TimexMen's Expedition Camper Nylon/Leather Strap Watch

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 excellentCons: None, really. If I had to come up with some, I would say average lume on hands, will eventually have to replace the batteryReview: 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.

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.

I received my Timex Men's T49713 Expedition Camper watch in two days using Amazon Prime. It is exactly as pictured, though the face is slightly smaller than I expected. Everything works perfectly and the legendary Timex Indiglo works great when the lights go out. The calender numbers are not illuminated, however.A few folks mentioned loud ticking, but I live in Houston and can't hear it unless I put the watch against my ear. ;)Many complained about the length of the nylon mesh band. I'm a big guy and the band fits fine, but normally these bands are longer. You can buy longer "normal" mesh bands for just a few bucks, though, so no biggie. Just a word of caution for folks who haven't worn mesh bands before. After a few months, it soaks up sweat and whatnot and can get pretty smelly. Eventually you need to wash or replace these critters, especially if you wear it while working.The Timex back says it is water resistant to 100 meters (300 feet). I hope this is true; my last (non-Timex) watch leaked like a sieve despite the water resistant claim. I'll update if I ever have a problem.This is a good, affordable and lightweight watch; just what I was looking for.--------------------------------------UPDATE! O.K., I've been wearing this watch occasionally for the last couple of weeks and the watch crystal has already collected several scratches. I haven't even been particularly active; the Timex watch crystal is made of very soft plastic. Also, the battery died within ONE month! Easily replaced, but still . . . Removing one star.