"What time is it.........?"

[buglerbilly]

5.11 Field Ops Watch

January 22nd, 2010 | Product Announcement | Posted by Stickman

The newly redesigned 5.11 Field Ops Watch is built on a polycarbonate frame and uses a rubber wrist strap. Its highlights include the company’s SureShot™ ballistic calculator, digital compass and traditional chronograph features. Available in tan, green and black, this watch is a joint project through 5.11 and Horus Vision and should pique the interest of anyone who is tired of working math instead of triggers.



Observation: How do you replace the strap? Cos rubber straps are notorious for disintergrating over time, especially in Field conditions............too many manufacturers ignore that" little" point!

[buglerbilly]

Luminox’s new Sentry watch

January 25th, 2010 | Product Announcement | Posted by Matthew Cox


Luminox Sentry in olive

Luminox has a new line of tactical watches that is about 25 percent cheaper than most of its models. The Sentry series has the same rugged design as Luminox’s other watches, and it features a carbon-reinforced polymer case, extra-hardened mineral crystal and polyurethane strap. The Swiss-made Sentry is water resistant to 100 meters, or 330 feet.

Luminox reduced the number of Tritium light tubes on the watch face from 12 to six to make it more affordable. The tubes still have a glow life of 25 years.

The Sentry is available in three face colors: white, black and olive. It retails for about $225.

I've owned two Luminox watches, my son has one now and I have the other, can't recommend them strongly enough, great watches! AND you can easily replace the straps........You'll be able to get them for a lot less than the $225 shown here by looking around the USA dealers in particular altho one or two Oz dealers sell them for VERY good prices

[McDethWivFries]

Observation: How do you replace the strap? Cos rubber straps are notorious for disintergrating over time, especially in Field conditions............too many manufacturers ignore that" little" point!

looking at the pic, there looks to be two black screws of something either side of the watch about where you'd expect the strap 'mounts' to be, so would presume there.

[Riđđu]

You'll be able to get them for a lot less than the $225 shown here by looking around the USA dealers in particular altho one or two Oz dealers sell them for VERY good prices

What US dealers you have used? My friend got Luminox as a birthday present. Those things cost around €230 here and then it took three months to fix some small problem. I don´t know if they mailed it to Switzerland to get the repairs done.

Anyway many military oriented guys here prefer Suunto Vector Military Green watches. I´m too postmodern to wear watches anymore.

[buglerbilly]

Try the following: -

http://www.dexclusive.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=USL&Code=index

[danh]

Observation: How do you replace the strap? Cos rubber straps are notorious for disintergrating over time, especially in Field conditions............too many manufacturers ignore that" little" point!seems ilke a gimmick to me and therefore not particularly likely to be troubled with actual operational conditions.

[Raven22]

Bah, just wear a G-Shock like everyone else. Light, indestructable and best of all, free...

[buglerbilly]

Bah, just wear a G-Shock like everyone else. Light, indestructable and best of all, free...

Some people like them, I don't BUT then again I only like red-face watches in any case...............just what I need in the murk of an office! HA!

[buglerbilly]

For those interested in Watches, buying, selling or collecting, this is a great forum to visit and view............

http://forums.watchuseek.com/index.php

[Riđđu]

Nice. Bug is turning this into his own EDC forum! :) Thanks for links BTW...

http://www.edcforums.com/

[rawcs]

Damn you Bug! I think I'm about to spend US$169

[buglerbilly]

HA! What you getting mate?

I'm eyeing up a very nice Tag Heuer Formula 1 watch, red face of course!!!

My current reds, first up the red Luminox..............the red doesn't show in low light conditions but the hands do, very easy to read even when pitch black.........the knife is a Dav Winch Custom...........Dav is now a part-time knife-maker VERY popular here in Oz and the USA...........great knife! The Green handle belongs to a Nagamaki, sort of like a Golok-on-a-stick that I keep beside my bed as my home defence tool, blunt ended so as to not cut any nastie wastie burglar who may get in to my place............



My other reds and the yellow Luminox now owned by my Son. The middle red is a TW Steel A1GP a big SOB watch like wearing Big Ben on your wrist! Love it BUT the strap is too small. I like to wear my watches loose; I hate having the strap tight!!! The red Seiko is a Red Monster, no that's its name! HA! My regular every-day watxh, love the damn thing! Might have to get another as a Safe Queen..............

[rawcs]

HA! What you getting mate?

Until I saw your yellow face Luminox it was going to be a khaki Navy Seal Dive. Which model is your son's? It looks great!




My other reds and the yellow Luminox now owned by my Son. The middle red is a TW Steel A1GP a big SOB watch like wearing Big Ben on your wrist! Love it BUT the strap is too small. I like to wear my watches loose; I hate having the strap tight!!! The red Seiko is a Red Monster, no that's its name! HA! My regular every-day watxh, love the damn thing! Might have to get another as a Safe Queen..............



I love the Monsters and I'm thinking about getting one at some time in the not too distant future. I've got a thing for German watches at the moment, Meistersinger, Sinn and Stowa but house renovations are keeping the purchase of one of those in check...

[Gubler, A.]

Some people like them, I don't BUT then again I only like red-face watches in any case...............just what I need in the murk of an office! HA!

You can set your G-Shock to automatically turn on the face light when it is twisted in the way you move the wrist to present itself to your eyes. Also works for endless entertainment of 3 year old nephews...

[Raven22]

You can set your G-Shock to automatically turn on the face light when it is twisted in the way you move the wrist to present itself to your eyes. Also works for endless entertainment of 3 year old nephews...

Seems like a great idea until you accidentally turn that feature on at night during an exercise and spend the next 15 minutes trying to work out how to turn the bloody setting off so you don't give away your position every time you scratch your ass.

My G-Shock has a setting that vibrates for an alarm instead of beeping, which I thought would be a handy 'tactical' feature. Of course, after it has done it 4-5 times you don't even notice it any more, which makes the whole thing a bit pointless.

[buglerbilly]

Until I saw your yellow face Luminox it was going to be a khaki Navy Seal Dive. Which model is your son's? It looks great!

I love the Monsters and I'm thinking about getting one at some time in the not too distant future. I've got a thing for German watches at the moment, Meistersinger, Sinn and Stowa but house renovations are keeping the purchase of one of those in check...

The Luminox is a Yellow Navy SEALs Dive Watch Series 1 Model 3005, bought for $330 here in Oz from Legear. I notice they don't have any for sale at the moment so you'd have to go Overseas, USA most likely..............here's a link to one in the USA: -

http://www.amazon.com/Luminox-Mens-Original-Watch-3005/dp/B000F1S0AQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=watches&qid=1264910302&sr=1-1

USD$157.00 is a damn sight cheaper than what I paid for mine.............

The Monsters are great watches! The Blacks and the Oranges are WAY cheaper than the Red, Yellow and the Blue but the last three are VERY serious prices, well over $1,200.00 here in Oz.........the Yellows and the Blue are now very rare to find and when they do appear they get premium price; a yellow sold here in our land for well over USD$1,6000.00 as it was NIB (new in box).

The Blacks and Oranges you can get all over the place on the web but I bought mine from Bodying.com.................here is their Monster selection............the Red's are a lot more than I paid for mine as in $150+ more and I only bought mine 18 months ago!!!

http://www.bodying.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=black+monster&osCsid=vhci78ntqefjdfd6siqd45k8s6&x=39&y=13



Bodying ship from Malaysa BUT are a noted dealer, trustworthy and VERY speedy and precise with their sales, highly recommended by me as I've bought a few watches from them and Dexclusive..........

The Orange Monsters are here............

http://www.bodying.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=orange+monster&osCsid=vhci78ntqefjdfd6siqd45k8s6&x=16&y=16



Here's a nice video giving a description of the Orange..........the pricing quoted is not current (older video)

[Gubler, A.]

Seems like a great idea until you accidentally turn that feature on at night during an exercise and spend the next 15 minutes trying to work out how to turn the bloody setting off so you don't give away your position every time you scratch your ass.

My G-Shock has a setting that vibrates for an alarm instead of beeping, which I thought would be a handy 'tactical' feature. Of course, after it has done it 4-5 times you don't even notice it any more, which makes the whole thing a bit pointless.

Heah its better than the first mass issue army watch back in the early 90s. It beeped on the hour, every hour and with no capacity to turn it off... I'm sure it was procured by the same guy who thought laser measuring 10,000 feet and designing a boot with 140 different sizes was going to be a will good idea (fail!)...

[Marc 1]

Got a Casio ProTrek - same feature - push and hold the light button for about 2 seconds. Changes the automatic mode on or off.

Agree with the comment on ruber bands...They can get a car tyre to last years in contact with a bloody road, but more than about 2 years wrapped gently around your arm with about 50g or so of stainless steel and things go pearshaped. Replaced 3 on my Citizen divers watch, and got sick of being charged like a wounded bull for regular battery changes too. Protrek is 5 years old - stainless steel band, solar powered - all good. Purchased new off evilbay for about $200.

[McDethWivFries]

Got a Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive Blackhawk myself, stainless band, solar lurvly! only prob is cost it's black it can suck up heat like my son drinking a milkshake!

[Raven22]

Agree with the comment on ruber bands...They can get a car tyre to last years in contact with a bloody road, but more than about 2 years wrapped gently around your arm with about 50g or so of stainless steel and things go pearshaped.

Bah, I've had my G-shock for about 6 years now and the original rubber band is still going strong. If it's survived being covered with deet, being burned on hot barrels, endless turret drill and being chewed on when I get bored, I don't think there is much that will damage it. HAving said this the watch will probably fall apart tonight while I'm sleeping.

[ARH v.3.0]

My Tag Heuer Formula 1 has been going strong for just over six years now. Best $935 I ever spent on a watch!

[buglerbilly]

Garmin 405 GPS watch

February 21st, 2010 | Review | Posted by Sara Davidson



My running group has a love/hate relationship with my watch; I love it, and on occasion, they want to smash it to bits. It’s hard to fib about mileage when satellite technology tells you your run isn’t nearly as long as you’d thought.

The first place I tested my new Garmin 405 GPS watch was an August 50k trail race. Besides the well-known downside to using any GPS watch under dense tree cover (poor satellite signals when compared to road running), this race revealed the biggest drawback to the 405: the battery.

Garmin advertises that the 405’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery has an 8-hour life in training mode, and a 2-week life while on power save. We kept a very slow pace because of the race’s brutal elevation changes, which meant the course outlasted my watch, and almost outlasted me.

On the plus side the 405’s design has many great features that I felt outweighed the short battery life. The antenna is in the section of the band that will most often point toward the sky, which helps keep a more consistent signal. It also locks onto satellites much faster than its older counterparts, though it still comes with the typical signal issues.

Just about any GPS watch is going to be more reliable on the road than on trails. Even though the 405 maintains (for the most part) a steady signal, it doesn’t handle switchback turns very well. These routes will most often leave you with a shorter final distance than what you actually covered.

Want to gain distance? Stand still and Garmin will help you inflate your mileage. I left my watch running on a recent hike and was amazed to find out we’d covered .25 miles while sitting down. Nice.

There are also arguments that the elevation charts aren’t even close to accurate. I find it’s best to ignore all of those complaints and continue bragging about your route’s mountain-size elevation gain.

Also great for wide-spread bragging? Garmin Connect, the company’s online training tool. Users can upload runs and see them mapped out, calculate splits, see calories burned and elevation graphs. Once uploaded you can use the handy-dandy share tool to e-mail your run or post it to Facebook, Digg, Twitter or your social media of choice. Want to geek out? Here’s my map from the 50k.

The watch will wirelessly connect to your computer with Garmin’s ANT device. It’s roughly the size of most USB drives and works about the same way. Plug it in, make sure the watch is close by, and watch the data fly. The watch gets reset with every upload, though, so if you encounter any sort of hiccup while transferring, your run could get lost. There is a manual upload option, which is more cumbersome than the quick upload, but could salvage your data.

Using the watch is pretty self explanatory. The touch bezel is easy to figure out, but a little tricky to get used to. It also won’t work if you’re hands are sweaty, which means finding a rare piece of sweat-free clothes to dry the bezel. I find it’s easiest to start the watch and lock the bezel to avoid accidental taps. The start/stop and lap functions will still work even when the bezel is locked.

The pacer function is a good training tool, though I wish you could see your total run time while on the pacer screen. It’s nice to race someone even when you’re running alone.

The 405 is small enough to wear off the trail without looking like a silly 1987 calculator watch, though the band does not get quite tight enough for those of us with toothpick wrists. I went with green, it may not make me run faster, but it’s cuter than plain black.

Buy it at Garmin.com or most sporting goods stores. The 405 comes in black and green and will run you $299.99, get it with the heart rate monitor for $349.99.

Sara Davidson is an ultramarathoner and our resident women’s running gear destroyer.

[Chauvel]

Guys and particularly Bug

My eldest is in the latest Duntroon intake. He is currently on the 11 week Initial Cadet Training out at Majura.

Poor bastar is freezing!!!

He has written to us, today, asking for us to get him a Casio G-shock

The Kit Bag has them for $199 plus postage. Wherelse should i look, and is there a different watch i should get him?

Cheers

Chauvel

[buglerbilly]

Mate,

The G-shocks are more than OK for Military Users and are VERY popular with that group.

I don't own any but have a heap of people I know that do. No one has a bad word to say about them.

Try this group, Bodying.com, I've bought a couple of high-end watches from them with no probs at all and a very rapid service, usually from Singapore or Malaysia if not held in Australia.......this is their Casio G-Shock page(s)

http://www.bodying.com/watches/casio-g-shock.html

There is a huge variety and selection of G-shocks there but these may be the best to try............

MUDMAN series...........



Price: USD$ 99.99

The Military-inspired ones below are also nice BUT USD$ 279.99..........You pay as much as you want to pay..........



You WILL save heaps of money by going to one of the dealers Overseas, if you need more let me know and I'll send you more names and addresses. Pay PAYPAL and then you have some coverage IF you get into any kind of dispute over dodgy goods............shouldn't be the case with the ones I show you but better safe than sorry!

[buglerbilly]

You may also want to take a look at LUMINOX watches. Depending on model, very lightweight, carbon fibre body, with excellent illumination of the hands and hour numbers in low/zero light conditions............I've bought two, one I still have with a bright red face that does NOT illuminate in the dark and a bright yellow one my Son now has..............great watches, very easy to wear and also very popular in some Military quarters..........highly recommended......

The Navy Seal and Evo lines in particular are good................

http://www.discountwatchstore.com/Luminox-Watches_c_108.html

Luminox Navy SEAL Dive Watch Model 3007 (3007 is the model number)

USD$ 218.00

Luminox EVO Navy SEAL Colormark Dive Watch 3059

USD$ 234.00

........again use Paypal!

[Chauvel]

Bug

as always thanks very much for sharing your knowledge - i much appreciate it.

Cheers

Chauvel

[Raven22]

Guys and particularly Bug

My eldest is in the latest Duntroon intake. He is currently on the 11 week Initial Cadet Training out at Majura.

Poor bastar is freezing!!!


Bah, they have buildings and everything at Majura these days. Luxury. Back in my day...

Anyway, good old e-bay is just about a good a bet as any to get a G-shock, as long as you buy from a reputable dealer. May I recommend the G-7510 watch - vibrate alarm, good size numbers and virtually indestructable. I've had mine for 5 years without missing a beat through all the abuse I've thrown at it. The link below has examples for $89 with free postage, and there are other cheaper options.



http://shop.ebay.com.au/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=g-7510&_sacat=See-All-Categories

BTW, good luck to your boy at the college of knowledge. Majura in July is definently character building.

[Gubler, A.]

Bah, they have buildings and everything at Majura these days. Luxury. Back in my day...

Ahh Majura with only a Howard Green and that old Jungle Green Combat Jacket over DPCU with the horse blanket to sleep in. That was cold. And the Australian Army didn't need cold weather gear...

[Raven22]

Yep, the coldest I've ever been was at Majura. One morning all my water bottles were frozen solid so even the DS couldn't make us shave, and my hands were so cold I lit some hexi to warm them up. The gloves caught fire, but my hands were so numb I couldn't even feel it and ended up with burned hands. Of course, I'm not ancient like you so I got a sleeping bag not a horse blanket. Same howard green though, with the old rambo-style duck vest to keep it company.

[Gubler, A.]

The Horse Blanket with these buttons to a ground sheet that you could insert three air tubes into was the most ridiculous sleeping device ever invented. But it worked pretty well in balmy climes just not in bloody Majura. There were sleeping bags on temp. issue but only in winter. Though Majura was pretty bloody cold in autumn. And the EARLY 1990s do not qualify one as ancient despite thinking a flannel shirt was acceptable wear to a uni students party…

[buglerbilly]

Children, stop telling how rough it was...........try the 60's on a cold and ALWAYS wet Catterick or York.............

[Raven22]

Don't make me quote the Monty Python skit about four old Yorkshiremen.

"Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah."

"And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you."

Too late.

[buglerbilly]

"Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah."

"And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you."

When I was a Lad.............I remember those days well! :hide

Mind you WE had gorgeous young ladies wearing mini-skirts and stockings, such a delight that flash of thigh..................:thumbsup :drunk :razz

[Marc 1]

Agree with Raven's approach - I've bought my last 5 watches on ebay far cheaper than from any bricks and mortar store. Last one was a stainless steel Casio Protrek for about 40% of the RRP. So far it has lasted 5 years - solar powered so no battery to replace. What used to give me the shits more than anything else was replacing the battery every 18 months or so on the Casio divers watch I used to wear when in the system. Used to cost about $60 due to seals and pressure testing.

I'm feeling old Majura was in the late 80's for me and like you Raven was in 20 x 30's on duckboards with stretchers and a sec trunk. We froze and got cooked - 38 degrees plus during the day and frequently below 10 at night, and an instructor named Fred Remin to make our lives a misery.... Ah, good times.

[buglerbilly]

I haven't bought a watch from a store for 10 years at least.............

NOT fond of CASIO's but then again I'm never going to be in a tactical position, well except when I'm hunting (when I get my licence)..............

I've saved 60% (Seiko Red Monster), 40+% (Luminox Seal, Red Face), and between 40-50% on everything else I've bought.

I rarely buy from E-slay, there are plenty of reputable dealers out there, the one exception being buying watches from WatchUSeek forums where I have commonly bought from various individuals without problems mostly thru Paypal..........