Although I generally have little need to tell time I use two different truck travelling and canoe tripping timepieces. For a canoe tripping alarm I just drink a beer or two before bedtime, guaranteeing I’ll be up at dawn. And maybe at 3am.
On paddling trips I do reluctantly carry a watch. Just the watch part; I buy the cheapest* battery op watch I can find and cut the wristband off; I detest having things on my wrist. That strapless size-of-a-bottlecap timepiece lives in a little pocket in my essential bag/man purse.
Not something I look at very often, I’d rather live by hungry time/sleepy time/getee uppie time without knowing the exact hour. Mostly useful when coastal paddling for getting tidal changes right, occasionally for making certain I arrive at a shuttle pick-up on time (meaning earlier than needed).
*I am old school and still prefer an analog dial. One past “cheapest available” watch had a crazy cluttered, almost unreadable, roman numerals dial, with hands that were nearly the same size. I had that one fastened to the nightstand in the back of the tripping truck while helping out at a friend’s farm and glanced at it one “morning” when I woke up. Five minutes after six, might as well get up and get started working.
Made a pot of coffee and got going on the projects I had laid out the night before. A couple hours later I noticed a peculiarity; it still wasn’t light out. I had read the cluttered watch face upside down, it wasn’t five minutes after six when I looked, it was 1am. I was already up for a couple hours, well caffeinated and busy, and got a
lot of work done that day.
The stupid part of that cheapest available ($8) watch selection is that the battery life is 2 years +/-. I never know when the batteries are about to fail, and replacement batteries cost more than the cheapo watch. I dislike that planned obsolesce and need to find an old wind-up analog watch that takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Just wind it up and set it (check the time zone when travelling cross country) and rewind it every day or so. Sometimes the old ways are best.
The little Timex wind-ups tick quietly. They may not sell them any more given I found the image on a vintage Timex site.
I do have need of an alarm when sleeping in the back of the Tripping Truck; it’s dang near darkroom black under the cap with all of the curtains drawn, and often as not when on the road I want to be up and driving before dawn.
A little Westclock travel alarm lives in the truck. Gotta be 30 or 40 years old, I just find the time on the dashboard clock, wind it up and set the alarm as needed. Wind up analog simple and still keeps good time. This very thing, down to the case color.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Westclox-Travel-Alarm-Clock-w-Brown-Folding-Hard-Case-/123714628024
Most of the modern “travel alarms” seem to be digital or at least battery operated, and I presume the alarm on those is also electronic. The alarm on the vintage Westclock is mechanical, with an actual clapper between two bells. It is loud as hell; no one is sleeping through that noise, including the folks in the tent on the next site over. So loud I typically flail around in the dark finding the “alarm off” switch ASAP. That’ll get me up.
As long as he can carry his own feed and that would also solve the meal plan for the last night of the trip DUAL USE!
