I suggest calibrating the device when you arrive at your destination for more accuracy. When you change the altimeter this should change the barometric sea level.

I think the term 'calibrating' should be changed to 'correcting' or 're-zeroing', but no matter. It means that correcting the altimeter value on top of the mountain would have been the right thing to do. It also means that I should reset the ACC and MAX values when I get out of the car at the start of the trip - or it will record the car driving as well.

I kept the watch in the altimeter mode for the trip. This let it record all the height gains and let me see our altitude go up and down as well while we walked. The graph was amusing; the ACC value was impressive: all those little ups and downs do accumulate!

Big Storm: Weather Changes
We had a period of fine weather with the pressure sitting up around 1022 mbar after the above trip. The watch tracked the pressure reasonably well and kept the altitude of our house fairly close to the nominal 188 m (617') - plus or minus a few metres or yards. But then we had a sudden storm which actually gave us a huge torrential downpour and even hail. Naturally the pressure crashed when this storm happened. I checked the barometer and altimeter during and after the storm to see how well it had been able to distinguish between a weather change at constant altitude and a change in altitude with constant sea level pressure. Was the speed of the pressure drop too fast for the watch to treat as a weather change?

The pressure dropped to about 1006 mbar during the storm. It may have gone slightly lower: I was caught in my workshop at the peak and wasn't going to run through the hailstorm back to the house. After the storm I found the altitude in my house was reading 210 m (682'). This is a shift of 20 m (60'), or roughly 3 mbar. It would seem that the rapid drop in pressure had persuaded the watch that I was actually climbing a bit.

Post Storm: Barometer Tracking
The first watch had a non-functional compass and shortly after the 'big storm' a replacement watch arrived. With two watches I was able to see how well they tracked weather changes. In what follows I quote mainly metres as conversions are not a lot of use: just remember that 1 metre is about 1 yard. The display shows increments of 1 metre or 1 mbar, and 1 mbar corresponds to ~8 metres, so obviously the altitude display is the more sensitive. So I set both watches to the same altitude (188 m, at home), sat the two watches side by side and allowed them to track altitude through some 'interesting' weather.

A few days later I found that the altitudes on the two watches were 194 m and 208 m, while my house was still at 188 m. A shift of 6 m (18') is not that significant, given how the weather tracking software in the watch works, but I was less happy that one watch showed a shift of 6 m while the other showed a shift of 20 m. I would have expected the two watches to have given the same altitude since they had sat right next to each other for the whole time. That they behaved differently is a worry. I noticed that the altitude graphs for the last 6 hours on the two watches also showed different profiles. The watch showing 208 m thought I had been doing a lot more climbing up and down than the other watch. This is consistent with the altitude differences of course.

Wollemi River trips
These were a number of hard, fast trips through very wild country. On the first one we started from a fairly level road about 700 m (2275'), climbed to 870 m (2827'), dropped into the headwaters of the river at 620 m (2015'), then went down the river for a day and a half to about 370 m (1202'), climbed up to an adjacent range at 700 m (2275'), and finally walked along the fairly flat range back to the car. That's not a lot of apparent height change, but the accumulated height gain (ACC) for the trip (car to car) was an impressive 2388 m (7761')! We must have done a lot of scrambling up and down the sides of the valley to get down the river. Perhaps it helped explain why we were a little tired afterwards? While not an essential bit of knowledge, we found it interesting to know.

On return home the altimeter was about 60 m (195') out. This is close to the maximum quoted by Highgear, but we did have a snap hailstorm one evening, with a huge pressure change. Sadly, the hail hit 5 minutes before we got the tent up. It was 6.7 C (44F) the next morning according to the watch which was hanging in the corner of the tent. We felt it, in our wet clothes.

I wore the watch on my wrist for the first trip. It was noticeable, but not too much. For half the trip I had the watch on the inside of my wrist for ease of reading and protection, but I found it vulnerable to being banged on rocks as we went down the river (walking in the river, regularly climbing over rocks etc). Half-way I switched it to the outside of my wrist where it fared no worse. The strap was a little sweaty, but any strap would be. The watch was under a nylon sleeve most of the time, and did not seem to collect any significant marks on the face. The display did change once, meaning the buttons were not too vulnerable to accidental pressing. On subsequent trips I carried the watch in a chest pocket, and I found the buttons could still be accidentally activated. Otherwise the behaviour was about the same.

Several weeks of mild weather
Each of these tests started with the altitude and sea level pressures being set to identical values. For the first test, altitude and barometric pressure were monitored for a week at home when the weather was fairly mild: no huge pressure swings. Under these conditions the software should be able to handle the slow changes in pressure and treat them as being purely weather-related. There was a slight shift in the altitude of our house, from 188 m to 180 m and 176 m, on the two watches. These shifts, of 8 m (26') and 12 m (39'), are fairly reasonable for the length of time involved. I am reasonably confident the house did not move during this period...

Monitoring the two watches I had over a longer period of mild weather showed similar stable behaviour. At times the two watches differed by 0 mbar, which is perfect; some times they differed by 1 mbar, which has to be treated as acceptable because of the digital nature of the watch display. Occasionally there was a 2 mbar difference, but again this is within the 'normal' range of digital behaviour given that each watch could be out by 1 mbar.

Test Results

I spelt out a number of tests to be run in the Initial Report. I have listed some of them here with the answers obtained so far.

• Factory support: since the watch is obviously faulty, how will this be handled?
  Initial support was good with a replacement being sent promptly without the quoted charge, but the replacement was also faulty, albeit to a lesser degree. After that there was a long period of silence: I suppose they were investigating the problem. Fortunately, this was not the first case they had met, so they did not appear to think it was all my fault. However, I am not sure what would have happened if I had actually bought the watch in a shop: I imagine I would have eventually returned it for a refund.
  Later on I was informed that the watch was being redesigned to remove metal and solve the compass problem. It is my best guess that the battery clip inside the watch was originally made out of a hard spring steel. This is quite common, but spring steel can become magnetised. The best solution would be to replace the steel clip with a phosphor bronze clip: slightly more expensive, but non-magnetic. Eventually a revised version was received, and this Test was restarted.
• Ergonomics
• How easy is it to learn how to use all the functions?
  For the most part, not too bad. 'Set' is used to get into and out of set-up and calibration states, while 'Start' and 'Stop' would be better labelled 'Up' and 'Down' (unless the Chrono is being used a lot). Some less-used functions have sent me back to the manual; I am slowly remembering the more useful ones. To be able to do all the set-ups and calibrations in the field I would need to take the manual with me, but I think I can live without it. I found the scrolling text displays rather slow, but in the early days they did reassure me at times that I was doing the right step.
• How usable are the various push buttons, and is it easy to accidentally knock them and change the operating mode?
  The buttons are quite large and easy to operate. The accidental bump problem seems to be reduced but it is not solved by the little delay. The resets are annoying.
• Are the watch strap and the strap pins robust enough?
  So far, so good. A little sweaty, but they all are.
• How long will the plastic watch strap last?
  I had found some other straps to have a very limited life: they went brittle, cracked and broke. But so far so good with this one.
• Does the watch face survive being bashed around a bit in our scrub, or while abseiling in canyons?
  Again, so far so good - but I have been careful.
• Is the watch comfortable to wear?
  I have found some watch straps have restricted the blood circulation through my wrist when they are too tight, resulting in a cold hand. This has happened here, but it is really a function of how tight I do up the strap. If I make it quite loose at the start some swelling of the muscles in my arm can be accommodated, but this is hardly convenient. The non-elastic nature of the strap usually means that I usually end up carrying it in a pocket, where it proves to be a bit bulky.
• Is the unit so heavy that I am overly aware of the weight on my wrist?
  It is a little heavy, but tolerable.
• Just how good is the waterproofing, and how long does it survive?
  This is especially relevant when swimming and abseiling in our canyons; not all my 'waterproof' watches have survived. Again, so far so good, but it has not been severely tested.
• Is the watch readable at night with the EL illumination on for only 3 seconds?
  The answer here is definitely yes, with or without my glasses, as long as I am looking at it the right way up. If the watch is upside down I get the wrong button, which does nothing. The View button is a guide to the right way up.
• What sort of life does the battery have?
  Despite a fair bit of compass testing at the start, they are all surviving.
• How much low-battery warning time (if any!) does the unit give before it stops working?
  Unknown at this stage.
• How easy is it to replace a battery in the field? Including getting the waterproof seal back together!
  It's not the sort of thing to be done 'in the field', where little things can get lost so easily. For a start, you need two fine jeweller's screwdrivers, one with a Philips head and one with a straight slot blade. You also need a clear work space, and some means of catching any bits which fly away. However, if you know how to remove and replace a watch strap pin, the rest is fairly easy.
• Compass
  The problems with the first two watches have been detailed, along with the apparent cause.
• Is the compass generally as easy to use as a conventional liquid-filled unit?
  It is easy enough to activate, but using the watch as a compass uses a lot of power (says the manual), and I would worry that doing so would flatten the battery half way through a trip. Frankly, even if it was working perfectly it would not be very useful, and a simple conventional liquid-filled compass remains my preferred option.
• Can I get the same field accuracy from the watch/compass as I get with an ordinary compass?
  Using a lab test jig I can usually orient the watch in compass mode to within about 1 degree, and certainly within 2 degrees, relative to another compass. This was confirmed during some bench testing of the defective units. Whether I can use the watch to that accuracy in the field has not been tested owing to the 10 second limit and the faults, but frankly I doubt it.
• Can I align the watch/compass with a map without the conventional straight edge?
  I cannot line up a map properly in the 10 seconds available. I can orient the compass to point North, then orient the map with it later, but that is prone to error or drift. I don't use it for this in practice.
• Can the compass be used and read easily while on the move?
  It can be used and read easily, but with limited value. The 10 second limit and high power consumption means it is not suited for the sort of continuous navigation we do through heavy scrub, when I may have my compass in my hand for an hour or two at a time. I do not use it for this.
• How tiring is it to hold my wrist rotated so I can operate and read the compass while I am travelling? Or is it necessary to take it off and hold it like a thumb compass for this?
  It would be a little awkward, but the 10 second limit makes this question irrelevant.
• Does the preset declination remain stable - how is it set and how easy is it to set? What resolution does it have?
  It is a digital setting, and stable. It is set after the compass goes through the full calibration sequence.
• How well does the compass function handle the tilt in the magnetic field?
  It seems to handle this as long as the watch is held very level, but this does not always happen in the field. Any tilt in the watch is handled very poorly. The readings would always be suspect in my opinion. However, the problem is moot as the reading time is too short.
• Barometer/Altimeter
• Is the altimeter easy to use in the field?
  Yes, very.
• Is the altimeter adversely affected by the cold during ski touring or canyoning?
  Not so I have noticed - but the watch does not get that cold when it's on my wrist or in my pocket.
• Do typical barometric variations make the altimeter of limited value?
  The variations are fairly small in comparison with the height of major mountains, but they do make precise altitude uncertain. Frequent correction from the topo map is the only solution, but this applies to any altimeter relying on pressure measurement. Even so, the altimeter function is often quite useful, and the use of it grew on me. It is of particular use in fog in the mountains.
• How useful is the extrapolated sea level pressure, and does it work?
  Also, can the watch distinguish between slow weather changes and climbing a mountain?
  I do not think the watch can make the distinction very reliably when one is slowly climbing. But again, this applies to any altimeter relying on pressure. This has implications for the extrapolated sea level pressure reading: it may be unreliable.
  My own opinion is that Highgear (or perhaps the Chinese manufacturer) has claimed a little too much here. By placing so much emphasis on the estimate of sea level pressure by placing it in the middle of the display, they give the impression of far greater reliability than is justified. Their method of distinguishing between weather changes and altitude changes is not that good. I suspect that having this feature was a marketing decision, not a technical one. I do not like this.
• How easy is it to correct the altitude for barometric variation when the altitude is known?
  Easy enough, but I do not always bother. On those occasions when I am able to compare the watch with a topo height, I often just remember the offset (eg 'watch is 60 m high'). Otherwise I would be forever recalibrating it - which takes time.
• How useful are the barometric and altitude graphs on a watch face that small?
  These turned out to be of some value, which surprised me. When we see a serious fall in barometric pressure which is not explained by climbing, we have a good warning of a weather change coming. We have seen the weather go from fine and sunny to hail in a few hours in our Alps, and this sort of pressure change can be seen easily on the watch. The altitude graph is also cute, but we found that the two watches I had under test at the start often showed different scales. What was a large change in height on one graph was a smaller change on the other. This was a little puzzling!
• How useful is the weather prediction facility?
  Well, despite initial doubts, we have found the pressure graph to be useful, especially if we combine that information with the cloud patterns we see in the sky. The weather symbol may not give much extra information beyond this, but never mind. We got used to having this information.
• Thermometer
• How useful is the thermometer function when the watch is on my wrist?
  Pretty much useless except first thing in the morning. The thermometer on my pack was more useful.
• How quickly does the thermometer register a change such as being taken off my wrist and hung up in the tent?
  The manuals says to wait "a few minutes"; I usually leave it for at least 10 minutes before checking it. This seems to be adequate.

Key likes, dislikes and Summary

Likes
Altimeter information, despite uncertainties
Clear display
Multiple parameters on screen
More reliable button operation than some (but definitely not perfect)
Pressure graph and weather symbols
Accumulated height - just as a 'fancy that'

Neutral or not useful
The digital compass and its 10 second operation do not match my needs and I do not use them
The temperature measurement is too affected by my wearing the watch to be of real use
The data storage is not something I would use very often, if ever

Dislikes
Very large body (this is relative to my taste)
Rigid strap arrangement (cute styling, but lousy practicality)
Poor choice of items displayed with time (prefer altitude or absolute pressure to useless temperature)
Long wait on screen changes until text display (eg "Barometer") is replaced by real data
Putting the estimate of sea level pressure rather than the measured pressure in the middle of the screen.
Having to have the watch in the altimeter mode if I want to record cumulative height changes

Would I buy it?

In short, no. I would like an altimeter/barometer for walking, but I would really prefer a smaller one than this. Perhaps the styling experts think the appearance is 'macho', but it is too bulky for my taste. The other features - compass, data storage, thermometer, do not add much value for me. In general I prefer a unit which does only one job, but does it very well and is compact. The compass function proved to be totally inconvenient to use in the field. Finally, the price is rather high relative to the value it brings to me. I think I would prefer a smaller unit which was dedicated solely to the barometer/altimeter function. However, these are my personal preferences, and others may find it quite suitable.

After many months of using this watch in the field I have gone back to taking my simple small digital wrist watch on most trips instead.

Reviewer Details

Reviewer:	Roger Caffin
Age:	58
Gender:	M
Email address:	r dot caffin at acm dot org
Location:	Sydney, NSW, Australia

Backpacking Background

I started bushwalking (the Australian term) when I was about 14 years old and took up rock climbing and remote exploration walking at University with the girl who became my wife. Later on we took up ski touring and canyoning. These days all our trips involve just the two of us. Over the last few years we have become converted to the concept of ultra-lightweight walking, and we have been cutting our total pack weights down from 18 - 20 kg (40 - 45 lb) to about 12 kg (26 lb) for week-long trips. That's not counting climbing rope or extra water for a dry camp - both happen. Our preferred walking trips in Australia are long ones: about a week in the general Blue Mts (east coast of Australia) and Snowy Mts (alpine region), and up to two months long in Europe and the UK. Ski touring trips would also typically last up to a week. We favour fairly hard trips of some length and prefer to travel fast and light. Many of our trips are exploratory in wild country which sees few other walkers. In between these long trips we do some day walks, often exploring the start of longer trips. On average, we would spend at least two days per week walking or ski touring. In addition, I spend a lot of time designing and making ultralightweight gear for Australian conditions.

I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/.

Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Highgear Axis Altimeter Watch > Roger Caffin > Field Report