Works OK. Terrible manual. Contrary to what I'd read, battery is difficult to self replace. Parts are not labled. Instructions are vague and not specific.

Customer Service

Missing. Gone. No one knows anything about it. Alta, Sports Insturments, XLM Corp., Freestyle, Silva all sell this same watch. Not one service deaprtment knows anything about it or have even heard of it!!!

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Avocet

Has a lot of features, though I am mainly interested in current altitude, time, and alarm. Somewhat confusing and difficult to navigate though all of the features, and owners manual is not very well written. Altimeter is quite accurate but drifts over time, so you need to re-calibrate frequently (every day if you want to keep within 30 ft or so). I have used it in the Sierras up to 13,000 ft. and it was accurate enough to let me know about which contour I was on on a USGS topo. Battery died within a few weeks of purchase (I suspect it was sitting on a shelf somewhere for a looong time), but I replaced it myself and has been going for a year now.

Customer Service

No experience with service.

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None.

This watch is a piece of crap. The first time I took it out, for some winter mountaineering, it got stuck at just below 12,000 feet and wouldn't change modes. The alarm still goes off at 10:00 every morning (because I can't change modes to shut it off. Its worthless right now, and didn't even serve me well on the one trip I took it on. I went for this one because it sounded like a good watch for a great value, but I soon got what I paid for. It still reads that same altitude that it got stuck at. I have heard of similar things happening to other people with this watch. All in all, I say spring for a quality altimeter.

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None

At first, I was extremely thrilled to get an altimeter watch for close to $100. But, now I see why...
At first, the watch performed flawlessly. The large LCD display and the small profile made it a really nice piece.
Now, six months later, one of the settings buttons on the watch is not working. This means the altimeter is stuck for the last elevation setting where it worked right. In addition, the pin that attaches band to the watch has since broken.
I now see this same watch on the internet for as low as $89. Now... I know why.

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None

I have used this product (actually the Sports Instruments ALTA, basically the exact same watch) for 5 months.
Very easy to use, very accurate.
Repeatable accuracy (do the same trail twice) is outstanding.
I have used it for Mountain Biking so far, will test it for snow skiing this winter. I think it would be ok for backpacking, but the Avocet allows you to change the vert feet descent/ascent units into units(feet or meter)/hr, this watch only allows the default of units (feet or meter)/minute. That is ok for fast moving sports, biking/skiing, but useless for hiking.
A minor complaint.

Customer Service

I had a problem with the first one I bought, it went into sleep mode to easily. Turns out I bought the first production run, they replaced my watch with the second production run. Works fine now.

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I still have the Avocet Vertech watch.
That has a 10 foot resolution, the 3 foot resolution of this watch gives a more accurate reading of total vert feet accumulated. They both are similiar accuracy for the absolute vert feet at any given moment, but the Freestyle/Sports Instruments is slightly quicker to register change, since it reads in 3 foot increments.