Even when following your rule #2, you can feel the lanyard hole in the centre of one end by sliding your finger over it. (tough if you are waring glove though)

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I think Nexus (or similar) is a trademark sometimes used by Silva SE/Brunton, possibly outside the U.S.
As far as I understand it, Silva SE bought Brunton and changed the distribution of their compasses to Brunton, and then found the old distributer had registered the Silva name. So they changed the Silva SE compasses name to Nexus only in the US and left Brunton compasses still branded as Brunton until the merge was complete. Now the Silva SE's seem to use the Brunton name. Then I lost track of Nexus.

Recta has been around for a long time. A while back SAK's had some pouches with a ruler which had a compass, thermometer and magnify glass in it, and I think they did one without the themometer. That was made by Recta.
I noticed earlier when I went to Suunto's web site that they have Recta's rebaged as Suunto's now. The MB6 is a rebadged DP6 or similar.
Its hard to get Suunto's down here, I've never managed to get myself a M3 or a MC2 when Ive tried. But I noticed today that there is a new importer so I fired off an email earlier.
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I tend to think of button compasses as emergency, last resort, better than no compass at all compasses. You really can't use them for following a bearing other than the basic 8 rose points
I agree, but have a close look at the Suunto clipper. It has degree marks around the rotating bezel and an index mark, so its better than most button compasses.
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I'm a person who thinks that people who tread outside of familiar suburbia should carry a decent compass, a great map, and a basic GPS w/ extra batteries ... and of course know how to use all three with each other.
I couldnt have said that any better.