Going up…

They say that time flies – when you’re having fun – which is why I enjoyed using this nifty bit of Nikery so much. It’s packed with features – to the extent that there’s even a very good setup / software CD also supplied. Some product familiarisation will be necessary before you use this thing in anger.

As well as the time, day – date etc; the altimeter was a brilliant distraction, depending on the climb and the severity of the hairpins the metres crept upwards with reassuring regularity. This, and the stopwatch worked together to keep my mind off the pain by giving me something to work towards. Onwards and upwards. Although (incredibly) there are alarms you can set so you don’t go too high or too fast. I’ve never suffered from (RAS) rapid ascent syndrome but I’m sure that there are those who do need to be held back for their own good.

One of Nike’s huge range of watches

This model is part of the go anywhere adventure racing range and, set inside a super chunky resin and alloy casing it also has a compass, a barometer, a thermometer, an alarm, a spirit level, a data bank, a hydration alarm and a countdown timer.

When it’s dark there’s an excellent light; a real ‘Man of the Mountains’ piece of kit. Obviously it’s waterproof – down to 100m and the thick rubber strap sits securely either on your wrist, over your jersey or you could strap it to your bars.

You can and should regularly check the calibration of the altimeter i.e. when you get to the top of the col (where’s there’s an altitude marker) or when you’re next on the beach (where there’s some sea). If there’s a discrepancy then you can reset the unit accordingly.

We’ve heard on the grapevine that battery life is only around a year which seems a bit on the short side but there is a low battery warning to give you a bit of notice. However you can set the unit to go into sleep mode when it’s not in use to save power. Changing the battery is easy though – however we’d check the waterproof status of the unit after opening the back.

All in all a nice bit of kit, but you could buy a GPS for a little more, we liked the handy ‘on the fly’ weather prediction though…

Reliable and accurate – looks cool

Pricey – bulky for little wrists

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