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Home > Gear Reviews > Altimeter watch 
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Altimeter watch Brand: Highgear Model: Aerial Price: $149 Purchased At: Moosejaw.com Altimeter watch
posted by fonixmunkee in Adventure Travel, Freestyle Skiing, Freshwater Fishing, Hiking, Mountain Biking, Mountaineering, Snow Skiing, Snowboarding  Email to a friend
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I was looking for a new watch one day when I stumbled across the Highgear Alterra, the bigger brother of the Highgear Aerial. I didn’t have much money, so I called Moosejaw directly to see if they had any other suggestions. The nice lady on the phone suggested the Aerial, stating that it had all the features I wanted. The price was definitely right, and since I was looking for something with a thermometer, barometer, and ski chrono, I decided to take it for a spin. It is easily the most money I’ve spent on a watch ever, but it was worth. The basics first: the watch surprisingly to most who gaze upon it does have a clock and alarm on it. The clock supports 12- and 24-hour time format, and you can also set two different clocks in case you move between time zones. The alarm on the watch is also loud enough to wake me up out of a deep slumber in the woods, so it is reliable enough to be used as an alarm clock (no need to haul another one with now). The thing I really enjoy about the watch is when it is in the TIME function (where the time is displayed on the screen), you can toggle through different information screens one setting having the temperature, time, and date on it, another screen having the barometer, time, and date displayed, and yet another having the elevation, time, and date. At all times in the TIME display, the weather center prediction is displayed with an easy-to-read graphical icon. More on this in a bit. The weather center, when calibrated, is even more accurate then the local 10-day forecast. It’s saved me numerous wet hiking days by successfully predicting the weather. The weather center uses the current barometric reading compared to the Mean Seal Level (MSL) barometric pressure to predict the pressure and analyze the trend over 24 hours (the trend can be displayed graphically in the BARO screen of the watch.) When the altimeter is calibrated properly, the weather center is very accurate and it’s become a staple on backpacking trips for other party members to ask “what does the watch say” because of it’s accuracy. The weather center predicts a possible weather trend: sunny, mostly sunny, mostly clouded, or precipitation in the next six hours. The weather center puts a graphical icon on the TIME and BARO screen at all times. This icon is easy to read and easy to see, even at night. Since the weather center is reliant upon the barometer of the watch, , the barometer is fairly accurate. Enough said on that function. The barometer, can display the barometric pressure in inHg (which we are used to seeing on the news and in the online weather) and in inPa mbars, which I have no idea what those are. My barometer is set to display the reading in inHg, obviously. The altimeter is decent too, but requires constant calibration to keep it accurate (I have a +/- 800 foot daily gain to and from work that really messes it up over time). I have not had this thing at elevations over 2,200 feet (hey, I live in the midwest, OK?) but when comparing it side-by-side with my GPS elevation, it’s pretty close, usually only off by a 100 feet or so. For serious altimeter-required activities, the watch probably shouldn’t be relied upon unless you can constantly–and accurately–calibrate it. I use my GPS’s altitude based of satellite to calibrate my watch, and it’s kept pace with the GPS and hasn’t ruined any predictions of the weather either. The other thing I like is the thermometer, which I am getting pretty good at reading when it’s on my arm (just subtract 10-12 degrees for your body heat). It’s dead-on when just sitting out not attached to your arm, and over time you can learn to read the temperature when it’s on your arm as well. No calibration required for this. The ski chrono was another feature that sold me. The ski chrono functions by you inputting in your base elevation (that is, where you will END skiing) and the maximum elevation at where you start your run. It then computes the elevation change and the time it took to reach the base elevation from the max elevation and tells you how fast you skiied. This is a gee-whiz feature, but I’m was very tempted to use it to try and see if I ski faster than my friends so I can have bragging rights until I start drinking and skiing. The first trial was at a local Midwest resort that has the longest runs in the state of Minnesota (Lutsen Mountains). We picked the second-longest run (Bull Run, connecting to Lower Moose) to try it out. Since I had already sold three of my friends on buying the same watch, we got the same (or damn close) base elevation, took the lift to the top, and then did the same with the top elevation. We then went spaced out 5 seconds apart. Starting the ski chrono was easy: you just push the big button that says "START" and a countdown begins from 10. When it gets to 0, we would push off and ski non-stop to the bottom. We did this once, and everyone was within a second of each other. The fastest time was 41.7 seconds, the slowest was 44.7...which was me. Looks like there was no bragging rights. We saved the data to the chrono log with the push of a button, and went back up to the top again. We repeated this three times, saving each run. By the third lap, I was down to 41.2 seconds, and the fastest guy was at 38.9. It was a blast to try, and we went for a fourth try, but were shut down by nervous ski patrollers. I went home and mapped out the trail on Google Earth and then figured out if our time s were feasible that we got off the chrono. Since there was no clear way to figure it out, guesstimation was the only way. But to cover .55 miles in 38.9 seconds (going downhill!) seemed pretty logical to me. The second time trying out the ski chrono was at the top of the new Peruvian Chair at Snowbird. Our goal was to go all the way down the frontside to the bottom of the Gadzoom lift. It had been a full day of skiing Mineral Basin, so I knew I was going to be slow. We all had calibrated the watch at the base of the mountain, so we already knew where to stop. We punched in this elevation on the watch for the stop elevation, and pushed off in 30 second intervals (the three of us, again). My first friend got to the bottom in 5 minutes 20 seconds. My second friend got there in a little over, at 5 minutes 33 seconds. I rolled in at 9 minutes 27 seconds. When I looked at the watch on the web, the size kind of scared me, but now I wear it all the time, as the size of the watch isn’t that imposing, even on my skinny forearm. The backlight is great at night and you have no problems reading the displays. Over all, a really great and accurate watch, and when compared to the Suunto watches at the same functional level, this thing is a steal for the price. Highly recommended for ski nerds, backpackers, and any person who is an information junky (like me). That was covering 2,600 vertical feet in that time. It felt good. Comments
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