Watch Compass

Using an analog watch as a backup compass

Once upon a time we were three or four days into a canoe trip in the wilds of Canada. A mishap caused by my stepfather grossly over estimating his ability to "shoot the rapids" caused use to be separated from all of our gear. This taught me two very important lessons. First, and foremost, NEVER trust your safety to an idiot. And second, gear redundancy can save your life. Losing my pack taught me the importance of keeping the most important of these redundant backups on my person.

I love tools which can perform more than one task. In a survival situation this is essential because weight is a definite concern. I always wear a watch. If not on my wrist, I have a pocket watch. It is invaluable to help determine my direction and speed of travel, as well as telling me how much daylight I have left. If you make sure the watch you wear is an analog watch, meaning it has hands, you can easily use it as a pretty accurate compass.

The process is quite simple. Take your watch off of your wrist, or out of your pocket, and aim the hour hand, that is the small hand boys and girls, directly at the sun. If you are in the northern hemisphere, half way between the hour hand and the 12 is due South.

As illustrated in the northern hemisphere graphic, it is almost 1:00 pm. Start by pointing the hour hand at the sun. Now draw an imaginary line from the center of the watch face through the 12:00 position. Next draw an imaginary line from the center of the watch face through along the hour hand towards the sun (these lines are represented by the black dashed lines in the above illustration). We then draw another imaginary line that splits the distance between the hour hand and the 12. That line points due South. Once we have that, we know that North is behind us, East is to our left, and West to our right.

As you can see in the Southern Hemisphere illustration, when in the Southern Hemisphere, it works exactly the same only different. The line bisecting the distance between the 12 and the hour hand now points North.

There is one other slight caveat. If your watch is set for daylight savings time, you must use the 1 instead of the 12, because the watch has been set an hour ahead. This means that in the Northern Hemisphere illustration, the hour hand is pointing due south, and in the Southern Hemisphere illustration the hour hand is pointing due north.

The closer to you get to the equator, the less accurate this method becomes. This is due to the fact that the sun is almost directly overhead.