[Pef]

After the best part of a decade, my trusty High Gear watch is suffering button arthritis, I was looking to get another but the company has gone bankrupt... hopefully from selling their watches too cheaply . It cost under a 100 bucks, and it seemed to work as well and be as durable as $300 odd dollar watches from the likes of like Suunto, so that's the sort of money I'm aiming to spend again, but always open to suggestions. Go's without saying it has to be durable, handle any NW weather etc.... but I said it anyway. Definitely not interested in a "smart" watch or anything with GPS unless it runs for a year or more on a single charge....... Thanks guys

[texasbb]

I have both a $300 Suunto and an inexpensive Casio. The latter works but requires eternal vigilance calibrating to known elevations. The former has an auto mode that is enough to make me spring another $300 if/when that one wears out. It discerns whether you're moving or not to decide whether to account pressure changes as differences in elevation or weather. It works surprisingly well.

[Jaberwock]

You can get those $300 suunto cores on Amazon for $175, just make sure to get one of the versions with a positive display so you can read the screen.

[Randito]

I've been wearing a pretty basic Casio $39 I use a GPS gadget for my primary navigation tool. Casio also makes "triple sensor" models that include a compass -- but those are more like $90 -- and the compass sighting accuracy isn't much better than a zipper pull compass. $3.50

[cartman]

I use a Casio Pathfinder ($60), and agree with texasbb that it requires vigilance to be reliable. Haven't used the Suunto with that auto tech, that sounds interesting. But too many of the user reviews are not good for the Core (pay attention to the ones from people who've had it over a year), and it sounds like Suunto doesn't stand by their warranty and overall has poor customer service if there's a problem. Forget the ones with a compass; the compass function eats up battery life and isn't a bit necessary.

[texasbb]

[DIYSteve]

My current suggestion is none of the above. After 20+ years of alti watches, I've switched to a mechanical analog altimeter and an analog solar powered watch (Citizen EcoDrive). My 5th altimeter watch, a Suunto Alu Core, with an aluminum alloy body, finally pooped out last year. Well, actually, that was my 6th alti watch. It's a warranty replacement. The replacement Alu Core was better than my plastic body Core, which failed after one year, circuitry zapped by moisture, which is how all my alti watches eventually fail. My first alti watch was the classic Avocet Vector. It was nice while it worked but after a couple years the buttons fell off and the circuitry failed. My High Gear alti watch lasted only a few months before the circuitry failed. IME, alti watches are very sensitive to moisture notwithstanding the "waterproof" marketing. My experience is similar to that of texasbb: All my alti watches have performed better when they are off my wrist and strapped to my backpack shoulder strap. ETA: An electronic compasses for mountain travel is silly, an unreliable battery-dependent solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist. A decent bubble compass with adjustable MD, e.g., Suuto Ranger, works flawlessly.

[Cyclopath]

I'm using a Garmin Fenix 3 ABC+GPS watch. Absolutely love it. Best watch, GPS, and exercise computer I've ever had. You wouldn't like it because of the battery, and I avoided GPS watches for years for the same reason. Glad I finally got one.

[Cyclopath]

[DIYSteve]

[Cyclopath]

Interesting. Was it always over a short term like that? Probably just went crazy all of a sudden? I remember somebody telling me the storm alarm would go off on theirs every time they finished swimming. Like water got into the barometer, it sensed really high pressure, then they get out of the pool and the pressure drops. But Tiger Mountain isn't a pool! My Fenix watch has two small holes on the side for the barometer. I never had any idea where it was on the Core. But there have to be some holes to let outside air into the sensor, right? I wonder if their placement affects how susceptible a device is? My (Garmin) watch said I did 3,369 feet of vert from the Mazama store to the Washington Pass sign; officially it's 3,374 feet, I've been pretty confident in its numbers as long as I've calibrated it recently. To be fair, I check my altimeter a lot, but not constantly, so if it's as erratic and hard to reproduce as you say, I can't 100 % rule out that mine does this too. I can only say I haven't seen it.

[texasbb]

[DIYSteve]

[spamfoote]

[Cyclopath]

So the air holes are on the back of the watch, where they contact the wrist? Sounds like maybe not the best design in the world. What you describe about forming a small membrane out of sweat and water makes a lot of sense to me. If that's the case, putting the air holes on the side was probably a smart move.