“Wait, the battery lasts how long?”
To answer this question, just ask COROS user Ben Godwin who recovered his watch from the bottom of a lake, still holding a 1% charge…37 days after he had lost it.
During a climbing trip at the Sooke Potholes in BC, Canada, Ben decided to take off his watch for a warm-up so he could climb a route that included frequent hand jams as unimpeded as possible. Having already climbed a few difficult routes on the day (6c, 11b), Ben was prepping for the “main event” of the climb (7a, 11d). Unfortunately, while on a rest ledge just before starting this section of the climb, his watch was knocked straight into the chasm.
“I just stared at it and knew it was gone. I tried to dive for the watch myself but the water is rather deep (for me anyway) ~30 ft, and I’m a climber/skier, not a diver. However, I was able to contact my friend Logan who is a freediver, so I petitioned him to have a look for the watch more than a month after it had been lost in the water. It took him a few dives to find the watch but it was eventually located directly beneath where I had dropped it. When the watch resurfaced, I could see the display was still working and the watch somehow still had a 1% charge. Logan also recovered a bunch of trash from the river as well, so that’s a win!”
The battery life of the COROS APEX is listed at 24 days of “regular use” and this story illustrates that these are real-world usage metrics that we show on our website. When Ben’s watch was sitting dormant under 30ft of water, the battery life of the APEX surpassed our “regular use” measurements by nearly two weeks.
“The watch had some growth on it but otherwise seemed to be working great. It had 1% battery left, was still telling time, and started counting my steps right away. Once I was able to plug it in at home everything was working perfectly, the digital crown was a little gummy at first and after allowing the barometer to dry and with a quick reset it’s back to normal.”
In addition to the watch recovery effort, Ben also spoke briefly about how he uses his COROS APEX to train for climbing and skiing, all while balancing the workload of pursuing a Ph.D. degree.
“Like any aspiring endurance athlete, I rely on heart rate data to plan my training, and for winter climbing and ski mountaineering objectives on the west coast GPS navigation is mandatory since the island weather is generally moody during the winter months. Even during the summer GPS navigation is handy in the famous Vancouver Island bush! We had used the navigation the weekend prior to climb Elkhorn Mountain in a day (14 hours and 15ish minutes). So the watch has been a very important tool for me in hobbies and I’m excited to have it back.”
We are glad to have you as a part of the COROS community, Ben and thanks for sharing your story!
