For a larger non-BOB kit, or for a BOB, is it worth while to have a spare watch? I'm debating the cost, there really isn't any bulk to think about. Just a simple, analog watch that is splash/swim proof.

Opinions?

The value of a watch is to know how much time you have before it gets dark so you can spend your time appropriately. Or you could just put your hand out at arm's length and count how many fingers above the horizon the sun is and multiply by 15 minutes. After the sun goes down you have about 20 minutes of light left.

I don't wear a watch. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

And if you don't have any idea what time the sun sets, it would even be useless for that. But if the face lights up when you press the stem, maybe it could help you find your matches in the dark?

Sue

I like the alarm feature on my watch -- gets you up when you need to. Also, on a cloudy day, its hard to figure out when noon is...

TRO

I keep an old electronic watch in my large BOB. I think it is usefull, since I do not normally wear one.

An old fashioned dial watch could be used as a backup compass. During the day it's possible to find north.

Thanks. Part of why I don't wear a watch is summer is because I can shoot the sun, and even though we haven't had much sun around here, I haven't needed one.

I realised the other day that in the past month, I've worn a watch maybe two days. Things like how long is ten or thirty minutes I'm sometimes a little shaky on if I can't see the sun. Always having lived on high ground, I've never thought about evacing from a flood, but I've been thinking it might a good thing.

I guess I should cruise the yard sales looking for a ladies watch- they are smaller.

I carry a spare watch in my kit, as a backup. It is a mechanical watch, so there are no batteries, as I have had the occasional electronic watch just die on me. I also prefer automatic winding watches as you don't have the problem of forgetting to wind them. It is not good to expect that your watch will be working properly if you have just been "immersed" in a survival situation. A waterproof watch is also a good choice as many watches are just showerproof and will not put up with punishment.

My philosophy is this. In a situation when I would need to use a BOB it would likely be a several day ordeal therefore, although I would not know the exact time, I would be able to approximate it to the nearest half hour. Which is good enough for most of my needs.

The main uses for a watch in a Bug Out situation are:
1. A tool to calculate distance traveled
2. To know how much time has passed and therefore calculating rest periods and duration.
3. To know how much time you have until sundown, as has already been stated.
4. As a compass (seing I have my BOB anyway it usually has more than one compass in it)
5. As a second watch allowing you to coordinate activities with another member in your group should the need arise, and not all people carry a watch.

Concerning the setting of a watch that has stopped when in a survival situation. At 12:00 noon the sun is very close to due North. This is disregarding daylight saving time adjustments.

The sun advances 15 degrees in its path through the sky every hour. If you have a protractor on your compass, as most compasses do, you can calculate where the sun will be when it is at due north. Then using the protractor you can find out quite accurately how many degrees the sun is from that spot in the sky.

If it is say 50 degrees to the east of the spot, that means it will take the sun exactly 3 hours and 20 minutes to reach the 12:00 position. So the local solar time is 9:40 am. This is LOCAL SOLAR time which is only true for locations in the center of your time zone.

If you want to be accurate to your time zone, you will have to approximate how far you are from the center of your time zone. At the equator, adjust your time by 15 minutes for every 250 miles you are away from the center of your time zone. If you are to the east 500 miles then add on 30 minutes to local solar time, Or 250 miles to the west, take off 15 minutes. As you go further north or south, the distance of 250 miles reduces slightly, but as we are approximating anyway it really doesn't matter until you get really far north. If I was in Alaska I would just use solar time and be done with it. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

As with any skill, setting your watch by the sun should be practiced before you need it.

> At 12:00 noon the sun is very close to due North.

... if you are in the southern hemisphere. Hey, it's good to see occasional posts from Australia.

If you are in America or Europe the sun will be close to due south. Basically, it will be over the equator, which ever way that is for your location. If you are living exactly on the equator, try not to lose your watch. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Brangdon, good point I hadn't realized that I had moved back into Australian mode so quickly. I've only been back here for one year and it's showing already. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

There is a good way to know how much to adjust your watch when converting solar time to your time zone. Just go outside and find the solar time with a watch and your compass. The difference between the two times (minus daylight saving if applicable) is exactly how much the local solar time is off from your time zone.

You could also make up a conversion table to keep in your kit with the watch, listing the conversion for select locations accross the country.

It is important to note that the differences between Local Solar Time and Local Clock Time in any location vary by up to 16 minutes over the course of a year. This is because few days are exactly 24 hours long.

This table gives a rough indication of what is called the "Equation of Time" these differences are in addition to those relating to the time zones. The table helps you find the Local Clock Time.

If you want to be exact, convert the Local Solar Time to Local Clock Time with the table, and then adjust for daylight saving time and your time zone.

As far as I'm concerned solar time is good enough for me, I try to ignore daylight saving time as much as possible! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

"just add water" scotch?

BLASPHEMER!! Water and scotch never go together, not even ice. Chill it in the bottle.

Then again, I belive that you should never drink scotch that is younger than a woman you would date.

LOL! No, I was kidding. I admit to being a scotch purist.

Now, as for the stoning, yes. A nice, 25 to 35 year old Glenmorangie or Laphroaig, 3 fingers full in a tumbler, chilled in the bottle so there is no water to dilute it. Repeat the procedure at ten minute intervals until you confess and repent your sins (and recieve absolution), or are cross eyed. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The "wilderness protocol" or maybe some personal variation of it, would require some fairly precise timekeeping, or you would totally miss the communications window or else waste batteries by monitoring or transmitting when the other party isn't listening.

As someone else mentioned, knowing how long until it gets dark (OK, maybe you don't know sunset on the first day, but from there on out, you would know) will help you plan your actions. If it's three hours till sunset and your next travel leg is at least four hours, then maybe it's best to stay put. A similar situation is if there is some dawn-to-dusk curfew in place and you really don't want to be caught outside when the curfew is in effect. Obviously, you can tell that the sun is going down by just looking at it, but a watch will give you a better indicator of the amount of daylight left when the sun is still relatively high in the sky. Maybe some of us can eyeball the time this way, but I've never developed the skill. If you need to set up a rotating watch, e.g. taking turns watching a nearby river through the night during flood conditions, then having a watch keeps things equitable.

When purifying water, obviously a watch will help you purify the water long enough, whether through boiling or chemical disinfection. But it would also help you from needlessly wasting fuel or waiting too long for chemical disinfection when you're really in need of water as soon as possible. And if you need to repeat the treatment, e.g. using chorine bleach drops, then you could waste a lot of time going through the process a couple times without having a reliable indicator of time.

Weather warnings are usually in effect for set amounts of time. If you really want to go out on the road but you know that there is a flash flood warning for three hours, you can stay put for the shortest time without unnecessarily putting yourself in danger. The warnings are always broadcast when they are issued, but there's often no broadcast when one expires, so you have to keep track of them yourself. Or maybe you know about the alert when it's issued, but don't have a radio/TV handy when it expires.

Anyway, just some random time-related activities.

For what it's worth, I have a samll simple but rugged 300m waterproof watch in my backpack-sized kit. The amount of space/weight it comsumes is basically nothing. I don't always wear a watch these days (although I have my eye on a cool Suunto Xlander that may change that in the future) so I figure having a simple watch in my kit is nice for telling time once the battery on my cell phone (my current edc watch) wears down... which of course won't take long.

Before this weekend, I wouldn't think of a watch as a useful tool. But after going on a short backpacking trip, I've now changed my mind, I would definitely include a watch in your kit.

This weekend I decided to try out some bare minimum backpacking up in the mountains (at around 8-10K ft), just to see what I would and would not be useful if it was an emergency. I wasn't out to survive on just my EDC, but I did carry a lot less than usual. The one thing both me and my friend commented on was that we were definitely going to bring watches next time. Normally i don't even wear a watch, so it never occured to me to bring one when camping. But as everyone else mentioned, knowing how much time until sunset can be very important, and being able to estimate the time when it's overcast or you're deep in the forest is impossible. There were at least 3 times during this overnight trip that we both wished we had a watch.

1) Arrived at the campsite around 1 pm, set up camp, and both of us took a nap. After waking up, we were trying to decide whether we had enough time to hike up to the summit and back (5 hour trip), but neither of us knew how long we had slept and if it was 2 pm or 6 pm, so we didn't want to be stuck on the trail at night.

2) Cooking dinner. After boing water and dumping it in the freeze dried bag, we were supposed to wait for 10 minutes or so for every 5000 feet of elevation. We basically just waited a lot longer than necessary because we didn't want to keep opening the bag and let the heat out, but a watch could have been handy.

3) Waking up the in the morning to start hiking before sunrise, again, we didn't know whether it was 2 am or 6 am. When I woke up, it was pitch black, so I wasn't really sure how long I'd been asleep. We waited until it started getting lighter just so we knew it was morning, but a watch (with an alarm) would have been better, because we could've started the hike an hour or two earlier.

The few things I learned was it's not always easy to estimate what time it is from the sun, especially if there is no sun (at night). And you lose all sense of time when you're away from civilization, ten minutes can feel like an hour, or four hours can feel like one hour. From now on, I'm going to start carrying a cheap battery operated watch in my backpack.