Men's Expedition Camper 38mm Watch

Timex Expedition watches are generally well known for being built to last and endure what the outdoors has to throw at it. I really like the look and feel of this watch. It wears very well, and the Velcro band can be adjusted to give you the right fit. The quality of the watch is good, and looking down at the watch and seeing the "Beagle Scouts" at work just brightens my day. I can't comment on the battery life since I just purchased it a week ago (and I'm not one to make frequent use of the Indiglo backlight), but I would anticipate about 4 years of use before needing the battery replaced. I'm really happy with the purchase, and I would recommend it to anyone who finds it interesting to them.

I purchased this as a gift for my son - he is just getting into Boy Scouts and needed a dependable watch that he could have on Troop trips outside of Normal. Because it always rains on Scout trips, it needed to be water resistant, and easy to put on/take off would be a plus. This works. Now make no mistake - this is not at all comparable to a $500 wonder watch. To compare it to a higher end wristwatch would be unfair. No, this is a very simple watch. The design is such that I think even having the date on it is a bit fancy. The watch exists to tell you what time it is, and to be light and convenient enough so you don't think about it when you're wearing it. I love it precisely because it is inexpensive and simple. To be sure, my choices came down to this watch and the Casio Forester - and since the prices were right I bought both. I figure my son will more than likely lose at least one watch during his adventures, and happily the price points on these are low enough where you kind of (but only kind of) don't mind. My son says the Timex is somewhat easier to read. He wears this watch more than the Forester for that reason. The band is easy to put on and take off, as it's Velcro and not a traditional buckle. Since I want my son to get in the habit of wearing this thing when he's out of the house (really, it does no good to tell him to be back home by six if he doesn't have a watch....), having an easy-to-wear band is crucial. Indiglo lighting is fantastic on this - it's not so bright that it's blinding you, but rather just the right luminescence to illuminate the watch face. Important in, say, a tent in the wee small hours. This works. it keeps good time and supports my son's Scouting activities. We are both rather happy with it.

Great watch. I was happy with the size, not too big. It keeps good time. It should hold up well like all Timex watches. It has a good band but I may change it out to another now and then for looks.

I love the functionality of this inexpensive watch. For the price, you get great timekeeping, a quartz movement, and great indiglo. Fits fine as it comes on a OEM nato strap of sorts. I love the black red and white coloring on the dial and strap. A very aesthetically pleasing watch for the price. With that said, the crystal DOES scuff easy as it's only acrylic, and the case itself feels cheap. But like I said, for the price, a great watch overall.

I usually buy cheap watches, in the $5 range, from WalMart, and they fall apart. I'm a welder, and the sweat from wearing thick leather gloves and welding melts the cheap glue holding the straps together and they fall off. Decided to splurge a bit, bought one of these. Haven't had any issue out of it. The illuminated watch hands are great and easy to see in the dark, and the light up face is clear. There is a small section at the bottom of the watch face that doesn't illuminate, but it's the size of the moon on my fingernail and so low that it doesn't affect my ability to read the watch. That's the reason for the 4 star rating of the built-in light. The 4 star rating for water resistance is because I refuse to wear it while bathing or swimming, so I can't say I've tested it thoroughly enough to say with certainty that it's as water resistant as it is. Feel free to test it yourself if you want, I always take it off personally. It's a 5 star rating for readability, easily. The only problem I have with the watch is that it requires being adjusted monthly to keep the number of days correct. If you don't correct it, at the beginning of the next month you'll be off by a day. It's caused a bit of confusion for me for the first month or two, but if you reset it once a month it's fine. I just wish that it didn't require any tinkering after setting it; I'd prefer something that I can slap on my wrist and only have to finagle it once a year to adjust for the loss of a minute or two, as is inevitable.

Summary: This is a review for the black "Camper" style Expedition watch with a black Velcro Fast Wrap band. This style is unique from the other Expedition Acadia watches offered by Amazon in that it has water resistance of 100M instead of 50M for the other models. I have seen some non-Amazon reviews showing this same black Timex Expedition watch with 50M water resistance, but mine is 100M. I believe that there is also a white dial version of this watch, too, that is available on Amazon, but it is listed separately from the other Acadia models. A quick rundown of watch details: 38mm resin case, quartz movement, 100M water resistant, Indiglo, push crown at 3 o'clock with modest protectors flanking the crown, date complication, hackable second hand, stainless steel screw down case back, Fast Wrap Velcro band, black dial, white Arabic numerals, small military time designations, flush acrylic face, white lumed minute and hour hands, and red second hand. All in all, a very simple watch design. Pros: Easy to read, durable, light weight, the second hand lines up with the dial markers, accurate, very comfortable band, excellent water resistance, Indiglo backlighting feature is excellent Cons: None, really. If I had to come up with some, I would say average lume on hands, will eventually have to replace the battery Review: The first thing I would say is that if you can still find one of these and you are in the market for a solid, dependable military-style field watch, stop reading this and buy it now while you can. At 30-ish dollars, you can't go wrong and there isn't much to lose. I have always been hard on watches. I have a digital Casio G-Shock, but I wanted a simple, analog field watch (without all the *stuff* on it) as a different style of beater watch. After some searching and looking at a lot of different watch reviews online (including reviews from soldiers who purchased Timex Campers like this one at the PX and wore them in the field), this popped up on Amazon and I purchased it. I have had it for a little over a month now and it has been a faithful companion during that time. I don't go out of my way to abuse my possessions, but this Timex hasn't been coddled, either. It's gone to work with me in an office setting, but it also does real yardwork with me, I have taken it hiking, I have submerged it in water, I workout with it on, and I have had no problems with it at all. It has gotten a little scuffed up and dirty, but it cleans up nicely, including the Velcro. It has gotten a few good bumps and it's just fine. The face isn't rounded and doesn't stick out above the surface of the watch, so it won't get scratched up so easily. When it does invariably get scratched though, it should be easy enough to polish out the blemishes. For what it's worth, if you are looking for a comfortable band, particularly if you have a larger wrist like I do (8"), the Velcro band is really nice. It fits perfectly every time, it isn't scratchy at all, it dries out quickly, it stays secure at all times, and it never feels sticky like the regular resin-type bands do. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but now I'm not sure if I would want to go back to another resin band. The watch has been fairly accurate. As soon as I received it from Amazon, I set it using www.time.gov. During the time that I have had it, it has lost only four seconds. That's not too bad at all. With a quartz movement, I didn't expect any less. It is easy to set both the time and date. The second hand is hackable, so synchronized time-setting is possible. The uncluttered dial is easy to read. The numbers are crisp. The hands are clear. The date window doesn't require a second look. One of the characteristics of this watch that will please some of the more exacting watch owners out there is the fact that the second hand movement lines up with the markers as the second hand moves around the dial. Some watches have analog movements where the second hand fails to properly land on the markers, but not this one! The watch isn't too large, so it slips nicely under one's sleeve, but yet it isn't so small that it looks like a kid's timepiece. Even as a bigger, taller guy with a larger wrist, the watch still looks appropriate on me. It is also very light and I forget that I'm wearing a watch. There really aren't too many things that I don't like about the watch. The lume on the hands isn't outstanding. It's fine, but what lume it has is not going to garner awards. The hour and minute hands have lume, but there is no lume on the dial or second hand. That said, it is important to remember that this is not a dive watch. The Indiglo works very nicely though. In absolute darkness, the Indiglo function works perfectly. Having to replace the watch battery someday will stink, but only because I worry about losing water resistance due to improper battery and O-ring installation. I like the watch enough that I will probably just pay to send it to Timex, have them replace the battery, give it a once over, and then ship it back to me. I would rather have the manufacturer do it right than have a jeweler screw it up. Yeah, I know, it's only a $30 watch, but it's a really well-designed $30 watch and I like it. It feels like somebody took time to engineer this watch right. It may sound kind of silly, but it's like somebody actually cared when this watch was being designed and built. It is a lot like driving past a simple, old building in town that has a special architectural character to it. It just looks and feels like it was thoughtfully designed to do something very specific. That's what this watch is like. That leads me to my last point. I may be wrong, but I don't think Timex makes this model anymore. Why not? They make a lot of other ones that are prettier, have GPS, can pay for groceries, or whatever, but they aren't going to last like this one. This is a tremendous watch and blows away all of the other Expedition models. Why is it that such a great watch like this gets discontinued? Is it because it is too old-fashioned? Is it boring? Nobody bought it? Well, if it pops up for sale on Amazon, and you're in the market for this simple, camper-style watch, you should plunk down your $30 or so and get it. Many times, the old-fashioned, "boring" ones make the best life partners.

This velcro strap makes this watch the most comfortable I've ever worn, and I'm 65 so I've worn quite a few. I have trouble with normal watchbands - buckle straps, links, and stretch. Buckles are the worst for me, the holes are never quite right so a comfortable fit lets the watch drop over to the outside of my wrist, plus the buckle tends to dig into my wrist when occasionally flexed forward. Metal links with clasps are hit or miss for sizing and a big hassle to change. The metal stretch bands are comfy-sized but can pull wrist hair like a band-aid when removed. This strap keeps the watch exactly in place without being too tight. It's almost infinitely ;) adjustable. I've now worn this watch DAY AND NIGHT for almost two weeks, only removing it as a precaution for a daily shower. Mostly I don't even know it's on. One small quibble about the strap, after fitting it on there's a huge amount of velcro left exposed, it appears to have been designed to tighten up on a small child's wrist. This exposed velcro picks up dust. But I use a clothing lint brush on it to good effect. Also comfort-wise, a brief word about the crown. Unlike most watches it's so small it doesn't dig into my wrist with my hand bent back, yay! Other pros and cons: PROs: Very easy to set the time, very easy to read. The hands glow fine in the dark, at least up close, and then there's the incomparable INDIGLO for a full reading. White on black looks cool. Some other user review I read said that this watch is standard U.S. Army issue even for combat. If true that should speak to its durability and reliability. Actual TIME KEEPING seems fine, checking it against Windows time shows it's lost about 10 seconds in a week. To set it just be on the right minute, wait for the second to read 12, pull the crown, observe the Windows second hit zero, push the crown in. Close enough for government work! CONs: SCRATCHES TOO EASILY! I've been wearing this watch pretty much around the clock since January 2012. The plastic NOT MINERAL face is now very scratched up. I don't do much manual work, this is I'd guess 90% from just slight bumps on door jambs. Another couple of years and I expect it to be too scratched for easy reading. That's a shame because the rest of it seems durable. How this could be standard Army issue is beyond me. I won't order one again, next time mineral face. I'm glad I check today's date on a calendar, as this date window is too small for me to read. Moreover, I can't even set the date without a hassle. The manual (get the PDF at Timex, the included paper is barely readable) says: PULL crown to "middle" position and turn CLOCKWISE until correct day appears. If day does not change, pull crown to "out" position and turn CLOCKWISE or COUNTERCLOCKWISE through necessary number of 24 hour periods until correct day appears. I just cannot find the "middle" position and since it's so many days off I'm not about to go through the s-l-o-w 24 hour period setting to get the date right. Also, if it's this simplistic how does it account for 30 vs 31 vs 28 day months? For me it doesn't matter because I can't read it anyway. [...]

Works fine with a large luminous dial