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

Initial Report - Highgear Axis Watch
Roger Caffin

Product Information

Preamble

This test was an extended one. The first version of the watch supplied had major design problems with the compass section leading to significant errors in compass readings. Following several reports about this to the manufacturer the BGT trial was suspended at the manufacturer's request while the watch internals were modified. The test was resumed when the manufacturer supplied the new modified version of the watch. This report was originally written for the first (faulty) version but has been updated to reflect the new modified version.

The image to the right of the watch face shows slightly italic numerals with a blue tinge to the upper segments. This is an image of the new modified version of the watch; the previous versions had non-italic numerals. The blue tinge to the segments is an artefact created by the camera when taking the image: something to do with the flash in all probability. The segments are in fact all black. Clearly the interior of the watch has been changed during the upgrade, although the backshell still retained the old date code of 200308.

Initial Impression

The watch arrived in a small Fed-Ex box. Inside that there was an extremely robust cardboard display box in a protective sleeve. Inside that there was the watch itself, a warranty 'booklet' and a small instruction manual. In addition there were an extra two pages of instructions with the second version, but these were really just a summary of the booklet. Well, the shipping arrangements are good: I could stand on the display box without making any impression on it at all.

The watch itself turned out quite bulky: a little larger than I had expected from the web site, although there was no way of telling how big it would be in advance. The wrist strap is integrated with the contours of the watch, which makes for a smooth outline. However, unlike an ordinary watch which allows the strap to be folded back, this one does not permit any pivoting of the strap at the connection to the watch body: the strap angle is fixed. The plastic wrist strap is wider than I am accustomed to: about 20 mm (3/4"). It is also contoured, so that only the edges touch the wrist. I assume this is to reduce sweating. The buckle is metal, with a wide tongue.

The watch face is quite large: the clear area is about 27 mm (1") diameter, the full glass is slightly larger. This arrived covered with a soft clear protective overlay stuck to the glass. The central display numbers are large: about 8.5 mm (0.33") high. They are quite easy to read, being made of 10 shaped segments. There is an area below the centre with smaller numbers, about 3.5 mm (0.14") high, and even smaller symbols beside them for the units. There is another display area above the centre with letters and numbers almost the same size as in the lower area. There are symbols here too. The border is marked out into 16 segments, which are probably meant to be the cardinal points of the compass, as mentioned on the web site. The segment at the top (12 o'clock) has a bar in it; another bar ticks around the edge in the other segments, apparently one segment per second. Curiously, it seems to miss the top segment, meaning it rotates a full circle once every 15 seconds.

Around the outside of the watch face there is a silver ring with eight points of the compass marked on it. This ring has indents, and can be rotated. In addition, there are dots around the edge and degree values in 30 degree increments. These dots seem to be spaced at six (6) degree intervals, although those which would be adjacent to the degree values (eg 30) are missing. If the dots are indeed at 6 degree intervals, it is a curious choice. For that matter, the inclusion of the degree values at 30 degree increments clashes slightly with the inclusion of the cardinal points. Having all three markings there looks a little like a committee decision, but it does not really matter as they are clear enough.

In between the rotating ring and the clear glass window there is a narrow orange ring printed on the glass. It carries the names of the buttons on the edge of the watch. I imagine it won't take long before I do not need these reminders.

Around the edge of the watch there are wide buttons. There are two on the left side, for Mode and Set/Reset/Light. There are two on the right side, for Start/Lap and Stop. These also serve as increment and decrement buttons. Finally, there is one button on the bottom (ie 6 o'clock), labelled Alti-Compass. This label is not very explicit, and in the manual it is called the View button. The buttons are wide and sculpted, and do protrude a little from the edge of the watch.

The back of the watch has what looks like a stainless steel cover with etched writing and Highgear logo. The writing gives the country of manufacture, claims '30 metre water resistant' and 'Hi-Resolution Digital Altimeter, Barometer and Compass'. This cover is held in place with four small Philips-head screws. It looks as though the lugs on the watch straps which stop the straps from moving might also prevent the back cover from being removed easily.

The warranty booklet spells out the warranty: 1 year. The warranty does not cover the strap or batteries, which is fair enough, but neither does it cover the 'crystal'. The operation of the whole time-keeping unit revolves around a very accurate quartz crystal inside the case, but I suspect they mean what I would call the 'watch glass' instead. There is a cover charge of US$8.95 for replacements under warranty. I have some reservations about this charge: surely a defective unit is a manufacturer's responsibility?

The instruction manual is very small - to fit in the display box most likely. It has page numbers going up to 38: the outer covers are not counted. It starts with a fairly detailed index. My initial reaction to the size of the manual was of some dismay: it suggested that using the watch in the field might require an awful lot of study. I comment more on this further on.

On arrival the watch had a battery in it, and was 'ticking' away. It was close enough to being exactly 15 hours in error - but that was accounted for by the time zone difference between America and Australia.

Looking through the Manual

These things are impossible to operate to any significant degree without going through the manual, so that is what I did next. The chapters are reviewed here with comments as to my experience in understanding the instructions. I got the impression that the manual had been written by someone who spoke English fairly well, but not as their first language. However, it was quite clear. At this stage I am just reviewing what I read; actual performance of doing all the settings and calibrations will appear in the Field Report.

The web site and the 3rd manual call this watch the 'Axis'. However, the first two manuals called it the 'Axis/Summit'. But this does not matter. The two versions of the manual did not differ very much.

Main Modes
This lists the modes as Time, Compass, Barometer, Altimeter, Altimeter data (recording), Chrono (stop watch), Chrono Data (recording), Alarm. The Mode button cycles the watch through these, although a hold on the Mode button will take it directly to Time after two seconds. The cycling and the direct jump to Time worked fine.

Main Buttons
This covers the two buttons on each side, but no explanation is given for the fifth button at the bottom. While the text on the orange ring says 'Alti-Compass', the diagram calls it 'View'.

Time Mode
The watch would normally be used in this mode, with time in the middle. The three-level display can be configured in three ways: Time display mode showing calendar, time and temperature (top to bottom); Barometer display mode showing pressure/time chart, time and sea level pressure; and Weather display mode showing pressure/time chart, time and temperature pressure.
The temperature display can be switched between Fahrenheit and Centigrade. The manual says the pressure display is in mbar, but the units shown are hPa. Fortunately, these are effectively the same thing. The time can be switched between 12 hour and 24 hour modes, and can be adjusted in this mode.
There are also weather display icons in the upper display area to signal sunny, sunny with clouds, cloudy and (chance of) rain. This forecast is based on the past and present barometric pressure. The manual acknowledges the difficulty of forecasting the weather, and one can apparently tweak the thresholds. However, I have to doubt the usefulness of this.
This watch can support two different time zones: T1 and T2. This allows a traveller to keep both home time and local time. Since time zone shifts are often in one hour lumps, this can make adjusting the watch fairly simple.

Compass Mode
This mode gives a dynamic reading in degrees as defined by the alignment of the watch body. Absent a straight edge on the watch I am not sure I will be able to orient the watch this accurately.
The compass display only lasts for 10 seconds as power consumption is reported as being high in this mode. Pressing the Start button will repeat the display however.
In addition to the numeric readout the edge segments give a simple version of a N-S pointer, but with very coarse resolution (only 16 segments available). I am not sure how useful this will be.
The calibration of the compass sensor seems to be held in volatile memory: when the battery is replaced the compass must be recalibrated by slowly rotating the watch through one whole revolution in calibration mode (first version). The instructions with the modified watch request three whole revolutions, not one.
The calibration process includes the vital provision for presetting the local magnetic declination. Unfortunately the declination value cannot be altered without going through the recalibration process. This could be inconvenient if travelling overseas. Working out whether the declination should be 'E' or 'W' is not obvious at first: trial and error works.
The manuals and the web site advertising mention a 'Leveling bubble for increased accuracy'. However, no bubble was visible on any version.
The web site also mentions 'User option for single or continuous reading', but this did not appear in the manual and I could not find any such option.
The outer rotating ring has the points of the compass (and more) on it. According to the manual, this may be used to help hold a bearing. However, the manual does not say how this is to be used, since the compass mode only lasts for 10 seconds.

Barometer Mode
This gives the 'sea level barometric pressure' in the middle, a pressure/time chart in the area above with the current weather icon and one of three options in the area below. These options are time, temperature or the absolute barometric pressure. The manual says the sea level pressure as shown in the middle 'represents the present barometric pressure reading reduced to sea level'.
The manual does not seem to give any indication of the vertical scale on the time/pressure graph. A pressure shift of about 20 hPa was seen to fill the vertical axis on the first day after receipt, but I suspect that the vertical axis may have a variable scale - otherwise I may be able to take it off-scale fairly easily. This will have to be checked. The horizontal axis is one hour per pixel, or 24 hours across the width of the graph.
I am not convinced by the 'sea level pressure' concept. It requires that the watch 'know' my current altitude to make this correction. If the watch senses a slow reduction of 10 hPa, how can it tell if I am standing on the beach and a storm is approaching or slowly climbing a mountain? In each case the pressure would be slowly falling. This does not make any sense at all and I doubt the accuracy or value of the claim.
This mode included provision for changing the thresholds for the weather icons. Given the volatility of weather anywhere (and especially in Sydney where I live), it seems rather unlikely that the predictions will be very reliable. The manual claims it works well, but admits the Weather Bureaus seem to have problems doing this.

Temperature
The watch can measure temperature, and the display shows it to 0.1 degree, Centigrade or Fahrenheit. However, there is no specific temperature mode: this value appear in conjunction with other parameters such as time and pressure.,
The manual acknowledges that the temperature sensed can be affected by the wearer's body temperature. It recommends removing the watch from the wearer's body for several minutes to get a useful temperature. Certainly, I noticed the temperature climbing steadily when I was touching the back plate.

Altimeter Mode
This mode puts a pressure/time chart at the top, the time at the bottom, and the altitude in the middle (in metres or feet). The manual acknowledges the effect of the weather on the altitude reading, and allows the wearer to correct the altitude when this is known accurately.
The watch also logs the maximum altitude seen while in altitude mode, and the accumulated height gains. The latter measures how much climbing you have done: it ignores the downhill bits. Both can be reset.
Pressing the Start button causes the watch to log the current altitude: up to 20 points can be remembered. These can be displayed in the next mode.

Alti Data Mode
This mode recalls the logged altitude values. Interestingly, the time and date are also recorded with the altitude: this would be essential for the data to be of much use. The storage can of course be cleared.

Chrono Mode
This is a fairly normal stopwatch mode. The three fields show lap time, the total time ('split time'), and the current lap number. The time display shows minutes, seconds and two decimal places. You can now time your mountain climb to 0.01 seconds...
Up to 100 lap times may be recorded, as lap number, lap time and split time.

Chrono Data Mode
As with the Alti Data mode, this allows a recall of the stored chrono data. Interestingly, it also allows calculation of the best or minimum lap time and the average lap time.

Alarm Mode
Two alarm times may be set and enabled. The alarms may be in either time zone. A 20 second beep sounds the alarm.
Killing the alarm appears to be done by pressing the Stop button. I have not tested this yet!

Backlight
This is only briefly mentioned in the manual, but can be important. The backlight is apparently electro-luminescent, and stays on for 3 seconds. Obviously it must use a lot of power for the manufacturer to restrict the time this short. Can the watch be read in this time?

Planned Testing

Testing over the next three months will be done on our extended walking trips, which come around at two to three week intervals. The goals I have for testing will include the following.

• Calibration and setting
  I will try setting or calibrating all the things which can be set or calibrated.
• Ergonomics
• How easy is it to learn how to use all the functions?
• How usable are the various push buttons, and is it easy to accidentally knock them and change the operating mode?
  My current walking watch is forever going into stopwatch mode for instance.
• Are the watch strap and the strap pins robust enough?
• How long will the plastic watch strap last? I have found some a very limited life: they go brittle and crack and break.
• Does the watch face survive being bashed around a bit in our scrub, or while abseiling in canyons?
• Is the watch comfortable to wear? I have found some watch straps restrict the blood circulation, resulting in a cold hand.
• Is the unit so heavy that I am overly aware of the weight on my wrist?
• 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. (No, I will not actually pressure test the waterproofing.)
• Is the watch readable at night with the EL illumination on for only 3 seconds?
• Battery Life
• What sort of battery life does it have? (Will I find out?)

I note that the compass mode only works for 10 seconds because of power consumption.
• How much low-battery warning time (if any!) does the unit give before it stops working?
• How easy is it to replace a battery in the field? Including getting the waterproof seal back together!
• Compass
• Can I get the same field accuracy from the watch/compass as I get with an ordinary compass?
• How do you align the watch/compass with a map when it does not have the straight edges most ordinary compasses have?
• Can the compass be used and read easily while on the move? In some of our more twisted country I have my compass in my hand for an hour at a time.
• 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?
• Does the preset declination remain stable - how is it set and how easy is it to set? What resolution does it have?
• How well does the compass function handle the tilt in the magnetic field?
• Is the compass generally as easy to use as a conventional liquid-filled unit?
• Barometer/Altimeter
• Is the altimeter easy to use in the field?
• Is the altimeter adversely affected by the cold during ski touring or canyoning?
• Do typical barometric variations make the altimeter of limited value?
• How useful is the extrapolated sea level pressure, and does it work?
  And can the watch distinguish between slow weather changes and climbing a mountain?
• How easy is it to correct the altitude for barometric variation when the altitude is known?
• How useful is the barometric graph on a watch face that small?
• How useful is the weather prediction facility? The weather in our mountains can go from clear sky to storm/hail/snow in a few hours.
• Thermometer
• How useful is the thermometer function when the watch is on my wrist?
• How quickly does the thermometer register a change such as being taken off my wrist and hung up in the tent?

Reviewer Details

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

Backpacking Background

I started bushwalking (the Australian term) when I was about 14 years old, took up rock climbing and remote exploration walking at University, later on took up ski touring and canyoning. These days I do all my trips with just my wife. 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. Over the last year or two I have become converted to the concept of ultra-lightweight walking, and have been cutting my total pack weight down from 18 - 20 kg (40 - 45 lb) to about 12 kg (26 lb) for week-long trips. I have been designing and making our own ultralightweight gear for our own use. Prior to this test I have never had an altimeter, but I have recently noticed the potential value of one.

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