Can't quite live up to the hype
Written: Jan 04 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: altitude works well, fits well
Cons: Compass and weather functions not reliable, durability not greatest, retail price is high
The Bottom Line: You are not going to get what is advertised. If you can get one cheap, the altitude function is nice. Otherwise, look elsewhere for something more durable and trustworthy.
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| rookshark's Full Review: Nike ACG Ascent Compass Wrist Watch for Men |
There is so much to like about this watch. The features abound to the point of contemplating what else could have been crammed inside?
Ah, and you know it has been crammed chock full because when you unpack the watch, the first thing you notice is the size of the watch. It is a big watch, not for the faint of heart. Women beware unless you are trying to make your wrist look small in comparison. It is heavy, but no more so than some metal dress watches I have had. The only difference here is that the watch has a stainless steel back, but polyurethane band. Overall, the size was not an issue for a big guy like me, and the fit was fine, to the point where wearing it all day or longer causes no problems or discomfort. Score one for Nike on this front.
Accessing the features of the watch is not rocket science. Scrolling through the options brings up a word that tells you where you are in the menu, then quickly gives you the option you wanted. For example, you press the bottom left button once, you get COMP for compass, ALTI for altimeter, etc. Affecting changes is easy in each menu as well. If you press the top left button and hold it, the watch immediately shows you “ADJUST” and flashes “HOLD” until it enters into the mode where you can change the time, altitude, etc. The top right button turns the beep on and off for scrolling when on the time screen. If you have the beep turned on, and you scroll through the menu…the beep is the same until you get back to the time or main menu, at which time it beeps in a different tone to let you know you have made it all the way around (since there are so many menus.) The separate LIGHT and DATA buttons are nice to have, different sized and easy to feel when you need them.
So, lets take a look at each feature, and how well it works:
TIME The date is displayed at the top of the watch in smaller print…FRI 4 for example. On the left in even smaller print is T1 or T2, showing you which of the two separately programmable times you are using. Accessing the other time is easy enough, by pressing the bottom right button. The time is front and center, with seconds displayed and a small A to let you know if in the AM, P PM. Below that is displayed the altitude. After all, you paid for this fancy watch, you should be able to use it even when you are just wearing “the watch.” You can not show the weather feature or anything else, but having the altitude shown constantly (even if it does not update instantly…it only takes reading ever so often) is nice.
COMP You have to pay attention to the little bubble level for the compass to work. Even still…I was never impressed with the accuracy of the compass. I could turn around in roughly 45 degree increments and the compass never reacted very well. In the end, I gave up using this function. Could it just be me? Perhaps…but I do not think so. One bright spot of this function is that it only stays working for a few seconds…because you could quickly drain the battery if you accidently left it on, or bumped the watch and accidently turned it on, which is nice.
ALTI Living in a very mountainous country, this is the feature I was most looking forward to using. The bar graph at the top of the watch is supposed to represent the changes in altitude you have recently passed through. It works I suppose, but I never really felt it helped give me a grasp of much of anything. The altitude shown changes as readings are taken, but those readings are not instant as I mentioned above, they are taken at probably some scientifically measurable interval, but to me just seem to change every whip stitch, which is still probably often enough so as to again not drain the battery faster. You can change from feet to meters. I live near an airport where I know the actual altitude. Given that, I can calibrate the watch when necessary (which is every time after you fly I have found) and test how well it maintains accuracy, which it turns out has been pretty well. Every few weeks I check it against the standard, and usually it off by 100 ft or so. You can leave the watch in this mode and the watch shows up in the bottom of the screen, smaller, but still easily visible, which is nice if you are traveling through the mountains, and are more interested in checking the altitude often than the time.
WEATH The weather function seems like a fancy doo dad to me, rather than something I really needed or wanted. I check it every once in a while for fun, but to be honest, it is not going to do you much better predicting or checking the weather than what you can get on the news. The barometer probably works fine, and you can choose to see the forecast (depicted with pictures of a sunny sky, rain, clouds) or how a graph on the barometer changes. The temperature is something I have always looked at as something that would be nice…if it worked correctly. If you want to know what the temperature is something cooler than your skin but warmer than the actual conditions, then this watch is fine. Getting actual conditions either involves taking the watch off, leaving it for long periods sitting by itself (at which point I am still not convinced it does a good job) or having a separate thermometer.
DATA This is where you can store those precious moments of being 8,500 feet above sea level. It records the time, date, and altitude. I guess that might be nice to have. I know you can record more than one, but really, never found much use for it myself. Again, nice, but necessary? Depends on your needs I suppose.
S-RUN I have never skied. This is a timer for skiers to record their time and altitude changes. I can make no claims to how well it works, but seems like a good idea if it does.
CHRON Basic chronometer. You can start, stop, restart, stop reset, but can not save any laps or anything like that. Nothing fancy, it works well if you need it, and will mark seconds, minutes and hours.
ALARM This is nice. Seven alarms are offered. You can set the first four for times, the next two for altitudes, and the last for temperature. If you want to be alerted when it is time to get up, you reach 5,200 ft, or it is 60 degrees, you are covered. All work well…if you trust the accuracy of course on the last two.
I should note that I purchased the Lance Armstrong edition of this watch. I do not see it brings any changes to the watch other than the color (gray/blue/silver instead of the traditional black/green/silver). The face surround scratches easily in either colorway (I bought my friend the non-compass black/green version), although the crystal itself is more resistant to scratching. Mine has held up well, but battery life is not great. Expect a year, maybe two if you do not use it as your primary watch, at most. My friend wore his as his everyday watch…and his lasted less than five years, after buying a new band, changing batteries several times, and finally the front casing and polyurethane portion of the watch itself falling apart, he had to throw it away.
If you are looking for a dedicated watch to wear all the time, I would recommend looking for something else. If you want a specialty watch for those days when you might need some of these features (the altitude being the only one I found to be worth its salt of the specialty features) and can pick this up for a reasonable price (I picked mine up for $59, retail was ridiculous at something like $299 for the Armstrong edition, $199 for regular) than it is probably not a bad investment…just not a great one.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
rookshark
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Location: Honduras
Reviews written: 54
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
missionary living in Honduras
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