Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Silva Tech4o TraiLeader 1 > Test Report by Rebecca Stacy

Tester Information:
Name: Becky Stacy
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Height: 5' 3" (1.6 m)
Weight: 155 lb (70.3 kg)
Email address: becki_s19 at yahoo dot com
Location: Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

Background:
I got bitten by the backpacking bug in 1994 when I was a volunteer at the Grand Canyon. My first backpacking trip was the same week I arrived, with gear borrowed from trail crew supplies. My husband and I enjoy car camping and backpacking, mostly in Michigan. We've pared down our pack weight a bit, switching to a tarptent and smaller/lighter backpacks as part of our effort to re-work our gear list to cut weight without giving up the luxury items we enjoy (such as food that involves more than boiling water).

Basic Product Information:
Manufacturer: Silva
Manufacturer Website: www.silvacompass.com
Year of manufacture: 2008
Diameter: 2” (5 cm)
Thickness: 5/8” (1.6 cm)
Measured weight: 1.8 oz (52 g)
MSRP: US$139.99

List of Features (from the Silva website):

Speed & Distance Mode:
Speed, Distance, Pace (min/mile), Calories, Steps, Exercise/moving time, Fully Adjustable Personal Profile, 10 day memory

Digital Compass Mode:
1° increment resolution, Adjustable declination, Bearing Lock, Reverse Bearing, Distortion warning

Mode:
Current Altitude, Altimeter Lock, Reference Altitude, Altitude Alarms, 48 hr Altitude Graph, 24 hr max + min altitude, Altitude Difference Calculator, Total Ascent,Total Descent

Barometer Mode:
Current Pressure, Barometer Lock, Pressure adjustment, 48hr Pressure Graph, Current Temperature, 24hr max + min temperature and pressure, Weather Forecaster

Time, date, day, 2 alarms, 50 lap Chronograph, 6 timers, dual time zone

Product Description:
The TraiLeader 1 is a digital watch featuring an altimeter, barometer, temperature, compass, and speed/distance related functions.  It has an integrated wrist band made from a smooth silicon-type substance, which feels a bit stiffer and denser than silicon oven mitts or bakeware (or silicon barbecue basting brushes for the menfolk out there).  The band is perforated to help with ventilation, and can be adjusted in increments of just under ¼” (0.64 mm).  On the underside of the watch is the opening for the pressure sensor and thermometer, and a battery hatch with a slot where a coin can be inserted for the user to replace the battery.  The back also has a series of indentations that look like it might have been designed to help with ventilation. 

The four main buttons, “ESC” “ST/STP” “LAP/RESET” and “MODE” have a textured button surface and are fairly close-fitting to the watch body; by the feel of them I don’t think these would pose any potential problems with snagging anything.  The light button (on the left, between the ESC and MODE buttons is small, round and untextured, though it feels to be protruding a little. 

The instruction manual warns to keep the watch away from extreme temperatures, impacts, moisture, and near magnets.  The watch is listed as water resistant, but not waterproof.  Replacing the battery will erase all my personalized data. The TraiLeader 1 has a 1 year limited warranty, and the manual recommends registering the watch on their website.

The watch came in a plastic box display case with a color display insert, a quick reference guide, and a manual for the watch. 

Initial Impressions:
As with all the everything-but-the-kitchen sink watches I’ve looked at and tried on, this *is* one big watch, and the diameter of the watch is about the same as the width of my wrist.  Unfortunately, my wrist size is right in the middle of two of the notches, so it is either a little too snug or a little too loose.  When wearing the band on the looser setting, it is a little more comfortable when I grip something (like trekking poles) than when my hand is relaxed.  The watchband itself is pretty comfortable when I am wearing it at home, I am hopeful that the watch will feel better the more I get used to the size and weight.  I have noticed that the loop that is meant to prevent one end of the watch band from flopping around will sometimes migrate towards the buckle, leaving the end of the band prone to catching on things.

The watch was in some kind of initial ‘sleep’ mode when I received it, and when I didn’t see anything about waking it in the quick reference card or instructions I went with my intuition and hit the MODE button to wake the watch.  It activated immediately, and was set to the US Eastern Daylight Savings Time, along with the correct date.  The elevation was over 400 feet (122  m) off, but I expected that I would have to change this upon setup.  After about a half hour of reading the manual and setting up the watch, I was up and running.  I was initially concerned that I would have to be constantly referring to the manual to figure out how to operate the watch.   I discovered that the layout and settings follow a pretty logical pattern, and after a day of playing around with it I am familiar enough with the watch to navigate where I need to without having to refer to the manual. 

I'm impressed with all the features packed into this watch, and most of them would be very helpful to me when hiking if they do indeed function properly. So far almost everything seems to be working correctly after the initial setup and calibrations.

The only function on this watch that seems to be misbehaving is the weather predictor. The barometer is functioning properly, showing pressure increases and decreases comparable with local readings I got from a weather website. I had the altimeter lock on, I wasn't changing elevation and I wanted to get better accuracy on the barometer. One morning when it was raining out it showed full sun, and in the evening when the storm had long gone and the pressure had risen again, it showed rain. Another front came through and again the weather forecaster would show the exact opposite of what the barometer graph showed me should be (and was) happening. I called Silva customer service, informed them of the problem (I made sure to specify the altimeter lock was on) and was told to send the watch in. Customer service was polite and helpful, and I received a replacement watch 7 days from when I shipped out my previous one. Another gear tester suggested that the weather predictor would right itself after I took the altimeter lock off, and this is something I will monitor closely and be sure to report on with this new watch.

Functions/Settings:
There are two main menus: Time and Trail.  The time menu contains the time/date, alarm, chronograph, timer, and dual time zone modes.  The trail menu contains the altimeter, barometer, compass and speed/distance modes.  When in either the Time or Trail menu, I can access all the modes in that menu by either pressing the MODE button until the menu I am looking for appears, or by hitting the ESC button and either the ST/STP to scroll up or LAP/RESET to scroll down.  To switch between main menus I press ESC twice.

Time/Date:
The Time/Date mode has the date on the bottom of the screen, and the time in the middle.  The top can display the day of week, weather forecast, temperature, pressure history graph, or altitude history graph; to cycle through these displays I just press ST/STP until I reach the display I want.  At first I couldn’t figure out which of the graphs was altitude (the graph is ‘filled in’) and which was pressure (the graph is ‘unfilled’), but when I went to the Barometer mode and cycled through the displays there I was reminded that the unfilled graph was for pressure since the display screens in Barometer mode don’t include altitude.  It would be nice if the graphs were marked with a “p” or “a” for quick reference, though.

From the Time/Date mode I can adjust the time, date, screen contrast, sound, backlight, temperature units, pressure units, and speed/distance units.  Adjusting the time is similar to other digital watches, and I can select either 12 hour (am/pm) mode or 24 hour (military) mode.  The LCD has 16 settings, from very little to very high contrast.  In lower light conditions the higher setting makes the screen look solid black, but the contrast comes out better in brighter light, though I haven’t had the chance to check it out in full sun yet.  For the sound setting, I can turn the button beep on and off, and the hourly chime on and off.  The backlight settings are Normal and Night.  Normal will only turn the backlight on when I press the backlight button, and Night will turn the backlight on when any button is pressed.  On both settings, the backlight lasts for about 4 seconds after the button is pressed.  I can select from Fahrenheit or Celsius for the temperature units, mb, hPa, or in Hg for pressure measurements, and Metric or Imperial for all other units. 

Alarm Mode:
In the alarm mode I can set one or two alarms, and I can select each alarm to ring either daily or on a specific day of the week.  The alarm is a set of 3 beeps, about 1 second for each set, lasting for 30 seconds.  I can turn the alarm off by hitting any button.  The beeps are about the typical volume of a digital watch beep. 

Chronograph Mode:
The chronograph records hours, minutes, seconds, and hundredths of seconds.  According to Silva, I can record and save up to 50 laps. 

Countdown Timer Mode:
In this mode I can select from one of the programmed timers (3, 5, 10, 15, or 45 minutes) or set my own countdown timer.  For the customized timer, I can select any time from 1 second to 99 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds.  When I have the countdown timer running, it will beep once every minute for the last 10 minutes, every 10 seconds during the last minute, every second for the last 5 seconds, then it will ring for 30 seconds after the timer reaches 0.  Then in Countdown Timer mode, the current time of day is displayed in the lower portion of the screen.  Since the countdown timer involves so much beeping, I think this would make a great 3^rd alarm, for mornings after a really strenuous hike, where I might be harder to wake than normal (usually I’m a light sleeper).

Dual Time Zone Mode:
When this mode is active, the secondary time zone is shown prominently in the center of the screen, with the primary time zone displayed in a smaller font at the bottom of the screen.

Speed & Distance:
The Speed and Distance calculator uses an accelerometer to determine my steps.  From a little reading about accelerometers and playing around with the TraiLeader watch, it apparently works by measuring the swing of my arm.  When I’m walking and my arms are moving (even slightly), the watch records my strides.  Although I haven’t taken it on a long walk to compare the measured vs. counted strides, the accelerometer appears to be pretty accurate in determining how many steps I’ve taken.  Sometimes I can trick the watch into thinking I’m walking by just standing in place and swinging my arm back and forth, but when I’m walking and holding the watch level in front of me it won’t record my steps.  I’ve walked around my house a little with trekking poles, and the difference in my arm movement with the poles does not appear to be a problem; the accelerometer still recorded my strides.

When I start this feature, the watch beeps for about 8 seconds, then starts recording my steps.  In this display the current time is shown on the bottom, and my distance in hundredths of a mile or kilometer in the middle.  The top of the display will cycle through number of steps, calories burned, walking time, miles or kilometers per hour, and minutes per mile or kilometer.

I can save a period of data, which will add it to any other data I’ve saved for the day and clear the current stats from the main display, so I can either record just the periods of activity I want recorded, or record all my activity and the TraiLeader will automatically save all the data at midnight.  The watch keeps the saved data from the last 10 days.  I can adjust my running and walking stride so the watch can calculate my distance and speed with better accuracy, adjust the ‘Sleep’ setting (how long a period of inactivity passes before the watch stops recording), the sensitivity of the accelerometer, and my weight (for calculating calories burned).  The instructions direct me to the tech4o website to calculate my stride length.  For the sensitivity, the lowest setting is recommended and I’ve found this level to work fine so far. 

Altimeter:
The altimeter mode has the current time on the bottom, the current elevation in the center, and the top field can change between change in altitude, total ascent, total decent, altitude graph, and current temperature.  The user guide has several notes throughout it stating that the altimeter and barometer are linked, and changes in weather or altitude can skew both features.  To help with the accuracy, I can set a reference altitude when I am at a known elevation, or if my hike has little elevation change I can lock the altimeter for better barometer performance. 

The altimeter lets me set an altitude alarm, view the altimeter log book, and select between a daily graph or 48 hour graph.  The graph is 32 pixels wide, so the 48 hour graph each pixel represents an hour and a half.  It looks like the daily graph starts at midnight and “fills in” as the day goes on (from the look at the graph, I think each horizontal pixel might represent 1 hour), while the 48 hour graph is described as being recorded “on a rolling 48 hr. basis”. 

When I received the TraiLeader, the altitude displayed was a lot higher than my actual altitude.  When I went in to correct the altitude, I found out that I had to adjust this in increments of 1 foot (or meter). When I press the button for a few seconds, it will start to quickly adjust by tens of feet/meters, and after a few more seconds will accelerate to adjusting by hundreds of feet/meters. When I first re-adjusted my elevation I wound up ending too high or too low until I got the hang of when to let go of the button.

Barometer:
The barometer displays the current time on the bottom, the barometric reading in the middle, with the top field rotating between a pressure history graph, temperature, and weather forecast.  Although the sea level pressure and current pressure measurements can be changed, Silva strongly warns against doing so.  The barometer graph is also 32 pixels wide, with each pixel representing an hour, and recorded on the hour.  The barometer log book records the minimum and maximum pressure and temperature over the last 48 hours, along with the date and time the information was recorded. 

After I set the elevation, I checked the barometer to see how it related to local readings.  For a period of 8 hours I compared the TraiLeader’s readings with barometric readings from a weather website.  The readings of the watch were similar to the website; although the watch measured less pressure (I was on the 3^rd floor), general increases and decreases in pressure were about the same for watch and website, even with the altitude lock off.  The only thing I’m a little concerned about is that the weather forecaster seems to read the exact opposite of what the changes in barometric pressure should indicate, even when I had the altitude lock on.  As I mentioned earlier it said it was sunny in the morning when it was raining outside, and showed rain when the pressure increased.  Hopefully the feature just needs a little more time to get acclimated to the local pressure.

Compass:
The electronic compass reads in 1 degree increments, with 16 arrow positions.  I can take a reverse compass bearing and lock the bearing.  The compass can be calibrated (the manual recommends calibrating the compass often when I’m using it for the first time, I’ve replaced the battery, the bearing reading is flashing (and nothing with a magnetic field is close enough to interfere), or if my angle of declination has changed.  After 2 calibrations the TraiLeader was still a bit off, but after I recalibrated it a couple more times it was fairly accurate.  The user manual includes maps of North America and Europe to help with setting declination, I guess everyone else has to consult local information in order to properly set the watch.

Temperature:
Temperature does not have a specific “mode”, but can be accessed on the Time, Altimeter, and Barometer Modes.  Because the sensor is located on the underside of the watch, my body temperature causes the watch to read quite a bit higher than the actual room temperature.  The instructions state that the measurements can be 5-10 degrees higher than the actual air temperatures, and if removed from my wrist and allowed to acclimate for five minutes it will give accurate results.  When I removed the watch, I found that it agreed with the temperature reading on the electric thermostat for my house.

Conclusion:
So far, this looks to be a really nice watch and I look forward to putting it through its paces in the next four months.  I am impressed with the various features offered, and am satisfied with the operation of all but one so far.

Likes:
The altimeter looks like it can be a quick-and dirty way for me to find my location on a topo map of the Corridor trails of the Grand Canyon, the barometer should help warn me of any storms coming in off the coast when I’m hiking along the Great Lakes (and Superior is known for quick weather changes), and the temperature gage will help me record minimum/maximum temps for my other gear reports.  I’m a junkie for trying to figure out how far and how fast I’ve hiked; the speed/distance mode really appeals to me there.  The calorie counter could help me plan my caloric needs for some of the local hikes I go on once or twice a year, and should help me monitor how much energy I’m expending on more taxing hikes (like the trip to the Grand Canyon I’m planning) and should help me figure out how often I should be munching energy bars, before I start to feel the drain.  I also like that the sensor is on the underside of the watch, where it is best protected from rain or fine dust.

Dislikes:
Dislikes: The watch is a little uncomfortable for me, mostly since my wrist is halfway between 2 of the band settings. I don't think this will be too much of a problem on the trail, but I'll have to keep an eye out on the fit. The loop that keeps one end of the watch band from flopping around tends to migrate towards the buckle, something that could easily be fixed by making the loop a little tighter, or possibly adding a nub on the inside of the loop tat would grip the perforations in the watch band. Also, though the barometer is accurate, the weather forecaster on my first watch displayed exactly opposite of what it should when I had the altimeter lock on. I had the lock off at first and the weather forecaster matched the weather outside, which was cloudy/partly cloudy. Since this is "middle ground" either way I can't as yet report on the accuracy of the weather predictor with the altimeter lock off.

This concludes my Initial Report.  Please check back in about 2 months for my Field Report, and about 4 months for My Long Term Report.  I would like to thank Silva and BackpackGearTest.org for the opportunity to test this watch.

Reviews > Electronic Devices > Watches > Silva Tech4o TraiLeader 1 > Test Report by Rebecca Stacy