Near perfect sport watch: White Timex T5K4299J Ironman Triathlon Shock 200m review

What is a sport watch? What should sports watch deliver? Many watches can be sports watch, however long ago Timex figured it out nearly perfect. Among plentiful examples which are mostly same with some small additions I going to describe it on example of T5K4299J which is run of the mill Timex triathlon digital watch with 200m WR and “Shock” build. If you want good sport watch for running or any other regular activity this could be the watch to buy.  So more details below.

What makes great sports watch? What you need in a sport watch? Checklist is personal and will depend on activity. If you running and doing laps than lap count/stats is THE thing to have. If you just running and all you need is time than you may not bother ever to remember how to recall lap times or are they listed as functionality of your watch.

After running, biking and going to the gym I have clear grasp on differences between what you need in each and every case. However I want to describe a list of important things as I come to whish in good sport watch.

1.       It should be comfortable. Really comfortable during activity you doing. Preferably it should be lightweight too. So shape, band, operation and weight.

2.       It should be easy to read at the time of the day you do it. When your hand shaking bigger digits are better.

3.       It should have functions you need for exercise you up to.

4.       It should be washable so no leather bands. After very short time of formidable efforts you sweat and it more convenient not to use deodorant under your watch.

5.       It should take all beating you going to subject it during exercise and keep going

6.       It rather be an inexpensive one ( by that I don’t intend to limit it to 25$ rather it should not be 1000$ or more one)

So, what works well? Digital watches with resin band, big bright LCD (no for inverted ones for sure), reasonable backlit illumination and with the build which fits you in best way. Digital watch will give you whole bunch of functions: timers, stopwatches, lap counts, backlit screen and they come rather affordable. You can read it in one take while running, it can beep your intervals, it has memory to store laps and it has backlit illumination.

T5K fills all boxes.

It has durable band with straight build meaning if you need new one you can get it any time any place. 

However white color of the watch clearly is a limit, but you can get black/silver model. It big yet not huge and wears in a comfortable way, pushers are big and accessible. Also, band has stopper function so it won’t detach on itself. 

Digits are big and viewing angles are acceptable in most situations. It can be seen in streetlight. “Shock” build is no match for Casio G-Shock, yet I don’t think this watch will break before you do. 

200m WR gives reassurance in shower use and any other reasonable land or water activity. Indiglo illumination is nice and night mode is worthy having it. Night mode means any button will turn backlit illumination on. Functions are plentiful including timer, stopwatch with 30 lap memory with current lap time displayed along with total time and number of lap,

Display of lap time(top) and elapsed time (bottom) with 0.00 seconds or

Display of lap time (top) and elapsed time bottom with lap number.

Also Timex has alarm which could be daily, weekdays or weekends. All together is a neat package with impressive accuracy of timekeeping. Is there more? The main difference is in location of start/split button. Button located very conveniently and much more intuitive to use than side pusher. Overall there are two things in this watch to set it apart from similar offers from Casio: nice display with BIG digits and how you operate stopwatch. I like it. Is it a best watch? No. There are much better models. There are 5 or 6 sizes to choose from; like clothing Timex could be small, medium, large, extra large and even larger. Step to bigger model and 3 alarms will cover all your needs, more timers will be more convenient, more laps in memory and ability to store different workouts are nice. Step to even bigger model and you can read your stopwatch from 5 meters away while been chased by lions in your local safari. However as entry point into sport watches this Timex is near perfect and it could be yours for very little money. As a matter of fact it is a very reasonable back up watch, going to sea watch, fishing watch or any other type of activity watch where your sense of fashion should not prevail over common one. Timex is very good at keeping time, CR2016 battery will last long and I personally had no issues with watch. However Timex watches are hit and miss in terms of quality, meaning they either work or not. Timex Ironman is definitively a brand thing with history and reputation. All digital ironman models are plastic yet for intended use that the way to go.

There is a nice propositions from Casio with some different functionality, different ergonomics and lower price. I picked one dedicated running model in local thrift store and it is very good runners watch.

  Personally I like to wear Timex when I running, for anything else there is a Casio. However if you ask me which watch to choose I will direct you to both and let either of them to match your personality.