I've worn a compass on my watchband for as long as I can remember, but the biggest down-fall of every watcband compass I've ever owned is that illumination, after being charged, was usually very short-lived. One of the first posts I ever wrote as a CPFer over six and a half years ago was a query to see if anybody could point me in the direction of a good watchband compass with tritium vials...but I was never able to find one. Well, I finally DID find one! It's made by Cammenga, and you can find them at a few different sources; most notably Countycomm.com and E-Bay (item #310083585877).
I know that a thread like this is better with pics, but I don't own a digicam, so you'll have to look the item up yourself...sorry 'bout that. I ordered mine from E-Bay, and it was about $5 less than Countycomm's price, and it had FREE USPS priority shipping. I orderd on Wednesday night, and received it today, packed VERY well. The compass is slightly larger than most watchband compasses I've owned, but the green tritium vials (there's three of them) are nice and bright! My watch is a Traser H3 with a Zulu 4-buckle watchband from Countycomm, so my watchband was too wide to for the compass to fit. What I did was to take off the compass' flanges that hold it on the watchband, and smooth everything out with my Dremmel. Next I took an old Suunto Clipper compass I had lying around, "gutted' it, and thinned it down...again with my Dremmel. I then attached the Cammenga tritium compass to the Suunto base using 3M two-sided pressure sensitive tape (the same stuff used to attach Venta-Shades to your car door) and Super glue gel. The whole thing worked like a charm, and now I have a tritium compass on my tritium watch!
Like I said, the Cammenga compass is larger than most watchband compasses, but I don't mind, because IMHO it's not THAT much larger. I normally prefer liquid-filled compasses because their movement is usually smoother than non liquid-filled. The only downfall to liquid-filled is that they almost always develop air bubbles over time, and the air bubbles affect the performance, usually quite noticeably. For a non liquid-filled compass, the Cammenga has VERY smooth movement...not "jerky" at all, and very stable. All in all, I'm EXTREMELY pleased with this find! I'll edit this post a little later with a link to the compass..but for now I just wanted to pass it on!
PJD
EDIT: Here's a link to the compass:
http://store.cammenga.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=53
I just got done checking the Countycomm website, and they're no longer there. They were there Wednesday night when I was looking, but for some reason or other they're no longer on Countycomm's website. For more views of the compass including a close-up showing the tritium vials, go to E-Bay and look for item #310083585877. Hope that helps!
I know that a thread like this is better with pics, but I don't own a digicam, so you'll have to look the item up yourself...sorry 'bout that. I ordered mine from E-Bay, and it was about $5 less than Countycomm's price, and it had FREE USPS priority shipping. I orderd on Wednesday night, and received it today, packed VERY well. The compass is slightly larger than most watchband compasses I've owned, but the green tritium vials (there's three of them) are nice and bright! My watch is a Traser H3 with a Zulu 4-buckle watchband from Countycomm, so my watchband was too wide to for the compass to fit. What I did was to take off the compass' flanges that hold it on the watchband, and smooth everything out with my Dremmel. Next I took an old Suunto Clipper compass I had lying around, "gutted' it, and thinned it down...again with my Dremmel. I then attached the Cammenga tritium compass to the Suunto base using 3M two-sided pressure sensitive tape (the same stuff used to attach Venta-Shades to your car door) and Super glue gel. The whole thing worked like a charm, and now I have a tritium compass on my tritium watch!
Like I said, the Cammenga compass is larger than most watchband compasses, but I don't mind, because IMHO it's not THAT much larger. I normally prefer liquid-filled compasses because their movement is usually smoother than non liquid-filled. The only downfall to liquid-filled is that they almost always develop air bubbles over time, and the air bubbles affect the performance, usually quite noticeably. For a non liquid-filled compass, the Cammenga has VERY smooth movement...not "jerky" at all, and very stable. All in all, I'm EXTREMELY pleased with this find! I'll edit this post a little later with a link to the compass..but for now I just wanted to pass it on!
PJD
EDIT: Here's a link to the compass:
http://store.cammenga.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=53
I just got done checking the Countycomm website, and they're no longer there. They were there Wednesday night when I was looking, but for some reason or other they're no longer on Countycomm's website. For more views of the compass including a close-up showing the tritium vials, go to E-Bay and look for item #310083585877. Hope that helps!
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