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Skydiving is an extremely fun and exhilarating activity. It gives an adrenaline rush like nothing else and is truly a thrilling experience. With that being said, there are a LOT of safety precautions that come with skydiving. The moment that assumptions are made, is the time when accidents happen.

This line of thought can be applied to both watches and smartwatches when skydiving. You must use the watch as an accessory, which can record and log data once you’re on the ground. It is very dangerous to use a watch as a 100% trustworthy device when measuring things such as altitude. Many smartwatches simply cannot update as fast as you are falling, so there will be a time-lag delay. Therefore watches are an extra, not a necessity. Never stop using your own eyes and experience, as this combination will never let you down.

Features To Look For In A Watch For Skydiving

Altimeter

Skydiving watches that use altimeters should be used with extreme caution. You should never rely on the altimeter of a watch to decide when to open your parachute.

Other than this though, altimeters can be useful. If you’re just going to use the data to see how fast you were falling and how long it took you to reach the ground, this is a cool feature. In summary, altimeters on smartwatches can be used after you’ve finished your jump. Never rely on them or place any trust in them whilst you are freefalling.

Barometer

A Barometer can be useful if the weather is very unpredictable. If you’re a skydiving instructor or trying to plan lots of jumps throughout a day, a barometer can help you out. Whilst you may already have a lot of technical weather equipment on the ground. If you’re up in a plane it can be more accurate to measure the air pressure when you’re actually in the sky.

Thermometer

If you’re going to do several jumps in one day, then you could consider using a thermometer. With that being said, it’s relatively unlikely you would change anything that you didn’t already know. It can be useful to see that the temperature was actually slightly colder than you thought it was going to be. But overall this is just an optional extra.

Water Resistance

Water-resistance is essential for any skydiving watch. You’re going to be diving through clouds, or at the very least flying through some fairly damp areas. The combination of varying temperature, pressure, and humidity levels is going to put a strain on a standard watch. It is necessary to buy something which can withstand the elements and not let you down.

Battery Life

Battery life is not the most important feature when buying a watch for skydiving. It is however a good feature to have. In comparison to other activities, skydiving takes a lot less time than something such as hiking. If you’re wearing a standard watch then this is of no concern, but for smartwatches. Some batteries last a lot longer than others.

However, if you’re going to use this watch in other areas of your everyday life. It is important to consider how long the battery will last.

Compass

Compasses won’t do you much use whilst skydiving itself. But can be useful on the ground when trying to find your way back. They also use up a lot less battery than a GPS, so can be useful if you’re running low and don’t want your watch to blackout.

GPS

A GPS will come in handy if something goes wrong with your jump. If there was a period where you got disoriented due to tangling, or simply a freak prevailing wind came and blew you off course. In this scenario, a simple glance at your GPS can help put you back on course.

You could end up landing in a field that looks the same in every direction. In this case, if you don’t know where you are it’s no worry, but a GPS can help you find your way a lot faster. It will save you any wasted time walking in the wrong direction.

Best Watches For Skydiving

Garmin Fenix 6

The Garmin Fenix 6 is one of the most advanced smartwatches on the market. It is available in a variety of colors and you are able to choose from either the battery or solar-powered versions. As it’s made from titanium, the Fenix 6 is extremely portable, lightweight and hypoallergenic compared with other watches made from other materials.

It has a variety of features such as color GPS maps, heart rate monitor, altimeter, as well as measuring your blood oxygen levels, which will be useful when you’re at the peak of your jump.

Check The Price Of Garmin Fenix 6 Watches On Amazon

Tissot T-Touch

If you’re looking for a watch that can be used for both skydiving and other activities. The Tissot T-Touch is a great choice. Made of titanium, the wristwatch is both lightweight and hypoallergenic.

Although not a smartwatch, the T-touch is still very clever and offers a plethora of features such as a compass, thermometer, altimeter, alarm, chronograph, and barometer. Given that Tissot is a popular and well-established Swiss brand. The T-touch would not look out of place as a casual dress watch either. It has all the features you’ll need from a skydiving watch, but can be used for much more than this too.

Check The Price Of Tissot T-Touch Watches On Amazon

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3

The Samsung Galaxy 3 is mostly a fitness tracking watch. However, if you have a Samsung smartphone, this would be an ideal companion for skydiving. In fact, it’s possible that you could answer a phone call whilst skydiving (although certainly not recommended).

The watch is available in a variety of colors and tracks useful metrics such as heart rate and sleep levels. As with most smartwatches, you don’t need a barometer as you’re able to track weather updates directly from the dial of your watch.

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Casio Pathfinder

The Casio Pathfinder is the most ideal digital watch for skydiving. Its large circular, backlit dial will make sure you have absolutely no trouble reading the time at any visibility, even the dead of night.

Casio makes extremely strong and resistant watches. As a “tough solar” watch, this means that the featured model uses a solar capacitor to store energy, thus does not require a battery. Thus it will never let you down when you need it the most. The pathfinder can resist low temperatures at great heights, so will easily handle being thrown out of a plane. It has the standard ABC (altimeter, barometer, compass) that you would expect from a skydiving watch.

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Coros Vertix

Don’t be put off by the price tag. Although the Coros Vertix is expensive, it is an extremely advanced and well-developed smartwatch. It has more features than you could ever been including an altimeter, barometer, thermometer, gyroscope and many others. There is no chance that you’ll use all of these whilst skydiving. Though you never know when they will come in useful for other activities.

The Coros Vertix boasts a massive battery life, lasting up to 45 days or 60 hours in GPS mode. This is pretty incredible for a smartwatch and blows the competition out of the water.

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Polar X Grit

Polar is a Finnish company that specializes in designing sports and dive watches for extreme arctic temperatures. Therefore they do not have any trouble at all producing a watch that can be used for skydiving.

The Grit X has been made to the standards of the US military and can resist extreme temperatures, as well as water and humidity with ease. It is extremely lightweight and has a useful GPS. The battery life on the Grit X is very good for a smartwatch, it’s also reliable and resilient as they come.

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