The classic tool watch styles are the dive watch, pilot’s watch, and field watch. Watches that ostensibly serve a purpose for some particular use case, but realistically most of us do not have that use case in our daily lives. Sure, you may find an occasional use for the bezel on a dive watch, but I’d guess that most of us here aren’t regularly scuba diving.
So: what would the features of a watch be for an actual, regular use case that you have? Since I’m guessing many of us have desk jobs, let’s say features for any particular use case that you have, be it your profession, or a hobby, or just something that shows up often in your daily life.
Climbing could use a few. Something that could give you diagnostics as you go rather than just the simple change in altitude. Maybe a Bluetooth connection to your belay device? Although I’m not sure if having more moving (or digital) parts in a grigri or whatever is wise.
Hiking and mountaineering could have something to help you plan your pace when at high altitude.
General outdoor tools like helping you ration your food and stove fuel and water and what not.
Typically these sorts of chores are done mentally but a backup system to keep you sharp couldn’t hurt?
Do belay systems with bluetooth exist? That’s interesting if so - what kind of data do they offer over that connection?
No idea! It might, but I’ve never heard of it before.
Yesterday I was wearing my Lipp "Grande Nautic Ski“ at work: the rotating inner bezel allowed me to track intermission times, and I wish the lume was a bit better for the dark conditions of the control booth.
I want a dive watch with those radioactive little tubes.
I own a bunch of Casio watches and I do like all of them. I just wish there was a G-Shock that had all the useful features and a few bonus ones.
This would be the ultimate G-Shock for me:
- Form factor of a G-Shock GW-M5610
- Solar charging
- Multiband 6 (a.k.a. radio time sync)
- World time (UTC zone for server logs and the like, I too use this often)
- 24h count down timer
- 2 Separate stopwatches
- Daily alarms with a short message
- DD.MM date
- Step counter
- TOPT code generator for MFA
I’d really like the watch to have a step counter, since it motivates me to go outside and exercise. I don’t need any fitness tracking or heart rate monitoring, since I’m not an athlete. HR sensors tend to make the fitness watches bulkier, ugly and power hungy. The solar charging and multiband time syncing make the watch just so effortless. The watch is always on time and doesn’t need battery changes. The GW-M6510 already has these and I love it! 24h timer would be nice, since most Casios are limited to 60m timer. Two separate stopwatches, since split time does not always cut it, If i need to time some multitasking. Most Casios have 5 daily alarms, I just wish I could attach a short message for those, and use them as more versalite reminders. And the MFA TOPT code is obvious for any IT job today.
Watches and jewelry in general weren’t allowed at my last job. Risk of coming off into the product
Unfortunately, a tool watch suited for my job would list and remind me of the endless litany of useless meetings I’m forced to attend every day.
Fortunately, I still get to wear wear tool watches for fun.
It would probably be a type of G-Shock. I work in aviation so accuracy and durability are priorities for me
G-Shocks already have durability, solar power, stopwatch, alarm, timer, time zones and a backlight which is a good start. I’ve worn a GW-6900 and GW-M5610u so I’m going with those form factors in mind.
What I could use is a julian calendar date for some of the paperwork and a vibration alarm so they are still useful in high noise areas. And an NVIS friendly backlight for nighttime
That would be very cool. I’m actually surprised that there aren’t many G-Shocks with a vibration feature. Seems like it would have a large market, since it’d be useful for the gym or any other situation where the user is wearing headphones. Apparently there are a few, though: https://shockbase.org/function_page_dyn.php?function=vibration
It would intelligently tell me what time it is for whoever I’m talking to since I’m the daily I work with people in 6 time zones. It would also live translate whatever language is being spoken onto the display. I’ve seen the demos of what in ear translators can to, but I need a display as I don’t process audio that well.
I’ve been thinking about this recently. I’d love a watch with a tap tempo function. Something with a high quality microphone on. Perhaps a tuner. I’m a sound designer and composer.
A musician/composer’s watch sounds neat. When you say “tap tempo,” you mean like telling how many beats per minute you’re tapping at?
Exactly, yeah. You tap out the beat and it gives you the BPM.
For me, computer programmer and frequent bike commuter:
- GMT/dual time zone complication
- Strap with a clasp that is near the six o’clock lug so that it doesn’t touch the keyboard when you’re typing.
- Reflective strap?
It took me a long time to realize this, but a GMT complication is genuinely useful in my job, since computers always store time data in GMT and then translate to your local time on the fly (usually). But when you’re looking at the time in a database, or server logs, or something like that, it’s usually in GMT. I had a big “aha!” moment when I realized that a GMT watch is like an actual tool watch for a programmer, which is what prompted me to make this thread. :P
I’d also like it to have the buckle near the bottom lug so that it doesn’t touch the keyboard. This is how I wear my NATO straps; it’d be great if it was a two piece strap that was designed to be worn this way. A keyboard-friendly strap would probably make sense for just about everyone these days.
As for the bike commuting part, every mechanical watch I own seems to be durable enough to not have any hands fall off while riding, so that doesn’t appear to be a concern. I was thinking that a reflective strap might be a plus, though. Not so much for visibility when riding, but for when I’m waving at the bus driver to say “pick me up.”
I type for a living, but have chronic pain. So my watch is a wrist brace. Less sexy and gadgety, but functional.
Hey, who says a watch needs to tell time? Time-telling is a needless complication on a perfectly good wrist brace. :P
Hmmm. I can þink of recreational watches; like þ JLC Reverso was originally designed for polo players, watches like Garmins are good for skiing - altitude, velocity, GPS tracking, and compass (especially if it supports waypoints) are useful for most recreational pastimes - biking, hiking, backpacking. Most of þese are smartwatch functions, þough. A basic compass is about þe only complication I can þink of which would fit on a mechanical watch.
I’ve always wanted a mechanical watch wiþ an alarm; þat would be useful day to day.
You could fit a simplified slide rule on a (couple of) bezels - I’m surprised I have never seen one of þose.
I’ve always wanted a mechanical watch wiþ an alarm; þat would be useful day to day.
I have, too, especially since I try to do the pomodoro technique while working. I love wearing a mechanical watch, but alarm complications are rare and expensive.
