What do you look for in a watch to take sailing? It's got to keep good time and be waterproof, obviously. If you ever do any racing, it needs a countdown timer. If you are a cruising fanatic, it must have a good alarm, to wake you up to catch the dawn shipping forecast or an early tide. And above all, it's got to be legible, even when your glasses are covered in spray.
There are lots of fancy chronographs that fulfil all these requirements, often with designer labels and prices to match. But the great Lawrie Smith, who skippered the 80 foot Rothmans in the 1989-90 Whitbread round the world race, reckoned the best thing was the sub-£20 Casio, which keeps near perfect time, and can be regarded as semi-disposable if it gets lost, stolen or battered in action. Who am I to disagree?
Despite inflation since then (especially in the cost of a campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race, as it now is) you can still get a Casio watch for less than £20. But I have really pushed the boat out this time, and my sailing timepiece of choice for the last year has been the Casio Sea Pathfinder, which costs all of £24.95.
It's got lots of fancy add-ons, including a tide graph, which you can set for your area of navigation, and it shows the current height of water in twelfths, and whether it is rising or falling. There's also a moon phase indicator, to show whether the tide will be springs or neaps. But in fact I take no notice of either, preferring always to check the Almanac.
What actually attracted me to the watch was the clear, large digital display, which I can even read without my glasses. And this model, with its navy strap and lighter blue bezel, (also available in black and silver) is relatively neat and attractive, too - not one of those knuckle-duster-like monsters bristling with knobs and buttons.
Neat, flush-set buttons make setting the alarm or resetting the time relatively simple, even for someone as clumsy as me, and there's a big, user-friendly button for the light, which makes it easy to check the time on the darkest night watch.
Complete with stopwatch, countdown timer, five daily alarms and auto calendar, this watch also has a ten-year battery, and despite the plastic strap, it's so comfortable that I can forget I'm wearing it.
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This watch does absolutely everything I want, and at £22.99, with a ten-year life, it represents outstanding value for money. If it got dropped overboard, or trodden on, or whatever, I wouldn't be heartbroken - I'd just go out and get another one just like it!
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For more information, visit www.casio.com.
