Timex Expedition WS4

The new Timex Expedition WS4 watch will soon be available in the United States and on some of the overseas markets.

Although looking quite large on a wrist, the Timex Expedition WS4 is bulky, but not monstrously so.

According to official specs, its boxy case of the gadget is just 50 millimeters wide and 40 millimeters high, making it just a little bit larger than an average box of matches and only a tad smaller than Linde Werdelin’s new Land Instrument II (aka The Rock,) which is supposed to ride piggy-back on their automatic watches making the whole assembly even larger.

Well, giving Linde Werdelin its due, the Rock is certainly a more technically advanced device, but at a price of just $199, the Expedition WS4 is also six times more affordable.

For such a humble price, you will get a great number of built-in gizmos, including an electronic altimeter, barometer, compass, and a 100-hour chronograph with a 1/100-second resolution up to one hour.

A USB or a Bluetooth interface for a GPS tracking device would be a good thing, too, but you can’t get everything in such a cheap instrument, can you?

My favorite toy in this kind of gadgets, the altimeter, works in the range between -399 and 8997 meters (well, the Everest is too high for it, but you’ll need real professional gear to climb on top of the mountain, anyway.)

The device tracks your current, highest, as well as accumulated altitude and it even has an altitude alarm making sure that you won’t climb too high and die of hypoxia.

All the information is presented in highly legible, easy to grasp way on a monochrome 2-inch LCD monitor.

The monitor is not touch-based, but the plastic buttons on the gadget’s sides seem to be large enough to be operated even in heavy gloves.

Of course, you can set the watch to display all the info in either metric or U.S. customary units.

Photos: Timex

Timex Expedition WS4 watch’s specification:

Price range: $199
Movement: N/A
Functions: Chronograph, time/date, compass, altimeter, barometer
Power reserve: N/A
Case material: Composite with a stainless steel bezel
Case dimensions: 50 mm x 40 mm
Case height: N/A
Display: Widescreen, 38 mm x 25 mm
Total weight: 90 grams
Water resistance: 50 m
Strap: Black / yellow / orange / white / blue / black rubber strap (depending on color of the case) OR an expandable fabric strap
Crystal: N/A