Altimeter watch

My watch is starting to die, so I figured I'd look into getting one with an altimeter to track my vertical. My main concerns are ease of use (turn it on in the morning, see vertical at end of day) and price. I'm basically looking for the absolute cheapest watch that can record total vertical descent. Also, for those of you who have altimeter watches, do you think being able to download the data to a Mac is an important feature?

My father uses a sunto that I bought him a few years ago. He's not terribly competent when it comes to technical stuff so he hasn't figure out yet how to track total vert, but he enjoys it nonetheless. It is a great watch.

They all generally work by "turn it on in the morning, see vertical at the end of the day." This is a big reason for me using the watch diligently. I want to record the vertical but I'm glad I don't have to be checking it all day long as in the 17 years before the watch.

Some like JSpin use the download feature. If you want those graphs that show your elevation by time of day you probably need that feature. I just put the daily total in a homegrown spreadsheet which I maintain at my convenience.

Staley":1pu2jbeu said:

My watch is starting to die, so I figured I'd look into getting one with an altimeter to track my vertical. My main concerns are ease of use (turn it on in the morning, see vertical at end of day) and price. I'm basically looking for the absolute cheapest watch that can record total vertical descent. Also, for those of you who have altimeter watches, do you think being able to download the data to a Mac is an important feature?

Click to expand...

The cheapest and only really wanting vertical info generally don't have a download feature.

Download to a Mac? Are you talking about the Suunto? I've had mine since 2006 and I've had a Mac since the early 90s. There is a way (pain in the ass sometimes) around it if you're are on Mac. All my log info is in Windows for Mac, so there is a way to get around the non-Mac friendly Suunto.

I don't need a download feature--I was just wondering if you guys thought it was really useful. I'll most likely not even get an altimeter watch, but if I can find one for about $50 (not necessarily new), it could be a possibility.

Staley":dxuz5irv said:

I don't need a download feature--I was just wondering if you guys thought it was really useful. I'll most likely not even get an altimeter watch, but if I can find one for about $50 (not necessarily new), it could be a possibility.

Click to expand...

The Suunto I bought my father was around $200, although it could've been a bit more or less. It was a while back so I don't remember so well, but I do think 50 is rather low for a new one.

rfarren":3qdnqk68 said:

Staley":3qdnqk68 said:

I don't need a download feature--I was just wondering if you guys thought it was really useful. I'll most likely not even get an altimeter watch, but if I can find one for about $50 (not necessarily new), it could be a possibility.

Click to expand...

The Suunto I bought my father was around $200, although it could've been a bit more or less. It was a while back so I don't remember so well, but I do think 50 is rather low for a new one.

Click to expand...

Suunto has a bunch of bells and whistles on it. I know Lucky Luke has one and I believe it just adds up vertical. Pretty minimal.

I personally like the vertical graph as it's a reminder of the type of day I've add and can be use as reference for vertical of certain lifts, slopes, etc. Contrarly to Tony, I don't add up the vert number in my skiday database (I haven't created the space ...yet) as I don't really care that much about it stat wise. All that info is with the Suunto datalog on my computer.