Watch What You're Doing With Wenger And Polar
People wear watches for many reasons. Some watches are designed to be very stylish, and some very utilitarian. There are watches that will keep track of how many steps you take in a day, the number of hours you sleep in a week or how many times your heart beats in a minute. Need a watch to tell you when the tide will be high or how many calories you ate today? They’re not difficult to find, we assure you. Watches let us know when it is, month, day, hour, minute, right down to the last second. The advent of cell phones that fit in your pocket did little to diminish the popularity of a watch; somehow there’s really no replacement for the convenience of that much information a mere arm’s length away.
Never wanting to disappoint, today we’ve got two watches that are sylish and utilitarian at the same time, and do a variety of things beyond just tell the time. Some people may not be familiar with Wenger as a brand, but nearly everyone has heard of Swiss Army. Well, Wenger was the company making knives for the Swiss Army all the way back to 1893. A little over 20 years ago they branched out from the knife making business to include watches, and the Nomad Compass is one of the beautiful results of that endeavor.
At first glance you’d never guess this watch has digital functions- it looks for all the world like an analog chronograph. There are four buttons on the watch, and they control the LED backlight which shows the day, date, time, and your bearing. Yep, this one has a very accurate compass. The LED display is very easy to read as well- it’s red, which is nice in dark places, and generally red a bit less jarring than green or blue which always take a moment to adjust to. The numbers are also quite large, which leaves little to guess about when you’re using it. This watch is a men’s watch, and while there are some watches that cross gender lines with ease, this one isn’t really one of those watches. The size of the watch leaves it pretty squarely on the male side of the gender divide.
The Nomad Compass is water resistant up to 330 feet, which for normal human use really means it’s waterproof. The strap is black silicone, and we found it is most comfortable when it’s cleaned with warm water and mild soap once in a while. The battery is replaceable, and while technically you could probably do it on your own, Wegner recommends that you have a jeweler do it, in order to maintain the integrity of the water-resistance. As far as watches go this one gets the job done in the functionality department- we wish that every watch had a compass on it. The joy of always knowing what direction you’re going is not a trifle thing. At $375 this isn’t quite an “entry level” watch, but more for those who appreciate fine crafstmanship, and are willing to invest a little in the watches they own. Look for it directly from Wegner, or online at Amazon.
We’re no strangers to Polar fitness watches, so when we got the opportunity to try out their new training watch we were delighted to do so. It’s not the first time we’ve looked at a watch that does everything short of making your dinner for you (and this not likely to be the last, we love gadgets too much). The FT7 tells time, certainly, but the main reason for wearing this watch is to keep track of your fitness levels. It’s not just a watch either- a chest strap is included as well. You can customize levels so that the watch knows where your target heartrate is- it will let you know if you’re over or under. It’s also easy to determine if you’re working on fat burning, or working on fitness improvement, thanks to a feature called EnergyPointer, and even keeps track of the number of calories you’ve burned in a day. It’s also compatible with Polar’s Personal Trainer which is a service that’s optional and free through the company, though you’ll need to pick up the FlowLink accessory to get the data onto your PC. The chest strap is comfortable, and even works underwater, to pick up your heart rate accurately.
This watch has a battery that you can replace on your own, and of course is water resistant (as one would expect a fitness watch to be), up to 50 meters. We tried it in the black and silver model, but it does come in black and gold as well- either way, it’s surprisingly striking, though the screen could be just a bit larger. If you’re serious about your fitness and training, and like to keep track of things like heart rate and calories burned this is a really nice choice. It’s easy to navigate, and seemed quite reliable. Making adjustments to the daily workout schedule really became quite easy with all of that information right at our disposal. The best part of it all is the reasonable price: find this watch directly through Polar, or online through retailers like Amazon or REI, for around $110.
