I'm on my second Expedition watch. The first ran perfectly for four years until the battery died. I was going to just replace the battery (the watch was still in fine shape, even the leather-and-fabric strap), but, at only $28 on-line for a new one, I opted to replace the watch rather than replace the batteries.
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br /The compass function works great and is perfect for hikers, bikers, and city/country explorers. The watch face is huge, with a large, easily readable day-date as well as time display...probably one of the largest out there and perfect for "just a glance" viewing. It's so lightweight that you forget you're wearing it, but it's "Timex tough."
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br /Another great feature--the alarm is very loud. It WILL wake you up, guaranteed, unlike the wimpy alarms on most watches today.
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br /It's simply one of the best best bargains out there for a daily wear watch.
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I have had this watch for over 3 years and all functions work fine.I did change the battery once a year ago, which is not easy to do without the right tiny tools. There is a spring clip which holds the battery in and must be released to remove the battery. Also, I have had trouble finding the CR1620 battery at local stores, but you can get it online. Last summer the watch suddenly reset itself to 1/1/00 several times for no apparent reason, but this has not happened again. I suspect the humidity got to it a bit. The compass is accurate and not hard to calibrate. If you like this watch, I suggest comparing it to the LaCrosse XG20 compass watch which is more stylish and perhaps more functional at about the same price.

I purchased my Timex Compass watch on ebay for $32 total with shipping. I opted for a nice Green/Teal color I never saw at any retail stores. The face is a bit larger on this watch at about 1 and 5/8" including the outer compass ring (but not too big!) So it may look overwhelming on skinny wrists! I suppose it has to be a bit larger for the digital Compass components.
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br /The compass feature is fun. I set up and calibrated the watch per the instructions. A great feature is the declination setting to offset magnetic North from "True" North found on maps. You must hold the watch level to get accurate readings. I found this pretty easy to do by "eye" with no need for a flat table! If you're close to level, the readings will be fairly accurate. A small tilt won't throw off your readings much. It even worked well in my car and buildings where the instructions say the readings would not be accurate. I found them to be pretty close!
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br /The Indiglo light, buttons, and functions all work well. A very nice watch from Timex.

I used it for about 10 months before the battery died. While it was working it was five stars - nice looks, feels good on your wrist and easy night glow button. I especially appreciated having the compass feature. I tested it in northern, southern hemispheres as well as right on the equator and it proved itself to be very accurate. What impressed me the most was that I didn't even have to calibrate it as recommended.
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br /What was not so nice was that after 10 month of intensive usage (including alarm and night light on to remind ourselves to feed the newlyborn) the battery gave out. We went in to two nearby jewellers to have the battery replaced. Helaas, they couldn't do it because the battery replacement process was too hard. I listed it on eBay for parts then.

Received this watch a about a week back. Here is what I feel so far:brCompass: After initial calibration, the compass works great. Its really easy fun to use.brDisplay: Display is not that bright without the Indiglo light. So in low light conditions or with indoor lighting you may have trouble seeing it. brIndiglo light: Works great at night, when you press the light button hard enough. There is a night time mode as well, where it will light up using any button. The night time mode only lasts for 7 hours. After that it goes back to day time mode. I wish there was some way to keep the night time mode on all the time. brStop Watch/Timers: Stop Watch and Timer works great. You can start and stop various laps, though I don't have much use for it.brOverall:brGreat watch for the price. The Display needs to be a little brighter.

The digital compass: the digital compss is functioning well and very useful for me since I easily lost direction. it's especially useful when I need to know which direction a window is facing in new houses. the calibration needs some efforts since it has to be done in outdoor and you need to keep the watch level and rotate it twice.
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br /The disadvantage of the compass: you have to push the heading button to show the direction, and if you change direction, you need to push it again to show the new direction. the direction is not automatically updated when you change direction, therefore you cannot use it when driving. also you have to keep the face of the watch level when you use the compass, otherwise the direction is not correct. any way I still like the digital compass very much. also it has a cool compass dial which you can rotate so that you can know all directions.
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br /Other functions: the stop watch, timer and alarm function is fine.
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br /The display is clear at day time, even under direct light. In the darkness it is also clear by using the indiglo light.
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br /The appearance: the brown and green color of the wrist band feels a little out-dated but it's ok. the watch itself is a little too large.
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br /In a summary, it's a cool compass watch.

I purchased this watch 2 years ago for around $25. It has been a great watch, keeps accurate time (I am using it for celestial navigation class, so every second counts) with little drift. The Compass is good for getting a ruff idea of direction; I would not depend on it for anything more precise then +/- 10-15 degrees
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br /The Indigo light function is a good feature, but it must use a lot of battery power as the watch is very stringy with leaving it on. There is a mode where it will stay on for a few seconds on each button pres, but even that resets its self after 6 hrs.
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br /There has been a lot written about how it is difficult to replace the battery, and Timex instructions of taking it to a jeweler does not help that much.. This summer my battery went out, and I had to replace it. It is not THAT difficult. You need a small screw driver, and a CR1620 battery. Both of these are ready available at Radio Shack.
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br /Taking the back off and then carefully take the watch core out. There is a formed plastic carrier that holds the battery on the back of the watch core, this is held in place by 4 small metal clips. Once the carrier is of, then the battery can be slipped out (make sure to note which side is + and which is -, there was no makings on the case I could find to tell me...) Putting it back together taking care not to bend the small clips, and putting back the plastic insulators. Overall took me about 10 minutes. Now, I will admit my Seiko battery is a LOT easier to replace.
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br /So, for the $, seems a great value. Esp if you can pick one up with a dead battery!

I have nothing against the watch itself, the compass feature works ok, the backlight as expected for a second Timex etc. Maybe the backlight button is a bit hard to press but this might be a feature against accidental pressing.
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br /However the wrist band really sucks. It is made of some plastic that makes you perspire keeps the moisture in that area. The most unpleasant effect is that at a point it starts to smell like hell, and no, it's not me :-).
br /Brushing it with some cleaning powder buys you another 1-2 month of use, depending on how hot the whether is and what you do with your watch on your hand.

Watch is really great, as most Timex watches are. The compass feature can be a little challenging to set-up. Watch band is ugly.

I like this watch, the strap and body look nice, and it performs well too. The indiglo display is bright and easy to toggle with the large button at the base of the face, but it doesn't stay on after releasing the button: you must hold the button down to continuously light the background. Not great, but I would've liked a one second delay.
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br /The compass feature is why I bought this particular model, but after using it a few times, I didn't really continue to use this feature. As the manual states, sometimes the compass needs to be reset, and it seems like whenever I took the subway (I live in Tokyo, Japan), or was in a large building, the compass would get screwy.
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br /Despite these caveats, I think its definately more than decent, just not incredible. Thanks Amazon!

All the functions work great. But I strongly recommend to search for another kind of watch band, because this one stinks very badly after some use, you should wash and dry it everyday.

Positives:
br /The watch is: compact, simple, easy to use, and lightweight with many useful features.
br /The compass functions fairly well for simple directional use, not exact measurements. I find that the watch is usually dead-on, but not to rely on it because it can be off by some 10 degrees sometimes. Great for simple navigation.
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br /Negatives:
br /I had been looking for a watch with 3-6 alarms, 3 chronographs, and 3 timers. (Of course this is my problem, not the watch's because I knew that it has one alarm, a chrono, and a timer.
br /The backlight: I dislike the backlight on this watch. It should have a feature to either stay on when any button is pressed or only go on when the light button is pressed. The watch DOES have this feature except if it's on the "any button light" mode, it only stays on that mode for some hours.
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br /THE WATCH IS A GREAT ONE FOR THE PRICE!

Works very well. Nice that you can adjust compass reading to account for magnetic variation. Features seem to all work. Looks nice. Strap feels/looks good and is replaceable, too. Instructions reasonably easy to follow (except for compass directions which reference control buttons by names not clearly (if at all) shown on the diagrams). All in all a very satisfactory performer. BUT NOTE: my first watch was defective, failing several times over first 2 weeks; I returned to seller for replacement which I have received and put through a rigorous workout for past several weeks. I suggest you do the same, repeatedly testing all the functions to ensure it does not fail. The failure was seen by a sudden resetting of everything back to zero hour. That is Jan. 1, some years ago at 12:00am. Not good.

Directional readings are accurate enough to navigate by, but not as accurate as watches costing four times as much.
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br /It has lots of useful features like, alarm, countdown timer, and chronograph.
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I needed a watch with a compass, alarm, time and date. This was the only watch that had all three and I bought it.
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br /Mine was purchased from a non-amazon seller, and came with a rubber band, and had a blue dial, not brown like the one shown in photo. I owned velcro bands before, and prefer rubber one. I recommend calling and asking for that variation, as I only found one retailer that sells it in that configuration.
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br /Compass exceeded my expectations. First of all, it is instantaneous, unlike lensatic compasses. Like lensatics, if it is not held flat it will give a wrong reading, so its important to keep it relatively flat. There is errata of about 5 degrees so you may not want to shoot a mile long azimuth with it. I check it with my regular compass, and its very close. All that's needed for hiking and orientation.
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br /Timex watches have an intuitive setup that they use across the board on their models. I owned Timex Ironman in the past, so the setup looked very familiar.
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br /It has a timer, which counts down from a set time. It is minimally complex, and quite useful.
br /Alarm, rather quiet. Good if you are already awake and need a reminder.
br /Chronograph - starts timer and stops when you finishes. straight forward two button operation.
br /Time date day - large easy to see.
br /Compass - one button operation, instant reading.
br /Ultimate backlight - just like other Timex watches - very bright and lights entire dial.
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br /Possible improvements for the future: I'd like to have GPS coordinate capability and a selectable sound for alarm(currently it is not very loud).
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br /It is an excellent watch, at 30-50 dollars, a good deal, well worth the five stars.

Had it for a few weeks now, seems to work good. It did freak out for a second a few days after I got it by completely reseting itself... screen went blank for a sec, then came back. Everything works fine though. If you never calibrated a digital compass, then I can see how it could be frustrating. Also, of course the compass needs to be recalibrated every so often. If I really needed to rely on this compass to get me somewhere, I'd recalibrate it every couple of hours. But just for the gee-whiz factor of having a compass watch I do it once a week or so... or whenever I want a somewhat accurate heading.
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br /Setting digital Compass:
br /Go outside away from anything metal. Start the little calibrate option holding the compass level to the ground. Spin in 2 circles SLOWLY! Finish the calibrate.
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br /This watch will allow you to enter the difference between true and magnetic north if you want. I really don't see why you would unless you live in a part of the world with a large difference... Timex says this compass is accurate within 5 degrees, so it is really only good for a general idea of cardinal direction. N, NE, E, SE... ect. If you really care about if you're pointing 105 or 110 degrees, then get a regular analog compass.

I was very pleased with the order it was timely and there were absolutely no problems incurred. I would definately order from this seller again.

This Timex watch is great. I have used it for several months now. I don't seem to think the display is light. I use this watch at school most of the time. It also works well in water. It doesn't seem that you have to push hard for the indiglo to work at all; it seems fine. Timex has always stood up to their slogan, It takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking.

this is a great watch. i haven't found much use for the compass yet but i'm still looking.

The watch is grate. The only thing I am confuised about is the compuss but if you know how to use it ,it works grate