Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Highgear Axis Altimeter Watch > Stephanie Martin > Long Term Report

Long Term Report: Highgear Axis Altimeter Watch

Details in this Long Term Report are intended to be taken in addition to findings as listed in my Initial Report and Field Report.

Contents

- Product Performance by Feature

    - General Operations and Product Design

    - Time

    - Thermometer

    - Compass

    - Barometer

    - Altimeter

    - Chronograph

    - Alarm

- Summary

Field and Test Information:
Location(s) of test:	Here, there and everywhere...the watch has been on my wrist daily during the test period.  During this time, the watch has been worn to work, while running errands, while working out at the gym, into the shower and on my various escapades in the desert southwest.
Terrain:	The Highgear Axis Altimeter watch has been exposed to sand, dirt, water and normal everyday conditions.  Elevations have varied from 1100 - 9200 feet (335 - 2800 meters) and terrain has ranged from grassy meadows to wooded forests and sandy slickrock sandstone expanses.
Weather Conditions:	Outside daytime temperatures have been as high as the low 100's Fahrenheit (high 30's - low 40's Celsius), with night time lows down to the 30's Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), inside temps vary depending on central air settings

Product Performance by Feature
The Axis Altimeter Watch is a feature loaded watch with features including time (well, it is a watch after all!), date, compass, barometer (with weather forecast!), altimeter, chronograph and alarm - an awful lot to deliver in a small package!

General Operations and Product Design
I will recap each feature below in detail; however, before I begin, I will state that I have some notes on the general operations of the Axis Altimeter Watch.  As I mention in my Field Report, once I got accustomed to using the Axis, I found it very easy to navigate.  I did notice that my tendency to "overshoot" the mode I was navigating to remained with me throughout the duration of the test period.  While I attribute this to sheer impatience and overzealousness on my part, I found myself wishing there was an option for scrolling through the various modes "in reverse"...I will admit, it did occur to me to try to just slow down and pay more attention to what I was doing, but a reverse scroll would certainly have made life easier.  The one exception is navigating to the Time mode, which can be accessed somewhat quickly by pressing and holding the mode button in for about three seconds.  Due to my lack of patience, I find that I don't take advantage of this feature as I am able to scroll through the modes in the same amount of time as it would take for me to "press and hold."  Setting or calibrating the watch also requires pressing and holding the set button for three seconds until the message "Adjust HOLD" (in most cases) is displayed and stops blinking in the main portion of the watch face.  I can only assume this is to prevent accidental activation of this feature and is good in thought, though I did find myself impatiently waiting to be able to make adjustments to the watch.  Unfortunately, this did not prevent my watch from being accidentally reset in the middle of the night by a travel-mate while trying to activate the backlight function.

Regarding the physical appearance and functionality of the Axis, I continue to think it quite large (watch crystal is 1.25 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter), and not low profile (about 5/8ths inch (1.6 cm) in thickness).  With its molded plastic wrist strap, I could not easily stow the Axis in a pocket or hang it from a belt loop.  Unfortunately, over the long term test period, the slight green tinge that was noticeable at the conclusion of Field Testing has only gotten worse. In the image on the right, I have placed my test unit next to a "new" Axis (my previous test unit that was not worn daily due to a product redesign).  The discoloration is especially pronounced on the portions of the bumpy bits of the straps between each sizing hole - Unfortunately I found this difficult to capture in an image.  During the course of the test period, I was not able to locate any replacement bands for the Axis, though this exercise was more for curiosity's sake as the band isn't showing any signs of wear or tear in spite of my putting it on and taking it off daily.  While I did try to protect the Axis watch face by leaving the protective plastic on the crystal, I somehow lost the plastic during the course of testing.  I suspect it came off while donning or doffing my wetsuit.  Unfortunately, since losing the protective plastic film, I have acquired a couple small scratches on the crystal face.  Luckily for me, the display is very large, so the small scratches do not impede my ability to read the display. 

I've been mostly happy with the placement of the buttons on the Axis - they have remained easy to manipulate, even after being exposed to fine silt and plenty of sweat.  Occasionally I find the watch magically switched to another mode - this usually occurs after I've been doing a lot of climbing and scrambling or if I've been struggling with my wetsuit.  Surprisingly enough, the large size of the Axis has has not interfered with any of my clothing - and the molded straps seem to prevent it from rotating around my wrist, as some of my other watches do. While the buttons seem none the worse for wear with their exposure to sand and grit, I can't say the same for the rotating bezel around the face of the Axis.  I'm sad to say that I can't rotate the bezel at all any longer - it seems determined to remain in its current position.
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Time:
As a watch, the most important feature of this item is its ability to maintain and display accurate time.  To test this feature, I set the watch to match the US Naval Observatory (USNO) Master Clock Time.  During the course of testing, my Axis has developed a small lag against the USNO Master Clock Time - less than one minute lag (exact lag cannot be determined as my watch was accidentally reset).  I really like the fact that this watch has the ability to tell time in two time zones.  I've found this feature to be most handy as I do business regularly with Asia and I'm always forgetting how many hours ahead my colleagues are.  In addition, I like using this feature while I'm traveling - keeping one time set in my home time zone and the other in the time zone for my current location.

Within the Time mode, it is possible to select between three primary displays as described in my previous reports.  While at work and at home, I usually kept the watch in the default display mode - and while I was in the field, I tended to toggle it to the Weather display mode so I could keep an eye on barometric pressure trends.  As I continued with testing, I repeatedly yearned for a time-altitude display mode, as I like watching the graph on the Altimeter mode, but I prefer to have the time boldly displayed in the main field of the watch face (as opposed to current altitude).  While hiking and adventuring, I found myself switching between the time mode and the altimeter mode of the watch.  If there was a hybrid display mode, I think I'd find myself fussing with the buttons a bit less frequently.
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Thermometer:
I think I'm most disappointed with this particular feature of the watch.  I've become accustomed to the fact that the watch reads approximately ten degrees high while on my wrist, however I remain frustrated with the time required to get the watch to equilibrate with ambient temperatures - I find the algorhythm used to calculate temperatures to be too slow - while I have a good appreciation for thermo mechanics, it seems that the time required for the watch to recognize temperature shifts is a mite excessive.  I continued to note discrepancies of up to five degrees from the ambient temperature even after twenty minutes of being removed from proximity to my body.
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Compass:
The digital compass setting has also proven to be quite a disappointment, running a very close second behind the Thermometer.  Even after the redesign (additional magnetic shielding added to the watch), I have continued to note that the compass has lost its calibration several times, requiring recalibration in the field.  I was not able to identify what it is in my normal everyday activities that is causing this behavior - I can say that I don't work near unusually strong electrical or magnetic fields and I don't carry very many portable electronic devices...so the loss of calibration remains a mystery.  Due to my findings discussed in my Field Report, I have not used the compass for anything other than to obtain general heading information.  The compass is very sensitive to tilt and I found it difficult to get an accurate reading for orienteering purposes.  I hate to admit it, but I seem to be more orientation-challenged while in a downtown metropolis than when I'm outside.  I found the compass handy while trying to navigate in unfamiliar city territory - and it saved me a block or two of walking in the wrong direction!
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Barometer:
For the duration of the test series in the southwestern United States, while I found the barometric pressure measurements to be accurate within 1 hPa, I found the weather forecast ability of the watch to be very inaccurate - with a correct match only about 50% of the time.  Instead, I found myself relying on the barometric pressure chart that is available in this mode.  Knowing a few small tidbits regarding meteorology (high or increasing pressure means clear or clearing skies and low or falling pressure means clouds or clouds coming), I was able to use the pressure chart to estimate for myself what the weather was going to do locally.  It seems that bigger shifts in pressure are required to get the weather forecast on the watch to correspond to the actual weather patterns here in the desert southwestern United States.
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Altimeter:
After the Field Report, I wanted to check to see how much drift would occur in the Altimeter for the remainder of the test series - I noticed that the watch eventually crept to approximately a 700 foot (215 meter) altitude difference.  In all fairness, this was to satisfy my own curiosity and to illustrate how important it is to re-calibrate the watch regularly to have an accurate altimeter reading.  Personally, I didn't mind the difference too much as I was more interested in relative elevation change rather than my exact altitude.  I never did find a good use for recording Altitude data points (the watch can store up to twenty data points along with date and time recorded).  I also didn't find myself referencing the maximum or accumulated altitude statistics at all during the test period.  I did find that I really grew attached to the time-altitude graph displayed along the top portion of the watch face.  I tend to process data better in a graphical format, so having the graph was a very nice way for me to note altitude changes as I hiked along - and it kind of gave me a little positive mental boost when I found myself less than enthusiastic about certain sections of trail as it gave me something to refer to regarding my progress.
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Chronograph:
As I do not run laps or hike certain sections of trail regularly, I did not have much use for the chronograph (comparing split or run times against each other to note performance improvement).  I did use it a couple times to see how long it takes me to run some standard errands, just for curiosity's sake.  Since I was not accustomed to using a chronograph, it took a couple times for me to get the hang of saving my data, but once I got the hang of it, I had no further problems (incidentally, it takes me about an hour to do a full leisurely run at the local grocery store). I personally would really prefer a (count down-type) timer rather than a chronograph as I find I get distracted easily, and need a timer with a beeper on it to remind me to do things like check the pasta to make sure it's al dente rather than pasty! 
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Alarm:
During the Long Term testing phase, I've primarily used the alarm as a wake up call in the morning (and in some cases in the middle of the night in order to get a jump on an extra long hike or two!).  While the alarm has been easy to set and use, the chime isn't very loud, and I found I had to be sure to place the watch somewhere near my head to ensure I was able to hear it.  I liked having the ability to set two alarms - and while I didn't use them both very often, I sometimes set the second alarm about fifteen minutes after the first one to make sure I didn't laze abed too long.
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Summary
Having never had an altimeter watch, I'm still not quite sure what I should have expected in terms of performance.  While the Axis is handsome in appearance, it has left me with something to be desired in terms of its content in addition to a couple of frustrations.  I have had an interesting time during this test series, and I will likely continue to use the watch while adventuring, but will probably go back to my normal less obtrusive watch for every day use. With that said, here are my likes and dislikes:

Woo Hoos (likes):
- Nice appearance and presentation - the Axis is easy to read and presents a remarkable amount of information
- Multitudes of colors - I appreciate the fact that the watch does come in several colors - too often I've seen watches come only in boring black
- Barometric Pressure Trend - The 24 hour trend has proven useful in my own estimation of the weather forecast
-Altitude Trend - I really like having the graphical representation of altitude vs. time

General Comments:
- The Axis is a rather large watch, and it may need to be that way to get all the electronics inside.  I would prefer a smaller, lower profile watch for the simple reason that my wrists are quite small
- The Axis' alarm is quite quiet, and I find it works best for me when I take the watch off and place it somewhere near my head
- The Bone colored wrist band showed some discoloration during the test period.  The discoloration is similar to what I've observed on other light colored plastic wrist straps.

Boo Hoos (areas for improvement):
- Thermometer - I remain convinced that this is a major area for improvement on this watch - I realize body temperature will affect the reading, however I would like to think that it wouldn't take over twenty minutes to get a stable and accurate reading
- Compass - good only for general bearing purposes - hard to obtain a stable reading, as it is very sensitive to tilt
- Backlight - the backlight, when activated in all but the brightest or dimmest light, makes the text on the watch difficult to read.  In full light or complete dark, it works fine.  In addition, I wish the backlight was lit longer to enable watch calibration and adjustment in the dark - right now, I need to dig out my headlamp to accomplish this activity.
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My thanks to BackpackGearTest.org and Highgear for this testing opportunity.

Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Highgear Axis Altimeter Watch > Stephanie Martin > Long Term Report