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Finding the best survival watch is quite simple, you want the most useful watch for the wilderness that is going to give you all the help you need and the best chance of improving your situation. Of course, a dress watch will not be anything near suitable for survival, fashion is not even #6 on the list of things that have been considered.
The most useful watches are those ones with very simple but effective functions, designs and are easy to use. If you are seriously concerned enough about your safety, you can buy a Breitling emergency watch for around $5000 which sends out a distress signal if you’re ever in trouble. Although almost everyone who is a regular in the outdoors will know that this is more of a fashion piece than a practical watch.
Overall, survival watches are designed to help you look after yourself and make the best decisions in sticky situations. A compass is not going to be the most accurate device to get you from A to B, but it will send you in the right direction 100% of the time. This pretty much embodies what a survival watch is, it’s not going to be your guardian, but when used properly it is going to help you a lot.
Table of Contents
What Is A Survival Watch?
A survival watch is a particular type of watch which is built for survival purposes. This doesn’t mean that the watch is going to save your life, but it may help you to do so. Listed below are several features which can help out in a survival situation, or if you are simply lost in the woods. These are small, but beneficial things that aid you and increase your chances of a positive outcome. Survival watches are rugged and built to last, with a priority on usefulness, not fashion.
What Watches Do Navy SEALs Wear?
Once upon a time SEALs wore Rolex Submariners. This made sense since these watches are automatic, super reliable, and water resistant to a depth of 300m – in short, they are legit divers watches. However, this process stopped in the early 1980s and now SEALs can wear whatever they wish (within reason).
Luminox is often marketed as the brand chosen by Navy SEALs as most of their watches are built to military specifications, however it is not known how many SEALs actually choose to wear Luminox. It is also well known that SEALs tend to choose digital watches such as Casio G-Shock models and the Timex Ironman worn by Jocko Willink.
Why Do Marines Wear Their Watches Backwards?
There are two main reasons that marines and other soldiers around the world wear their watches with the glass dial on the inside of the wrist.
The first reason is that being in the military can be a very tough job. You have to enter a variety of unusual terrains and encounter objects that you won’t have thought about beforehand. This could be bomb blasts, a car wreckage, sharp bushes in a jungle, or anything else you can imagine. Needless to say, none of these things are good for the longevity of your watch dial.
Secondly, light reflecting off the crystal can alert the enemy to your position. This could be sunlight or moonlight, it doesn’t really matter. Although the chances of this happening are relatively unlikely, when your life is on the line, it’s best to make this chance 0%.
What Makes A Good Survival Watch? (Key Features)
Ruggedness
The very first feature you want from a survival watch is ruggedness. It should go without saying that in a survival situation, whether it be a few days in the woods or societal collapse, you’re going to want something that doesn’t break easily.
This rules out smartwatches straight away. Even though they have come on leaps and bounds in the past decade, they are still not quite at the standard of other digital and analog watches in terms of toughness.
Whilst you don’t want to intentionally damage your watch, you do want something that can take an absolute beating if necessary. Fashion is not important when buying a rugged watch and practical use is always something that should take absolute priority.
Shock Resistance
One good feature to have is shock resistance. Once again, you are not going to try and destroy your own watch, but accidents do happen. It’s possible you drop your watch, or simply hit it very hard against a solid object. Shock resistance makes sure that this doesn’t damage the movement of the watch. For reference, this feature is best performed by Casio G-Shock watches.
Waterproof
Thankfully all modern military and survival watches are made to be waterproof and can survive torrential downpours of rain, alongside complete submersion in water. The only real difference in waterproof ratings is for dive watches, which is not really something you should be concerned with in a survival watch.
With that being said, some watches do keep out water and dirt better than others. The best example of this is the G-Shock mudmaster which is specifically designed for situations in the wilderness. Water is one of the easier things to keep out of your watch, with elements such as mud and steam being a little more difficult.
GPS or Compass
In terms of practical usage of a survival watch, you should ideally be giving preference to compass over GPS. There are some watches with gps and compass applications, however these are generally smartwatches.
Using a GPS is a lot easier to pinpoint your exact location, as well as find where you are going. It does however allow you to be tracked, requires full satellite coverage, and eats up copious amounts of battery. A simple compass is nowhere near as accurate but has none of these negative side effects. So if you were looking for a prepper watch, a compass is far superior to a watch with GPS.
Battery Life
This should concern you if you are looking for the best watch in a SHTF situation. Smartwatches are out of the question since they need regular recharging. Your best bet is probably going to be a digital survival watch since there are certain models (Casio specifically) with a battery life of up to 10 years. If you’re stuck in the woods for a long while, you aren’t going to be able to replace the battery in your watch unless you took a spare, as well as tools.
Battery life is very important when comparing survival watches and not something that should be overlooked by additional features.
Weight
Weight is something which isn’t really considered too much when buying a watch. This is because no metal is really too heavy for a man’s wrist. In a survival situation however, energy is very important, and whilst it isn’t the most important feature to consider, obviously lighter is better.
The best watch materials for survival are plastic compounds that you will find in all digital watches, titanium instead of stainless steel as well as brands such as Luminox. These watches are very rugged and super lightweight having been made of a carbon compound.
Reliability / Brand
Cheap Chinese watches have immediately been ruled out. These watches are fine most of the time and not really that much worse than a lot of established brands. However, the quality control from some of these brands is simply not there. Chinese companies have the attitude of simply throwing bad watches away and sending immediate replacements.
Whilst this may be ok for the average customer buying a dress watch, it is not at all useful when buying a survival watch. You need something well known and reliable.
Other Features
Other features within a survival watch are mostly optional but can have some beneficial features dependant on your situation. For example, a watch with a temperature gauge (thermometer) is going to be useful if you want to know how cold it is and whether you should stay in your current location.
ABC watches are very popular for people who enjoy hiking. This means that the watch has an altimeter, barometer, and compass. Its already been mentioned how useful a compass is, but a barometer can also help you and alert you to storms coming your way in advance.
In short, you need to think about what features you will actually use. Many of these functions are very nice to have, but if you’re not going to use them it is a waste of money and battery life.
Best Survival Watches For Men
Casio G-Shock Mudman
The ultimate survival watch with a compass and various other features, the G-Shock Mudman is fairly inexpensive and offers pretty much everything you need for a great price. As the watch is from the tough solar range, this means that it doesn’t need a battery and the light from the sun is more than enough to power it.
Equipped with a digital compass, the mudman is one of a few all weather watches and is also mud resistant. Mud resistance may not seem like a big deal, but remember mud can get very wet, dry out, and harden, this is not good if it gets into any small areas of your watch.
Additional features include a moon graph and thermometer, the former of which might not be too useful for survival, but it certainly won’t hurt to measure temperature.
Timex Expedition
This is one of the best survival watches under $100 that you can buy and there is not really anything that comes close to it in terms of price. For those interested in bushcraft, the Timex Expedition is a good choice since it is a very practical outdoors watch.
It is available in a variety of color schemes and is very nice in camo, not to mention it won’t get spotted by potential prey. As with all digital watches, it also has the useful functions of chronographs, alarms, as well as displaying multiple timezones and a very strong backlight.
Luminox Recon
Luminox are well known for building their watches to military specification and the recon is no different. It has a sapphire crystal and a reinforced bezel, making sure that there is going to be no damage to the front of the watch face.
Suited for survival, all Luminox watches have tritium lume which does not need to be charged by light and has an approximate half life of 7 years. This ensures that although the lumes may not be the absolute brightest, they are going to last for a very long time. The compass around the inner bezel also allows you to use the old boy scout trick of finding north by using the hands on the watch.
Suunto Core
The Suunto Core is a watch created for survival. Suunto is a Finnish brand that has made watches for the army of their homeland. This may not sound too impressive, but remember that Finland has a climate similar to Alaska and is a lot tougher and more extreme than the heartlands of America.
With ABC (altimeter, barometer, compass), the Suunto core has you covered in terms of direction and incoming storms. Although it looks a lot like a smart watch, the core is not. It has approximately 12 months battery life, which is not fantastic, but pretty good for a watch with these complications.
Casio Pathfinder
You can probably already tell by the name, this is a watch that was built for the outdoors and is a very suitable choice for a survival watch. Other than having an altimeter, barometer and compass, the watch is extremely rugged and can handle getting knocked around. One of the key selling points is that the pathfinder is a tough solar watch. This means that much like the Citizen eco-drive series, this watch does not require any kind of battery replacement and can last for months without sunlight when fully charged.
Wenger
From the brand that is best known for making Swiss army knives, Wenger has produced a watch which has quite an unusual movement. It is not often that you see an ana-digi movement within an outdoors watch as they’re expensive to make, but this should be thought of as a budget version of the Tissot T-touch.
Obviously, Wenger is not as established as Tissot, but this watch is considerably cheaper than the T-touch and considering the features it offers (ABC), it really is great value.
Victorinox I.N.O.X
The INOX range are the toughest of Victorinox watches. According to the Victorinox website this watch can survive a 10 meter drop, being run over by a tank and spending 2 hours inside a washing machine. You may not need all of these things, but it is good to have a survival watch that is so rugged and durable.
Other good features are the paracord bracelet which is super durable and much more long lasting than any other typical fabric strap you can think of. Lastly, the watch comes with a removable compass bezel. This means that you’re able to wear the watch as it is and when you take it out you can snap the compass into place transforming it into a more practical timepiece.
Citizen Navihawk
Perhaps it may not seem like a tactical survival watch and looks a little complicated, but this is not entirely true. Once you have used the Navihawk for a week or so, you will realize it is pretty simple and begin to ignore a lot of the chaos of numbers on the dial.
For a start this watch has a compass around the outer bezel, making it just as capable as any other watch to tell direction. Secondly, it is a perpetual calendar with atomic synchronization, so once set, this watch will be 100% accurate and not need altering again unless you particularly wanted to.
Tissot T-Touch
Although a little expensive, the Tissot T-Touch is pretty much all you need from a survival watch. Made from titanium, this is the ideal material, as it is both lightweight and durable. The watch has two timezones, one which can be viewed on the regular hands, with the second being visible on the digital LCD screen.
As you will be able to see around the outer dial and bezel of the watch, the T-Touch has a lot of useful complications for the outdoors. The watch has ABC functions as well as chronometer, and alarm. Given that this watch is made by a very well established Swiss brand, it does cost considerably more than other survival watches, but is well worth the money.
Nixon Regulus
The Nixon Regulus strikes a nice balance between a survival watch and something that can be worn every day. It should be noted that this watch is also available in full stainless steel, but this costs more money and is also far less practical than a silicon band for survivability purposes.
Having dual chronographs is a bit of a gimmick feature, but I am sure there are some scenarios where people may find this useful, although personally I wouldn’t. The watch can also be put into silent mode if you don’t want to alert anyone around you whilst using it.
