How to tell direction using your watch and the sun - Bear Grylls

In the latest episodes of Man vs Wild, Bear Grylls talks about using his watch to tell direction. This is not a feature just for the Breitling Emergency he wears. This works with any watch that uses analog time. The important aspect is that you are in the Northern Hemisphere though.

What to do:

Take the hour hand and point it at the sun. Then find half way between the hour hand and 12 on your watch and that is south. From there if you know any directions you can determine north, east, and west. Some watches have degrees on the bezel which can make it easier if you are attempting to find northwest or something.

Pretty simple though just knowing directions could save your life or it is just fun on your next camping trip.

Bear Grylls wears the Breitling Emergency Watch

What is the watch that Bear Grylls wears in Man vs Wild? If you are a fan of the show than this is important to you. Bear wears the Breitling Emergency Watch with a yellow face. Breitling is one of the premier Swiss watch makers who have a reputation of making the finest aeronautics and dive watches.

The Breitling Emergency though has special meaning for a survival expert like Bear Grylls. The Emergency has a distress beckon that can be pulled if ever in dire straights. That is right pull the beckon out and search and rescue comes and gets you. Just for information, it is a 10k fine to pull the beckon during a non emergency situation. I know this because I own the exact same watch and it is my personal favorite. I had to sign a lot of forms stating that I understood about using this watch inappropriately.