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Depending on if you’re sitting and waiting for a duck to fly, or if you’re tracking down a buck. Hunting can either be extremely entertaining or boring. However, on both of these occasions, it’s good to have a watch that lets you know what’s going on. You may only want to wait a maximum of 2 hours. Your watch can help you with a countdown timer for this scenario. Secondly, you may want to track your movements via GPS, some hunting-based smartwatches can even track where you shot your gun. This can allow you to get a good feel of where animals will have run away from in the surrounding area.
This is without mentioning that if you’re in unfamiliar territory for the first time – there is always a chance you could get lost. If you’re wearing a watch with a GPS tracker, it allows you to take more chances and venture further away from where you started. If you do not have any way of retracing your footprints, it will force you to turn back earlier than you wish, otherwise, it might take you a very long time to get home.
Even if you’re just fishing at a local creek or lake. A rugged smartwatch can make your life a lot easier by alerting you to things such as sunrise or moon calenders. These are things that humans often ignore, but are definitely noticed by the wildlife you are hunting.
Table of Contents
Features To Look For In A Hunting Watch
GPS
Having a GPS on your watch is a bit of a no-brainer. Even if you’re in a local area, you can just turn the function off and forget about it. However, if you’re in a deep woodland area, or simply somewhere you haven’t been before, a GPS is an essential time-saving device.
If you’re an experienced hunter, it’s unlikely that you’re going to get lost in the woods. However, even if you walk in the wrong direction for 45 minutes, this is something that can easily be avoided by using a GPS. Secondly, there might be a much faster exit back to your truck which you didn’t know about. By using a GPS in conjunction with hunting, you will make much more efficient use of your time.
Color
Another obvious factor to consider is the color of your watch. Ideally, you will want something black, dark green or camo. If you have a bright yellow watch whilst you’re tracking an animal. This could be the thing that gives you away. Fashion watches should be kept well away from hunting as they are not suited to this environment at all.
Waterproof
It’s likely when hunting or fishing, your watch is going to get wet at some point. Of course, you don’t need a dive watch with 300 meters water resistance. But whatever you buy should be able to survive being dropped in a creek or a torrential downpour of rain.
Not only this, but it is ideal to buy a watch that is both waterproof, dustproof, and mudproof. Different watches will react differently to certain elements. Sometimes it can be easier for dust to creep under small buttons than water. It’s best to find something that keeps everything at bay.
Durable
The last thing you will want is a delicate watch. Whilst hunting and fishing are not wrestling or rock climbing. It is a 100% outdoor activity and your watch will take some unwanted hits at some point, whether you like it or not.
For this reason, it’s best to stay away from brands such as Apple. Of course, Apple does have a great variety of apps that would be beneficial to you, but this is no use if you crack the screen after 10 days. Many Japanese brands build watches that can withstand drops from great height or getting run over by a truck. These watches are generally the best choice for hunting as it is a reasonably physical activity. You will come into contact with nature, which is always unpredictable.
Barometer
This feature is not too necessary, but will certainly be useful for some people. A barometer measures changes in atmospheric pressure and can be set to let off an alarm when it senses a storm is coming. A lot of the time you will probably already know this due to visual clues. However, if you’re in a particularly covered duck blind, these clues may not be too obvious and your watch can save you a lot of trouble.
Compass
If you don’t want your movements being tracked by anyone else. It may just be best to stick to a compass. If you’re a good compass user, you won’t be that much worse off than using a full-on GPS. Also, it should be noted that compasses use significantly less battery than a GPS, which drains it very quickly.
Battery Life
It should go without saying that you want the watch with the best battery life. In general, if you aren’t using a smartwatch, this isn’t something you should worry about as batteries last for years. Furthermore, if you use a solar-powered watch, the chances of your capacitor running dry are even smaller.
However, if you’re using a newer rugged smartwatch with various features, it should go without saying that the battery is going to drain faster. It’s important that you don’t buy a watch where the battery is going to let you down. For this reason, we have excluded anything with poor battery life from the list below.
The Best Watches For Hunting & Fishing
Casio G-Shock Mudmaster
The mudmaster is one of the toughest watches you can buy. Of course, it is oversized, bulky, and not pretty, but you can guarantee this thing will not break – even if you try. As the watch is made by Casio, you are never going to worry about its reliability, accuracy or ruggedness. Of course, this is not a smartwatch with a GPS, but it does have a compass and its battery isn’t going to run out every 12-24 hours, in fact it won’t run out in 12-24 months.
In addition to this, the watch is named mudmaster for a reason. If you look at all the various buttons and pushes on the case (there are 6), you will see there are all recessed and heavily reinforced. This watch was specifically designed to resist water, mud and dust, so would be 100% ideal as an outdoor gadget.
If you are interested in the data of your hunting expedition, you can hook the watch up to your phone by Bluetooth. This way you’ll be able to look at the route you took, altitude and how many steps you’ve taken, without being disturbed by updates and noises whilst out hunting.
Suunto Traverse Alpha
The Suunto Traverse Alpha is one of the very few watches that was specifically made with hunting in mind. The Finnish brand is no stranger to the outdoors and makes various tough watches for all activities. Specifically, this watch is made up to standard for the Finnish military, which might not be as high standard as the US. But even still, should be plenty enough for a hunting or fishing trip.
Specific hunting features include automatic shot detection and waypoint tracking. This will allow you to remember where you took a shot from, which is useful as you know that there won’t be any animals around that area for a while. In addition to this you are able to select sunrise and sunset alarms, which are always handy.
Overall, this is the best hunting-specific watch you can buy. Whilst it isn’t the cheapest, it is really one of very little designs made for hunters by a company that specializes in this field.
Casio Pro-Trek
It should go without saying that the Pro-Trek was not designed as a hunting watch and is in fact a trekking watch. Although with that being said, depending on what type of hunter you are, some of us will definitely cover more miles than those who trek.
The Pro-Trek is an ABC watch, meaning that it contains an altimeter, barometer and compass. Of course, all of these features, whilst not essential, are definitely going to be helpful if you’re in the great outdoors. Each one of these features will have no negative impacts on your hunting, and will only help bring a positive to your trip.
Garmin Instinct Solar Camo
First and foremost, it should be noted that this model is available in a variety of different colors, although of course camo is recommended if you’re going to be using it for hunting.
The Garmin Instinct is quite an expensive watch, although, for the features you get, it’s really not bad value for money at all. As a hunting watch, it is both durable and water-resistant up to 100 meters, which is obviously more than you’ll ever need. You’re able to use the built-in GPS, as well as monitor many other things which you don’t need such as heart rate or blood oxygen. Of course, these are a luxury, and not necessary for hunting, but you may find them useful.
Lastly, for a smartwatch, this watch has tremendous battery life. If you’re out hunting for a long time, you will know that batteries can drain pretty fast. As this watch has a solar charging option, you are able to keep on top of this issue so it won’t bother you at all.
Casio Fishing Timer
The key benefit of buying a fishing watch instead of a hunting one is that you’re going to save a lot of money. Typically fishing watches are 5-10x cheaper than a hunting watch, albeit with fewer features.
The main selling point of this watch is its fishing indicator. Recording key data such as sunrise, your local time and the moon phase indicator, the watch will tell you the best time to cast your line. Whether this is applicable to you, only you will know, but it’s definitely worth giving it a go to see how good its predictions are. Not only this, but you’re able to scroll through the hours days in advance to see when is the best time to go fishing, ensuring that your time is not wasted.
At under $50, this watch is really quite a bargain, especially considering there isn’t another top brand making a watch like this.
Timex Expedition XL – Budget Pick
At well below $100, the Timex expedition is the cheapest hunting watch on the list. Of course, as you’re paying less money, you’re going to get a lot less features. This watch is very tough and will not break, but does not have anything such as a GPS or barometer letting you know that a storm is coming.
However, if you’re just looking for something tough that will tell the time, this is pretty much the best value-for-money watch you can buy. It does have features such as optional alarms, as well as a very long 100 hour chronograph, which is great if you want to set long timers.
One key benefit of this watch is that you don’t just have to wear it hunting. Once you wash it off after a long day outdoors, it will be ready to wear as an everyday watch.
Polar Grit-X
The Polar Grit-X is the toughest smartwatch on the market. Tested to US military standards, the Finnish company is named Polar for good reason, this watch can survive extremely low temperatures, humidity, wind, rain and snow.
This watch is fairly expensive, but for the price, you’re getting a lot of features such as heart rate monitor, GPS, altimeter and weather forecasts. It should also be mentioned that despite this being a tough and rugged GPS smartwatch, it is also incredibly lightweight at under 70 grams.
Lastly, one negative thing to mention is that if you have wrist area tattoos, you will struggle to get the HR monitor working. This is not just true for this watch, but for any heart rate based smartwatch.
Luminox Navy Seal
Anyone familiar with the Luminox brand will already know that this watch is made to the specification of the US army. This particular model is ideal for hunting for a variety of reasons. Most notably, it’s blacked out, this will stop giving yourself away, no matter how dark any of the other watches are. Unless they are camo, they are not going to be any less visible than this, specifically at night.
Due to the luminous hands and markers, you will be able to see your own watch in the dark, but animals will not. To add to the benefits of this watch, as it was designed to be a military timepiece, it is extremely lightweight. Their patented carbonox material is both durable and not at all heavy. If you’re out for long periods of the day, you know the value that this gives.
Camo G-Shock
If there ever was a watch designed for a country boy, this is it. A more simple version than any other watch on this list, this G-shock does not have hundreds of features, but it is good value for money at around $100. Obviously, the main feature of this watch is that it is never going to give you away. You’re much more likely to be seen by the whites of your eyes or heard from a noise you didn’t intend to make. Either way, this watch is going to blend in with your surroundings.
The good thing about this watch is that it can also be worn as an everyday timepiece too. Whilst you’re not going to wear it in a corporate boardroom, if you have a blue collar job, this watch certainly won’t look out of place at work.
