Just how good is our new Water Resistant Talking Watch? This was the question on my mind this afternoon, as I strapped on the special ten-dollar watch and stepped into my swimming shorts. The pool was quiet today on account of the long weekend, which was one of the reasons we'd decided to go for a Saturday afternoon swim. We grabbed a cold shower, then warmed up in the hot tub - just as we always do at our local rec center.
What was different today is I knew what time it was, during the entire swim. The digital clock mounted high on the wall over the pool sports numbers that are almost two feet tall. I couldn't read them, but it didn't matter anymore. One of the kids in my care asked how long until the waves started, and I was able to tell him we had only ten more minutes to wait.
We jumped into the pool at 1 o'clock, swam a few laps, played tag, then dove to the very bottom of the deep end. Some twelve feet below the water, I could hold the watch up to my ear and hear the time clearly - "It's 1:17 PM." I guess this is quite normal for most folks - waterproof watches have been available to the general public for decades. But for me, having an inexpensive watch speak the time to me during our swim was not only a novelty, it was quite handy. For the first time, I knew we had plenty of time to dry off and change before our bus came to whisk us home.
Now, I must iterate that the instructions clearly state this watch should not be submerged in water, let alone dived to a depth exceeding ten feet. I took a chance with this watch today, but it did not let me down. And, as I write this article for the Superstore Blog, it continues to keep excellent time - and speak it clearly to me at the touch of a button. During our field testing in the Summer, I washed clothes and dishes with this thing, dunked it in a sink of water and even accidentally exposed it to salt water during an ocean dip. You void the warranty if you submerge this watch in water, but in my experience, that doesn't seem to matter much!
