Tidemaster Talisman Watch

A watch is one of the most important pieces of equipment an angler has. Knowing the exact time of the tide state is imperative from a safety point of view if you're fishing marks where you're likely to be cut off by a rising tide, also for water depth to access boat berths, and obviously for predicting the best time of tide for fishing.

A watch designed for anglers in mind is the Tidemaster Talisman. You have a choice of a white dial and black time fingers or a black dial with white fingers. The white dial carries bold black Arabic hour numbers and the black dial white numbers, each with a secondary red numeral 24-hour scale and a polished nickel second sweep hand.

For easy night time reading, by pressing the time adjuster button inwards the whole dial of the watch lights up in a faint but easily read pale green light. Ideal for fisherman, especially rock bass anglers who need to read the time but cannot risk using a headlight when bass are feeding close in.

The outer rotating bezel on the watch is a tide calculator. By placing the high or low water indicator over the predicted high or low tide time for that day, you can see at glance exactly what state of tide it is while you're fishing. Battery power is through a long life Lithium battery expected to give around 5 years continuous use.

The case of the watch is tough black resin and ultra slim. The whole unit is depth tested to a depth of 50-metres. We've had the watch under seawater for testing without any problems, and it's been fully soaked several times while fishing and bait digging and it looks non the worse for heavy wear.

You have a choice of several watchstraps with this watch. One of the toughest from an angling viewpoint is the Velcro type. These don't rip off if you're struggling with big fish like tope or shark on a boat deck, plus are more reliable having no buckles to snap under pressure when working anchor ropes.

Our opinion is that this is a top class buy for both shore and boat anglers, especially with Christmas around the corner, and it retails for £49.95 with the Velcro strap, though it can cost up to £64.95 if you choose the deluxe blue sharkskin strap option.

Speaking of straps, a strap with a flip over protective cover as seen on some military watches might be a popular option for anglers, but no one seems to do them nowadays.

If you want to see the full range of Tidemaster watches and other products you can view them on the yachting Instruments Ltd web site at tidemaster.co.uk

Alternatively the address is Yachting Instruments Ltd, Mappowder , Sturminster, Newton, Dorset DT10 2EH. Tel: 01258 817662 Fax: 01258 817829