# Remington watch
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 10, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334 "2002-06-10T23:40:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334/1 "2002-06-10T23:40:42Z")
I’m not sure where it came from, but I have a Remington watch in my possession. I also have the dirctions, but they’re no help at all. (I also can’t find the correct “Remington” on the web.) The watch is analog, with one knob on the side which can be pulled halfway out to set the date (it’s a calendar watch with a small window for the date of the month) or all the way out to set the time.
Around the edge of the watch there’s also a wheel that rotates with compass directions marked off. This would make sense to me if there were a compass needle on the watch, but there’s not. So, does my watch have a compass or is the wheel just ornamental? And if it _does_ have a compass, how do I use it?
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### Author:  [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2002, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334/2 "2002-06-11T00:50:10Z")
Some where in the “Boy Scout Handbook” they explane how to use an analog watch to find South. A watch, a stick, and a shadoe.
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### Author:  [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2002, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334/3 "2002-06-11T02:42:38Z")
A good explanation can be found [here](http://www.weeno.com/art/0400/222.html), thanks to google.
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### Author:  [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2002, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334/4 "2002-06-11T02:50:21Z")
Whoops. The link explains how to use your watch without a compass dial. I don’t know how a rotating ring would help you… you could align the ring with the results of the method descirbed in the link, but once your body turns, you’d be back at square one. My wag is it’s ornamental, or there just to help you if you have a fixed point you’re steering off of and know the direction of it… then you could align the ring and determine a reciprocal heading or 90 deg. heading or something like that.
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### Author:  [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334/5 "2002-06-12T16:55:10Z")
Thanks guys. I actually do know how to use an analog watch to find North (South, whatever – find one and you have 'em all), but I was hoping that there was more to it than that. As **flyboy** says, at that point, the dial is only a guide and not the solution…
Oh well. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remington-watch/113334/6 "2002-06-12T18:29:13Z")
I have a Remington watch given to me by my brother a few years ago. Shortly after I got it I saw Coleman brand watches at Target and it was the exactly the same as my Remington. There must be a watch company somewhere that makes branded watches for other companies.