Victorinox Swiss Army Summit XLT Titanium



For some time now, I’ve been keeping my eye out for a good all-around watch that met some specific requirements; reasonable cost, solid brand, easy to read and most importantly- tough. I’m a fairly active guy and while I’m not exactly a participant in an Eco Challenge, I would venture to say that in general I actually subject my gear to equally abusive, if not worse, conditions. I personally prefer things with a Swiss Army knife sort of appeal, fairly non-specialized gear that excels in many conditions but is not necessarily the best at any one in particular. I also really enjoy watches; men essentially don’t really wear jewelry save for a wedding band and a watch and since ideally the wedding band doesn’t change with any real frequency, watches are the one place where we have some freedom to play.

Over the years I’ve played around with a variety of sub-thousand dollar watches, with the bulk of them being under $250. From Timex and Casio to a recently failed Luminox, I’ve run many watches through unintentional torture tests in the backcountry over the years, with a small sampling of dress only watches thrown in for good measure, so I definitely have some strong opinions on what works for me and what doesn’t. Generally speaking, while very tough, Casio’s digital G-Shock watches with their LCD fail have failed me in the field due to extreme heat or cold washing out the display, something which really applies to any LCD watch; on top of the fact that, let’s face it, style-wise digital watches usually leave something to be desired. Even some of the high end LCD watches such as the Suunto’s will suffer from these problems and honestly, they are just overly complicated as in my opinion a watch is for telling the time- I’ll use my GPS for elevation, compass and altimeter; which leaves me with analog watches.

While there are higher end analogs that are quite nice: Tag, Rolex, Omega, et al. I could not bring myself to subject a 10k Rolex to some of the beatings that the bulk of my watches must endure. Additionally, as a high power rifleman, the recoil of a large caliber round would wreak havoc on the fine inner works of any automatic watch, regardless of price, which also helps narrow down the search. Finally, while I have a small selection of watches to choose from, I generally find that I fall back to one watch I wear most of the time. It is dressy enough to wear to the office but rugged enough to wear into the backcountry on any of the types of trips I enjoy without the fear that it might fail; which brings us to the Victorinox Swiss Arrmy Summit XLT titanium watch.

I personally prefer watches with a Swiss movement, they are accurate and I can count on them to be reliable. Unfortunately not all makers are the same and after the watch that I thought had fit the bill perfectly as my general from the office to the backwoods watch had failed to hold water out after a few kayaking trips and fogged over, a new search began. With my known requirements in mind I started looking around for a replacement and stumbled across the Swiss Army XLT. Already a huge fan of the knives from the same maker, I felt safe sinking a few bucks into one of these watches and after finding the exceptional deal at Sierra Trading Post, I’m glad I did.

The XLT is a slight departure from the modern trend of gargantuan watch faces, which I personally find ridiculous anyway, with its more traditional face size of 28.6mm. The pins are driven in quite solidly and you will find the band will need to be adjusted by a jeweler, unless you happen to have the right tools at home, it isn’t like sizing most low-mid range watches. Though I’m not a diver, the watch does have a second clasp which allows the band to be opened up enough to be worn comfortably on the outside of a wetsuit which will prove useful when ocean kayaking in a wetsuit. Double clasp aside, the standard clasp holds tightly and securely leaving no fear of the watch coming loose. Overall the XLT has a very nice build quality, everything lines up nice and neatly, the design is solid and it is a fine example of excellent craftsmanship. The watch has a screw-in sealed case back which affords a water resistance rating up to 100m, in spite of the fact that the crown does not screw down.

The multilink titanium band offers a little lateral play by design, making it very comfortable to wear as it adjusts slightly during those times when it slides up the wrist closer to the hand. It has luminous hands and hour markers as well as a luminous mark at the top of the bezel to signify the starting point when used as a one hour timer and they do hold their charge quite well, as checking the time at 4am after the watch has been in total darkness for 7 hours has proven and as a side note, they also recharge quite quickly. The one directional ratcheting bezel is made of a tough plastic of some sort with the numbers being painted on in a slightly recessed groove, something which will certainly help prevent wear and make the eventual repainting simple. The bezel is relatively tight, though not overly so and I suspect it will loosen up a bit with use. Thanks to the titanium casing and band, the watch is also exceptionally light when compared to a stainless steel watch and is a pleasure to wear as you sometimes forget it is even there, especially if you are used to heavy stainless watches.

I personally chose the model with the black face and white numbers which is very easy to read, with the time in both standard 12hr and military 24hr format just to the inside of the larger 12hr format numbers. The 3 has been replaced with the date which is in a nice location for easy reading as I find the watches that put the date to some sort of diagonal to annoy me and the 12 is replaced by an artfully designed Swiss Army logo, giving the watch a similar look to a certain popular Tag Heur watch. The mineral crystal should also prove mostly resilient to scratches due to the inevitable knocking around of the timepiece and if you’ll forgive the pun, only time will tell.

Though it has only been through a few small trials to date, I have yet to find any real fault with the watch. I did need to ever so slightly adjust the main and double clasps so that they would grip a bit tighter, but that took only the slightest bit of effort and I would honestly consider that a part of the sizing process. From a strictly cosmetic point of view, some may find fault with the minute hand, which, while going through the ticking process does not always land exactly on the minute mark in question, though the watch holds accurate time and it does in fact tick 60 times through each minute. I cannot speak as to why this is, but it does not appear to affect the accuracy of its timekeeping in any way.

Overall the watch offers all of the things I was looking for and one thing that made the purchase quite painless is the simple fact that before the model was discontinued, the Summit XLT retailed for $325. In the end, the XLT is tough enough to take outback and classy enough to wear to the office. While I wouldn’t wear it with a tux, for the bulk of my ‘normal’ life at work and at play, this watch will adorn my wrist.