Anyone got a recommendation for a cheapish waterproof watch to use only when I'm surfing or as a stopwatch when training? I generally don't wear watches otherwise.

I'm late to work all the time.

Don't mess with a good thing. As long as you are consistently late to work, no-one will expect anything different. The height of the sun in the sky is a good guide...season permitting.

get one from BCF they will swap it over free of charge on the spot when it breaks. just get a tide watch aprox 100$ set it up to your local spot.

most of your cheap watches less than $50 are good for 3m I have a $40 digital still going stong 4 years down
I only use it in the water a couple times a week

I've got a cheap slazenger, about $25 from kmart, keeps great time, has big numerals very easy to read, it's around 4 years old now and still on the same battery.

Timex Ironman are good. About $35 in the US, not sure if you get them here. Very poor selection of digital watches in Australia for some reason.

Check out k-mart target and big W. I buy a cheep waterproof watch once every couple of years. I've found all the expensive watches seem to last as long as the cheep ones anyway so I now just buy the cheep ones.

I think Rip Curl are good value for money. They are not super cheap, but they are durable and not really expensive. My wife and I have both had one for about 15 years. All the other mid-price watches I had before that rarely lasted more than 12-18 months before I managed to damage them in crashes, etc. and then they would leak.

Look for a Casio G-Shock on sale.... had mine around 15yrs - replaced the battery and band once (solar face).

Bought something for $9.93 from Target/K-Mart/Big-W. Worked for about 5 years just fine.
I still remember the price. Value for money +++

+1 had one of these, agree for the band, but mine finally let water in.... after a few years

Most all cheap waterproof watches are great, Casio, Timex, whatever, and most all of them have a stopwatch function.
Just don't wear them into the shower or bath, hot water is not good for the seals. Other than that, there is really no reason to spend a lot of $$$$ for a high class piece of waterproof jewelry that tells time, and still doesn't like hot water.

Yeh, I've got a couple of rip curls, oldest one is 15 years and it's still going fine - on the 4th battery I think though. The tide tracking is great, was more useful when it first came out as we didn't have phone apps etc. and I'd choose which break to check first based on tide.

I've got a tomtom watch, not so cheap but I turn on exercise tracking on my watch when surfing, spearing, kiting etc. It tracks session duration, GPS etc. and gives me a nice overview on the app or website of previous sessions to look back on.

I've used the ronstan ones before, they're good for sailing or mounting on a boat but too big for a daily watch.

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kitebored said..
Yeh, I've got a couple of rip curls, oldest one is 15 years and it's still going fine - on the 4th battery I think though.

Yep - that's why I buy the Shark watches. Battery changes cost you $20 or $30 every few years and that's about how long these last me....for the same cost.

Once it's dead out it goes and put on a brand new one :)

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Paradox said..
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SHARK-DIGITAL-LCD-MENS-MILITARY-SPORT-WATERPROOF-WATCH-BOX-/280869188454?tfrom=280947088000&tpos=top&ttype=price&talgo=undefined

They punch well above their $ weight. The band on its own is worth the money IMO....I surf, kitesurf and exercise in mine.

My only gripe is that the buttons can be accidentally pushed a little easily....

Cheers for the heads up, Paradox. Got one in the post yesterday. Looks great.
Can't wait to try it out... (Zuke, are you out there somewhere?, can you hear me??!)

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Paradox said..
Yep - that's why I buy the Shark watches. Battery changes cost you $20 or $30 every few years and that's about how long these last me....for the same cost.

Once it's dead out it goes and put on a brand new one :)

Always wondered who the people were who paid for that. Buy a battery for a couple of dollars and do it yourself in 2 minutes.

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Harrow said..

Paradox said..
Yep - that's why I buy the Shark watches. Battery changes cost you $20 or $30 every few years and that's about how long these last me....for the same cost.

Once it's dead out it goes and put on a brand new one :)

Always wondered who the people were who paid for that. Buy a battery for a couple of dollars and do it yourself in 2 minutes.

yeah i reckon, its not to different to changeing a battery in a dive computer little silicone grease on the oring pop it in and shes all good.

again tho with a bcf tide watch when battery runs out just say it broke computer locked out then wouldnt restart they send it off as a software issue to ripoff or quickstealer and you get to pop on a new watch with new warranty. at ANY BCF in the country. so if you travel alot and need to know the tide for work its well worth the extra $70
BUT what do i know im just some dumb flog

I got a nice one off surfstitch.com.au

It was about 35 bucks.

Wait for a sale and pick up a bargain off that website, its the bomb!

Some good value here - but timings may not suit you

www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-2-time-2-and-core-an-entirely-new-3g-ultra

Aldi has a 100m water resistant GPS/heart rate monitor watch for $60. it is programable and works well for all the basic gps function you would want and downloads in about one second when you get home.

Only had mine for a few weeks but, impressed so far.

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GPA said..
Look for a Casio G-Shock on sale.... had mine around 15yrs - replaced the battery and band once (solar face).

You get what you pay for, had my casio 10 years never had to change a battery (solar face) never replaced a band never take it off.

I just couldn't find a watch in Oz for sailing for a decent price that I liked so I bought a solar Casio straight from china on ebay, arrived yesterday and very happy.

I thought we were silly calling head high waves "3 foot", but that's nothing compared to watch labelling:

"30m" is not waterproof for swimming.

"50m" is the minimum for swimming, and I've never drowned one of them in 30 years windsurfing.
They start at about $20 at Kmart etc. (beware of kid's sizes unless you have small wrists), the bands always break before the batteries die, with a new band costing as much as the watch.