Origo Rendezvous Peak Watch

A Brief Introduction

North American Gear BlogOrigo Rendezvous Peak Watch

Since I am going to be using an interesting new watch and telling everyone about it I wanted to start this page for updates and to throw out some links and background information.

I am a watch nut. From the moment I learned how to tell time I wanted a watch. As soon as I received my first cheap watch as a Christmas present when I was probably ten years old, I have never been without one.

I am also a watch abuser. I wear a watch every day, no matter what I am doing. It does not matter if I am hiking, swimming, bathing my daughter, fishing, or cooking dinner, I have a watch on and it is probably in use and definitely being abused.

So if you are wondering what all this means, please bear with me a bit longer.
As a watch user and a self-proclaimed watch abuser, I expect a great deal out of the most casual of time pieces.  It has to do a few things very well and the rest is icing in my book.  As I am fond of saying that all that really matters about watches are “functionality, functionality, and durability.”

So please stay tuned. I will be telling how I used this watch and how well it performs and hopefully you and I both will learn something along the way.

ARRIVED:

Origo Rendevous Peak Watch

The watch has finally arrived.  I will warn everyone that I am not a huge fan of digital watches because I think they make telling time too easy, but I do realize that a modern multifunction outdoors watch like this probably has to be digital. So I guess it is time for Andy to step into the digital age at last.

Straight out of the box

Straight out of the box I was happy to find the Rendezvous watch, an extra battery, and an instruction manual that looks so small that I think it came out of a Cracker Jack box. I do not want that to sound like I am annoyed. In reality, I am more than happy that something that appears as full functioned and complicated as the Origo Rendezvous watch can safely be operated with a small set of instructions rather than a manual that would rival an aircraft safety manual for size.  I am also stunned that an extra battery was sent. My first thought was that the watch must have shipped without one, but upon closer inspection, the Rendezvous was working so the battery had to be an extra.  Origo knows how to make a man happy it seems.

According to the manual the Redezvous tells time, predicts weather, includes a digital compass, barometer, altimeter, two alarms, countdown timer, and a chronograph. I dare someone to say that five times really fast !

My next update is going to cover how easy it was for me to follow the instructions and get the watch working for me.  So please stay tuned as I see how well I interact with the Origo Redezvous Watch.

WEEK ONE:

The best possible time to wonder if a watch is water resistant is not when you are standing in five feet of pool water, glancing down as you hold your child and think “Damn, I hope this thing is water resistant.”

That pretty well sumarizes my first experience with the Origo Rendezvous Peak Watch.  After the pool incident I went home and went through the manual from cover to cover, but could not find a single reference to the water issue. After a short trip to the website my curiosity was satisfied when I discovered that it is water resistant.

I have also discovered that I really do like the way this watch works. It has many abilities and all of them are easy to access and understand.  One thing that was different and confusing was the fact that as I move through the watch functions with the ‘mode’ button, the watch tells me in words what function I am accessing rather than jumping straight to the mode. This threw me off a bit at first, but now I really like it. I can scroll through the modes, read which mode is active and then decide it that is where I want to be.  While it may sound confusing, it is actually easier than flipping through each mode and having to decide which one I am on based on what numbers are being displayed.

The only real complaint I have right now is that on the time mode, the digits that are displayed for the elapsed seconds are just as large as the digits for the regular time. I think making the second digits smaller would ease some of my confusion, but that is really my only issue so far.

I also really like the fact that the time screen displays the current time, the weather forecast, day, date, temperature, and battery level.  That may sound like a ton of information on one watch screen, but it is well thought out and the information is well spaced and easy to read.  Almost all of the screens for the different modes of use are like that. They display the relevant information in an easy to read and understand format.

There will be a lot more to come as I use more of this watch’s functions, but I am very happy with the way information is displayed and the ease of switching between modes.  The next week will hopefully see a more indepth exploration of the digital compass mode as well as the timer and chronography modes. So please stay tuned.

Week Two:
I have been wearing this watch on my weekend outings.  So far I have been able to take into the pool, into and on a lake, and into the state forest for some fun. There are all sorts of fun places in South east Texas to wear this watch and I seem to be finding time to wear it in quite a few of them.

One thing that I found after some investigation is that the sensor for this watch is located on the side, facing outward toward my hand. That explains why the temperature readings with the watch on seem to be within a couple of degrees F of the readings with the watch off. I like knowing that my body heat is not throwing the readings off by too much.

One problem that I have noticed so far is that the temperature display gets a bit strange when the temperature jumps above 100 F.  Sometimes it will display 101 F clearly and other times I get 161 or 1F1 on the display.  This strangeness is rather random at about 101, but above that, the display rarely seems to display correctly. I have had constant readings of 162 F for a couple of hours.

I have yet to have a good chance to use the alarm during a camping trip, but I have noticed that the alarm on the Origo Rendezvous Peak Watch is not that loud when I am at home. I have set the alarm on several occasions and worn the watch at night. If my hand/arm is jammed under a pillow, the alarm is difficult or impossible to hear. Setting the watch on the bed-table makes it easier to hear, but I am hoping that in an outdoors setting, the alarm sound will be easier to hear.

Overall I am pleased with this watch. It has kept on working despite several dunks in the swimming pool and in a lake.  The fact that changing modes displays the words (TIME, COMP, BARO, ALT, DATA, CHRO, ALRM, TIMR) before the mode appears has really grown on me.  I am not squinting at numbers and trying to guess a function which is normal for me. Instead I can read the all capital letters telling me what function I am on and keep pushing the mode button if I need to. This is very helpful when the light is limited and using the back light feature on the Rendezvous Peak Watch.  Big letters are much easier on my tired eyes than little numbers.  Stay tuned for more on this watch next week.

One last Rendezvous

By Anderson Bowman

I have been wearing the Origo Rendezvous watch every day since it came in the mail.  I have been very pleased with its performance, but there are some definite quirks to this watch.

The modes are very easy to switch between and use and I am rather disappointed that I have not had a chance to use the compass setting of this watch. There is no way I can claim any skill with a compass, but using this feature would have at least let me know if it was easy to understand and operate.

The alarms are also a huge boon. They are loud enough to wake me up, but not loud enough to disturb children or other adults who may be in the same bed or tent that I am in. This is a definite plus when trying to wake up and get the day started before the kids stir. One of my favorite things about this watch is the fact that I can wear it in the pool and if I set the timer correctly it tells me when to yank little people out of the water and reapply sun screen. This allows me to claim that the Rendezvous watch kept my children from getting sunburn all summer long, no matter how distracted I got in the pool.

This watch also took a fair amount of abuse and kept on going without complaint. I wore it in the pool, in the Gulf of Mexico, while hiking, while golfing, while running, and while mowing the yard. It was banged, soaked, and abused, but it still looks new. There are no scratches on the crystal and for someone like me that means this is one tough watch.

On the down side, there are a few things that get under my skin with this watch. The first is the time display. The second counter is as large as the hour/minute display and this gets confusing, especially in the mornings or when I quickly glance at the watch.  Another thing that I can probably adjust, but have yet to figure out is the back lighting. The default setting is just a few seconds and it does not stay lit if I am moving through the modes after I activate it. I needed it to stay lit just a few seconds longer on most occasions. Lastly, if the temperature went over 100 F, I often found myself trying to decipher readings of 160 F, 120 F, or 140 F.  I guess it is not a huge deal that it did not handle temperatures of 100 F + very well, but during a summer with a lot of days which exceeded this temperature.

Overall, I like this watch. The main mode (Time) uses large numbers that are easy to read and it also displays all the information I needed at a glance. The temperature, time, date, and weather forecast are all present on this display and it was handy to have access to it all without changing to different modes. The data graphs for altitude and the barometer are also a nice tough. They were easy to read and make it very simple to understand, even at a glance.

I have enjoyed using this watch. It went everywhere I went and kept up with me almost every step of the way.  Most watches do not last as long nor look as good as this one does after this much time on my wrist.  This means that not only has it been useful, but it is durable as well.

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