First of all, the product specifications listed on this page is wrong - there are no 24-hour military markings on this watch! If you're military personnel, it wouldn't be much of a problem anyway. You'd already be familiar with the 24 hour times.
I purchased this watch because I needed a (relatively) cheap little rough-and-tumble watch, for weekends or casual wear, or when the mood strikes me. Now that I am somewhat older, I have given up on Casio G-shocks. Now I prefer analog faces to a digital readout. For one thing, yes I'm old-school - I want to see a clock face when looking at the time and not have to visualise a clock-face when I look at digital readouts.
I have been poring through the various Timex Expedition watches, and found that the general consensus was that Timex Expedition watches are pretty darn tough (like a G-Shock). I finally decided that this watch would be great for me, and went out to a local store and bought it. I tend to prefer dark watch faces with light markings. The contrast makes reading the time that much easier and faster.
One thing that may put people off this watch though - when it's all quiet in the room, you can actually hear the ticking sound from the watch! Yes, soft "tick tick tick" when you're lying in bed, even if the watch may be on the table about 2 metres away from you. However, it isn't really distracting or irritating. It is curious though, since all my other quartz watches are silent.
The luminous hands are good for a quick check of the time in a darkened location. However, the hour and minute markings around the dial are so faint, they might as well not exist. This isn't too big of a problem, because if you so desire, you can easily press the crown in and the Indiglo night light feature will light the watch face up. Check out my uploaded pictures to get a better idea.
Another weird quirk of this watch (or it may be just the watch that I have) is that the markings from 7 to 9 seem to be a little "off", about half a millimetre. The second hand doesn't point precisely to them. The other minute markings are spot-on. Just something you might want to know in case these kind of things get you.
Also, the date doesn't rollover "cleanly" at 12 midnight. At midnight, it's still showing part of the previous day's date, and part of the date of "today". It won't fully show "today's date" until about 12.15 or 12.30, when the majority of "today's date" finally rolls into view in the date window.
On the plus side, it's very light. It's so light that sometimes it felt like I wasn't wearing a watch at all, and had to look at my wrist to make sure that I was. I'm used to my heavier metal-strap watches, I guess.
The leather/nylon strap dries very quickly when wet. Plus, the 10-year battery life is neat. It's not shown here in the product description but it's mentioned elsewhere on other watch sites if you google for this model.
Unlike what a previous reviewer said about its accuracy, the one I own only loses about 3 to 4 seconds a MONTH, and not a couple of minutes in 3 weeks. It's a quartz watch, it shouldn't be that inaccurate.
All in all, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Buy Expedition Aluminum Trail!
