Timex Men's Expedition Grid Shock Quartz Resin Strap

Update, 2 years later:Still in love with this watch. Until this weekend, no scratches of the face. I was teaching an National Cave Rescue Commission Orientation to Cave Rescue class this past weekend, and when in the cave, one of the students who was supposed to be doing vital signs didn't have a watch so I loaned him mine. Unfortunately, I got separated from him and he wore it during the carryout, and unlike me didn't have cuffs that closed over the watch, so it got a few scratches. Nothing all that severe, and I guess this is about as bad a test as you can have of a watch face's durability, but I've decided to keep the existing one for rougher use and get a new one for everyday wear.I just got this to replace a 15-20 year old Timex Expedition watch that was supposed to be 100m water resistant but died after diving to just 5 meters. At first I chalked this up to seals getting old, but then I also realized that when I had the battery replaced, the watch place said that this would damage the waterproofing. There is no reason for a digital watch to be round, I thought (my old one was) so why not get a rectangular one? I wear a Time Expedition as my everyday watch unless I have to dress up. And "everyday" for me includes clearing trails, disaster response, and mountain and cave rescue.The important good things about this watch, to me, are as follows.(1) Easy to read in bad conditions (or if you have poor eyesight). From top to bottom this is the same size as a normal round watch, but it's half again as wide. The numbers are half again as big as on a round digital watch. The Indiglo makes it easy to see at night (press the center right small button to make it light up for a second or so).(2) Easy to set. Timex "Easy-Set" means no need for any manual. All four buttons are clearly labeled; just press and hold Set (top left) to get into Set Mode and just follow the instructions.(3) Comfortable on the wrist. I have small bones, and even on my wrist, this big watch is comfortable. For my old round Timex Expedition, I traded in the OEM wrist band for a nylon one. This has a great band on it. It's soft, wide (which means comfortable) and quite secure. It seems pretty tough. It has a free loop (free ring) that has a little tooth in it that will stick into one of the same holes that the buckle tongue goes into. This means you can slide it to the end of the strap and it will stay right there. Brilliant design!(4) The top left has a sort of digital second hand... enough to count in 15- or 30-second intervals for checking a pulse or respirations. (I'm a physician so that's important to me.)If there is anything to not like about this watch, there are two things that concern me. First, the crystal is acrylic (thanks to those who replied to my question about this) and easier to scratch than a "mineral glass" crystal. (I've yet to see a "vegetable glass" crystal, but an "animal glass" crystal of Gorilla Glass would be ideal.) Second, when I've taken similar watches to a local watch place to get a new battery put in, they say that it's not waterproof any more. I wonder if it would be worth it to send it back for a new crystal and new battery when the battery dies, or if it would be cheaper to just get a new watch.Addendum: I asked about keeping water resistance after changing the battery, and two people answered "take it to a jeweler" but after browsing online comments about this option, I disagree. When my battery dies, I emal [email protected] or call 1-800-448-4639 to send it back to Timex. I would like the seals to be replaced if damaged so it stays waterproof, and local jewelers don't have access to the seals for unusual watches like this.

Very nice looking watch. Decent size nice band.

A little larger than I thought it would be, but that really isn't a problem for me. For someone with smaller hands/wrists it might be an issue. Watch the specs before you buy if that is an issue for you.The face is very, very readable. Nice, crisp, large numbers and letters. Indiglo backlight is just the right amount of brightness, allowing enough light to read, but not so much as to blur the numbers.The vibrate feature is the killer function here. Easily noticeable, even when your attention is elsewhere. This is actually the main reason I bought this particular watch.One thing that I wish all digital watches had that this one does is that during setting the time, timer, alarms, etc is that you can either advance the numbers or reverse them. Most other brands I've used only allow advancing. On them, if you go past the setting you want, you have to go all the way thru the sequence to get back to your number. Doesn't sound like much of a deal, but it is very annoying, and something that you would think is a no-brainer for programming the watch. I'm glad this watch works the correct way.The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is the acrylic face. it is very soft and scratches easily. I wish Timex made a version with a mineral crystal face. Even if it added $10 or so. They have other watches that are priced even less than this one that do have the mineral crystal face, so it shouldn't be too big a deal.Bottom line, this is a really good watch that could be great if they would change to a crystal face or something that was harder than the acrylic being used now.

Very comfortable and easy to set. I have many dress watches and a few gshock watches and this watch does everything I need it to do and is comfortable doing it. The mudshock watch and mostly all gshock watches from Casio frankly does way too much and complicated to set for an average person that only needs the simplest of things in a watch -- What time is it, stopwatch, alarms and a light, that's it. This is a good cheap watch for outdoors.

I'm a watch fanatic and have bought more than I care to mention over the past 50 years. But when it comes to finding an inexpensive, rugged, waterproof, shock-resistant watch I've struggled to find one I like. I've probably returned more watches than some people have bought total (it's a problem, I know - I'm working on it!) because so few of them met all my requirements.That said, I'm thrilled with the Timex Expedition Grid Shock (TW4B02500) watch. While I've only had it two months, I can say it nails all my wants and needs in a watch: Easy to read face, easy to use functions, toughness, weight, fit, comfort. I'm surprised at how quickly I forget it's on my wrist, because it's a big watch and I expected it to bother me. But somehow the fit is perfectly comfortable. This is coming from a guy who wears some of the thinnest watches made (Skagen) for business, so saying that this giant watch is comfortable is saying a lot. I hate to feel my watches pushing against my sleeves or getting hung up in my shirt cuffs.I've gotten several compliments on it as well.So, great watch, great style.