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.