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WalMart and Diving - dfreeman - 12-21-2004
A friend of mine posted the following. $10 for a dive watch and it works at depth.
Doug
"Following my gear review last year on Aquatech watches, available at Wal-Mart for under $10, I continue to hear from many divers who are using them and having good luck with them. I have also used them myself on many more dives, including deep ones. In addition, I continue to get a number of inquiries for instructions on changing the settings, including how to turn off the hourly beep/chime. Here is an update, complete with instructions for reference.
Aquatech watches are commonly available at Wal-Mart in the U.S. for under $10, with some of them even under $6. They are water resistant to around 50m/165ft and they work well for diving. I have taken them as deep as 176ft, with many dives in the 100-130ft range, with no leaks or problems.
One of the (several) models available. (I like this one for the large display which is easy to read underwater.)
I posted the first gear review on them about a year ago . Since that time I have continued to use these watches routinely, including during all of my recent dives in the Philippines (for that trip report go to travelogues). They are so low-priced that I usually carry a couple of them in case I need a back-up, but so far I've never had a problem with one and haven't had to use a back-up (instead, I've often given the second one away to another diver ... incidentally, they make great gifts to divers and others, particularly during trips to foreign destinations).
In addition to my own experiences with them, I've heard (and continue to hear) from lots of other divers who got them and have had similar good luck with them. So far I've only heard of one instance of one leaking -- and it was promptly replaced by Wal-Mart when taken back to them.
These are clearly low-priced but high-quality dive watches!
The only problem that seems to occur with them is lost or tossed instructions on how to change the settings, including getting the hourly chime turned off. I posted most of the instructions in response to a question some time ago. However, I continue to get inquiries for the instructions, particularly on how to turn off the hourly beep. So I decided it might be useful to post the instructions here again so they are readily available for future reference.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHANGING SETTINGS
On most or all of the Aquatech models there should be a light button plus three others, marked "mode", "start/stop", and "lap/reset."
To set time and date etc.: Starting with the watch set on the time (if not already, use the mode switch until the time shows),
push the mode button 3 times ...
* the first takes you to stopwatch mode
* the second takes you to setting the alarm time
* the third takes you to the settings (and the Tuesday [TU] and seconds flag will flash)
Then use the lap/reset button to advance through each of the items (minutes, hour, date, month, day of week). When on each of them, you can push the start/stop button to advance through the details (minutes, hours, etc.).
When on the hour setting, it advances through 12-hr AM ("A"), 12-hr PM ("P"), or 24-hr ("H"). If you keep going, it just recycles back through. Switching between 12 hr and 24 hr (military) systems is done as part of the settings for time and date.
Whenever you have everything set the way you want it, just push the mode button and it goes back to normal time keeping.
To turn off the hourly beep: While holding the lap/reset button down, press the mode button. When all 7 day flags show, the hourly chime is on. When no day flags show, the chime is off.
For the alarm: If you want to use it (I think both it and the light use battery faster than when not used), you set it by pushing mode button twice, as indicated above, then go to hour or minute setting by pushing the lap/reset button, and advance to the time you want by pressing the start/stop button. Pushing mode will take you back to normal time again.
To turn alarm on or off, hold lap/reset button in and at the same time push the start/stop button. Alarm icon will show on or off. When you release the lap/reset button, it will revert to normal time.
If the alarm is on, at the designated time it will start beeping for awhile or until the lap/reset button is pushed (off) or start/stop button (snooze)."
Re:WalMart and Diving - Omicron - 12-21-2004
Man you scared me for a second. All I could see in my head was a rack of discount regs and bcd's on a shelf at wal-mart.
Scary.
Interesting info though. Cool read.