Gear Review: Ironman Shock Watch

I was going through some boxes in my garage and found my Casio G-Shock watch that I bought in 1988. I wore it almost the entire time I was in the Army and beat the living hell out of it. The watch is twenty years old, been sitting in a box for over a decade and the battery is still running. I decided to go out and get another model.

I did a lot of research, all good shoppers do, and in the end I went with the new Timex Ironman Shock watch, their equivalent of the G-Shock. I am so happy Timex makes this watch. I like Timex over Casio because, well lets be honest it has about a half dozen M-Dots around the case. Because its a true dive watch (200m, thats down, not distance) the buttons and split button are a bright orange as well as the M-Dots.

However here are the reasons I think more of you should consider this watch for your next non-HR digital timepiece.

This watch has a very large face. I personally like large watches. The reason for the added size is that as a true dive watch it is pressured which means you can use it for diving down to 200m. Also the buttons are closed off so you can truly press splits/laps underwater which is a great asset in the pool.

Secondly, Timex has a great numbers font. If any of you have really looked at other digitals closely, there are some that have darker numbers but smaller, larger numbers but use a dot matrix. Timex numbers are decent size and clearly visible from literally an arms length.

Timex Ironmans are a vision of simplicity. When compared to similiar digital dive watches, like the Casio, there is all types of clutter on face. In fact this Timex Shock takes simplicity one step further in an awesome way. Using the mode function you can turn off options like multiple alarms, occasions and on this particular watch a Golf function. Of the many modes available I turned all of them off except Time, Stopwatch, Countdown and one Alarm.

If Timex did not invent the Indiglo it captured the market share. This new generation of watches does not light up the entire watch face with the blue backlighting but designed the watch so that only the numbers light up. It does take getting some used to but it give just as much light to see at night. Plus with the FLIX system you can flick your wrist towards you the Indiglo will automatically turn on for a few seconds.

For those of you looking for a new Timex Ironman I suggest looking at the Shock. It will take a beating, is completely waterproof and able to work buttons underwater. You can turn off modes you would not normally use. I got mine at Wal-Mart for about $60 which makes it cheaper than most normal Ironman models you would find at bike shops.