O
ne century has passed since
we started wearing watches
on our wrists, and it appears
that the wrist-mounted time-
piece has yet to become
obsolete. Companies continue to create a
variety of features beyond simply telling
time that adapt to the ever-changing needs
of the tech-savvy consumer. This also raises
an important question — why do you need
a wristwatch when you can just look at your
phone? The key question that you should
ask is what kind of watch will serve your
lifestyle best in the absence of a cell phone?
Is it an analog automatic watch, serving the
very simple task of keeping time accurately?
Is a multi-function watch for work and play
the way to go? How about a Bluetooth-
compatible watch that’ll let you access your
smartphone features at a glance?
Having an accurate, dependable time-
piece has served me well on missions and
in the classes I teach. Not only do they
provide the ability to monitor this most pre-
cious commodity, time, but certain makes
and models can also measure ambient
temperature, barometric pressure, compass
direction, and altitude. So what does this
data translate to in austere circumstances
or tactical situations? By having environ-
mental info like temperature, you can better
monitor your team’s diagnostics (gotta keep
them horses watered). Temperature, baro-
metric pressure, and altitude are factored
into ballistic calculations for long-range
shooting. Barometric pressure can alert you
to unexpected weather, which could affect
things like line-of-sight visibility.
You might think that an altimeter may
only be relevant to pilots and mountain
climbers — think again. In 2010, while navi-
gating with GPS in the Sierra Nevada moun-
tains, I had a power failure and interference
that rendered the device as useful as a
paperweight. I was alone and eight miles
into my trek, trying to locate a designated
landing zone. Since I’d mainly been follow-
ing the GPS, I pulled out a map from my
cargo pocket to do some terrain association.
As I stopped for a map check, the GPS died.
I was at 8,000 feet, it was 30 degrees F, and
it was getting dark. Orienting my map to
north, I looked around and tried to associate
my position with visible landmarks in order
to get an idea of where I was.
With my compass, I shot two azimuths,
or lines of direction, in order to triangulate
a resection — a method used to locate your
own position on a map. In this terrain, it
was very important to determine my exact
location on the map because false peaks
could be the difference between spending
the night in the bush in very cold conditions
or in my hotel. By having a general idea
of where I was, I used the altimeter on my
watch and matched that up with the con-
tour lines (elevation indicators) on the map
to get my exact location. This saved my
bacon, and could save yours one day too.
Do a web search for “EDC.”
You’ll probably see a watch
in almost every photo. Time
keeping, orientation, coordi-
nation, and distance calcula-
tion may be the most com-
mon uses for wristwatches,
but did you know there’s a hell of a lot more
ways a watch can serve you?
> In a SHTF scenario, it’s important to keep
a chronological journal of even the most
mundane activities. An accurate sense of
time and date provides orientation and can
keep the looming depression monster at bay.
By using an analog watch, you can ap-
proximate cardinal north and south — see
“No Compass, No GPS, No Problem” in
RECOIL OFFGRID Issue 2.
Those unsightly, ginormous watch faces
are useful as a data board in a pinch. I often
write reminders or other info I may not be
able to recall later on my watch faces. You
can use a Staedtler felt pen (map pen) or
fine-point Sharpie.
A watch can be used for barter.
You can strop your knife on a leather
watchband.
I used to have an older watch that had a
sliver of space in the battery compartment.
I kept a microSD card in there with impor-
tant documents on it. Key fobs work great
for this as well.
Pop the face off and work it to an edge to
use as a cutting tool in an escape scenario.
Here we take a look at 10 of the latest
watches on the market, with functions that
go from simple to complex. See which
watch has a place in your EDC.
Survival Tip
Watch this video for some other ways watches can be
used as survival implements beyond telling time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7_-KYMtUpM
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