Brunton watch band compass

A year or so ago I bought a Brunton 9068 watchband compass. It's the small one that slips over your existing watchband and sits beside your watch. It cost about $5.00 at the local sporting goods store. Obviously this is not a high quality compass by design, it's the el-cheapo model.. The compass was 180 degrees off from day one. After a few months I called Brunton just to tell them about the problem so they could check their QA. They were super nice and told me to just throw it away and they would send me another one. I told them that wasn't necessary or what I wanted but the woman on the phone insisted. A few weeks later a new one came in the mail. It worked well for the last 4-6 months but now it points 180 out just like the other one. It still looks great, not scratched or cloudy and the fluid is still doing it's thing. At $5.00 I may buy another one. I just don't understand why they do the 180. The point of the thread is don't use this compass like your life depended on it or check it against the sun. This thing is still accurate once you add or subtract 180 degrees.

Buy a Suunto. Mine has been great for 2 years now. I think it was $8 and comes with it's own strap you can use or not. Also Cammenga now makes a Tritium wrist compass for about $35. I have one on order. I love Tritium. Cammenga is the maker of the US military compasses.

take your compass and place it near a super strong magnet.
sometimes it will cause poles to flip..

another vote for Sunnto mini compass!

cy said:

take your compass and place it near a super strong magnet. sometimes it will cause poles to flip..

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Worked.
It took about 2 minutes of screwing around with the magnet then presto-chango it flipped around to where it belongs. Thanks

I tested many compasses and continue to do so in determining which ones to carry on the site. The small compasses seem to be the most finicky. One of the manufacturers told me that after purchasing a compass you should set it aside for a few days from any other compasses or metal objects. Apparently the compasses get thrown off a little when they are store/packed with other compasses. I have sold a number of the Sunnto compasses and so far they have performed well.

https://edcdepot.com/merchantmanager/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=157

I've had a few Bruntons and they worked fine up 'til I broke them in one way or another. I prefer the glow-in-the-dark Suunto clipper, it costs a little more than the Brunton, but worth it for a good watchband compass.

i have a suunto mini compass for like 9 yrs already, and its still working just fine :thumbsup:

this compass looks pretty good though

You can get a Cammenga tritium wrist compass for about $36. So why buy the Marathon glow in the dark? My Cammenga will be here any day and I will give a report.

I had a similar compass to the Brunton on a keychain that I got from Bass Pro Shop. It had a caribeaner attached. After a couple years, the compass did the same thing, off by 180 deg. I tried several times to fix it with a magnet, but had no luck. Since the thing was on a keychain I expected this to happen. Hard to keep metal objects away from it.

Currently my watch is a Timex Expedition with the electronic compass. It seems to be fairly accurate and reliable. But like most watches, it runs on a battery. I keep a normal Silva compass in my BOB in my Jeep at all times. I'm usually never more than a couple hundred yards from my Jeep so I guess that's ok. It sure would be nice though to have a normal compass for EDC that was more resistant to being carried near metal objects and still remain accurate. I have noticed that there are a few SAKs that come with a compass, I wonder how well those work and if they remain accurate?

Another 1+ for the Sunnto mini compass. I picked it up at Sports Chalet a few months ago as an inexpensive dive compass. My dive console is only an old lame 2 gage (pressure and depth) and I do a lot of lake and river diving where currents and lack of viability can really disorient you. I have it on my G shock watch band and find it more convenient than using a gage console with a compass in it because I can check my heading easily and more often without having to search for my console. It was also an $8 solution to a potentially much more expensive problem.

O and I like it so much that I keep it on my watch band full time. It is handy when driving and has also been fun when flying. Whats with some flights not allowing GPS usage any way? (sorry off topic)

Is there a brick and mortar place you can buy the Bruntons or Suuntos? Like a Walmart or a Sportsman warehouse?

Terry Monk said:

Is there a brick and mortar place you can buy the Bruntons or Suuntos? Like a Walmart or a Sportsman warehouse?

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I bought one at an REI. I loved it until I lost it!

I have one of those $5 Brunton GITD compasses in my daypack. It's always worked pretty well. Its needle is maybe 3 cm long and it's pretty lightweight, certainly under 0.5 ounces. I'll spare the theoretical explanation but I've always had the suspicion that longer needles make the compass work better, small button compasses (possibly excepting expensive precision ones) are less of a good bet.