Watches (the non-smart variety) may have gone out of style, but there are a lot of us who still wear them. Even if you own the latest smart watch, consider what gear might make the best survival watch. My mom bought me my first watch for my 10th birthday – a small, brown analog Timex that I wore with pride. A few years later, she bought me one of the very first digital watches – a Texas Instruments LED watch. Ever since then, I have been addicted to watches, particularly good quality, solid inexpensive watches. I soon learned both Casio and Seiko make solid, low-price watches and I began collecting them. Naturally, there are some really great survival watches out there for a lot of money. For this first review, however, I wanted to stay in the $50-$65 price range, so I selected a Casio Sport watch.
Do You Need a Watch for Survival?
Personally, I think every survivalist should have a watch. If you are juggling more than one task, having a watch with multiple alarms could help keep you on track. If you are cooking, you need to be able to mark the passage of time. A watch can also give you an idea of how much sunlight you have left or when the sun is going to come up. Some watches have GPS and full map functionality, as well as an altimeter and barometers – even a compass (more on that below).
Affordable Survival Watches
I wanted to focus the first watch on the basics and I wanted it to be affordable. The Casio Solar Sport Combination watch fits the bill. Its official model number is the AQ-S810W. It is water resistant up to 10 bars or 100 meters and it is priced under $65 (full retail) or less if you can find it used. Combination means both analog and digital – the best of both worlds.
Survival Watches Should be Durable
Because you really do not know what kind of survival situation you will be in, having a durable watch is one less thing to worry about. While this watch is no G Shock, it still is a tough little watch and should be able to withstand anything you can throw at it. To understand what 10 bars or 100 meters really means, let’s look at scuba diving.
As a certified PADI Divemaster, I have never been deeper than 130 feet and that was pushing it. You can dive deeper, but you have to be a lot more skilled than a recreational diver. With water, a depth of 33ft is equal to 1 atmosphere or approximately 14.31 psi (pounds per square inch). At a depth of 130 feet, my body was experiencing the equivalent of nearly 4 atmospheres or approximately 58 psi.
Prior to my first training dive, my instructor grabbed a fresh can of tennis balls, opened it up, took one out and then instructed us to get into the water. We dove to a depth of 60 feet, and once on the bottom, my instructor pulled out the tennis ball. It was flat and looked like something was stepping on it. This was because the pressure of the water on top of the ball, caused it to flatten. At 60 feet, the water pressure equates to approximately 26 psi.
When we consider this watch can handle depths of 100 meters, that equals about 330 feet or 143 psi. You would have to be a practiced swimmer to be able to free drive much farther than 40 feet. You would not even be close to the maximum this watch could handle. From a damage perspective, the watch would have to be hit with at least a 140 pounds per square inch before it would take any damage. For everyday outdoor activities, this watch will have no problems keeping up with you.
Long Battery Life is a Must
With no way of knowing how long you will be in survival mode, you will need a watch that can last a long time. The Sport Combination is not only tough, but it is a solar powered watch. There is a rechargeable battery to help bridge any light gaps, but it should essentially last 10+ years.
Other Considerations
Because it is an analog watch, you can use it as a last resort compass. By holding it in your hand and pointing the hour hand toward the sun, halfway between the hour hand and 12 will generally be South. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, it will be North.
It also comes with the standard allotment of Casio watch functions. It has 5 alarms, a stopwatch, 2 countdown timers and date functionality. The only thing I don’t like about it is there is no second hand. If the date is displayed, there is a digital seconds counter, but no physical hand. It also has a large face and might not be comfortable for some; the case size is 46mm.
To give you an idea of the size, you can see how it looks on my wrist. I am a big guy and it still looks like a big watch.
Bottom line, you can’t really go wrong with this watch. I would be very willing to have this as my primary survival watch and not worry about the performance.
