Watches & Alarms

Don't oversleep and miss that flight, tour bus or other activity!

When you travel, it's extremely important to have some type of alarm with you.  You may rely solely on your phone, but you may want to consider wearing a watch as a backup.  Most Smartphones will have an alarm app or one you can download for free.  It's also important that your watch has some type of alarm.

In today's world of Smartphones, some people tend to not wear a watch, but having one makes it very convenient to quickly check the time and also provides a backup should something happend to your Smartphone.

Jaipur, India - Jantar Mantar
Eddie checking the time at the Jantar Mantar monument in Jaipur, Rajasthan

This is a collection of nineteen architectural astronomical instruments, built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II and was completed in 1734 CE.

It features the world's largest stone sundial and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

There are several important things to remember considering alarms

Don't rely on the hotel's wakeup call.  Any number of things can happen, including the hotel not calling you.  (Unless you are staying in a large upscale hotel chain, the places you are staying at will more than likely not have a wakeup call service)

Don't depend on the in-room alarm clock to wake you up.  (It may not work or being unfamiliar with it, you may not set it accurately)

Make sure you have adjusted your watch and phone to your current time zone so that alarm times are correct.

Make sure you are familiar with and can easily set the alarms on your watch and phone. (Figure this out ahead of time to be sure you know how to do it as some watches can be quite confusing)

Prior to travel, set and test your alarms.  Use them to wake yourself up in the morning, so you become familiar with them and to be sure they will actually wake you up.

 

When considering a watch, think about the features and what you really want or need

 Water resistant or waterproof

 Battery life, how often will it need to be recharged or replaced

 Vibrating, audible or both for the alarm

 Is the display easy to read (will you need reading glasses to see the time and other information displayed)

 Is the time and alarm easy to set

 Do you want a Smartwatch that may need to be charged every day

 Do you want features such as a step counter, distance walked, heart rate and others

 Do you need Bluetooth capability to connect the watch to your phone

 

eSeasonGear Vibration Alarm Watch with 12 Vibrating Alarms

For something different, on a trip to Europe in 2023, I tried this watch.  I wanted something with a large, easy to read display.  I was also looking for a long battery life and a vibrating alarm.  As my phone has an audible alarm, I wanted to try a watch that vibrates to see how it would wake me up.  Of course, that means I will be wearing the watch while sleeping.

As this watch does not have a screen, but rather bright LED lights that only turn on when you hit a button, it's extremely bright and easy to read in direct sunlight.  This also gives the watch a long battery life.  On this trip, I was gone for 17 days and did not have to charge the watch once.  It will also display the battery percentage remaining.  During the trip, it got down to 90%, so it would have lasted much longer than my trip.

Before I left on vacation, I slept with the watch on and set the alarm to be sure it would wake me up.  It did, very easily.  When the vibrating alarm goes off, the watch will also flash the time which is extremely bright.  In the dark, that alone would probably have been enough to wake me up.  As it has multiple alarms, you can set different ones for every few minutes.  Some of these watches have a repeating alarm function that can be set to repeat every few minutes.  My version didn't have that feature, so I set a second alarm 2 minutes after the first (just in case), when we had an early flight or train to catch.

The strap is very comfortable but not the easiest to buckle until you get used to it.  You have to slip one end of the band through the loop on the other end, then push the pin through one of the holes to secure it.  On the other hand, the watch is very secure and you don't have to worry about it coming undone.

The only negative I have with this watch is that it is not waterproof or water resistant.  I'm hoping they come out with a new water proof model in the future. 

For years, we have worn the below watches for sports and travel.  As this is not something you have to do often, before each trip, I would have to figure out 'again' how to set the time, or the alternate time as well as the alarm.  Most of the features I never use on a trip.  The displays are crowded and small, so they can be hard to read.  Even the backlight functions in my opinion are not that great.

I doubt I will use these on future trips and would go with the above basic featured watch or something that is digital, similar to the below watches but is more of a minimalist watch, with less features and a larger display.
Casio Men's SGW-100-2BCF Twin Sensor Digital Display Quartz Black Watch Timex Women's Ironman 30-Lap Digital Quartz Mid-Size Watch
  • Water Resistant - 200M/100M
  • Round watch with black digital dial featuring colorful bezel
  • Five daily alarms
  • Digital compass
  • Thermometer
  • World time
  • Backlight
  • Stopwatch
  • Countdown timer
  • 45 mm stainless steel case with mineral dial window
  • Quartz movement with digital display
  • Resin band with buckle closure
  • Sports Stopwatch with 30 Lap Memory
  • Countdown Timer
  • Alarm
  • Fast Wrap Velcro Strap
  • Indiglo Light-Up Watch Dial
  • Water resistant to 100 m (330 ft) - In general, suitable for swimming and snorkeling, but not scuba diving