Some people don't even bother with a watch, preferring instead their mobile phone. So how could you have a best trekking watch if you don't even really need one?

Well, there are a few things that good watches do that mobiles don't (yet) - although the gap is closing.

In fact, if you stripped away all your creature comforts leaving you with just a couple of items to help you survive, it's your watch that might win the day.

In our search to find the best trekking watch, here's a couple of our favourites.

The best trekking watch

Modern digital watches can do just about everything, and they even tell the time...

Take a look at some sports watches and you'll find wave counters, altimeters, swimming lap counters, digital compasses and even in-built GPS functions. Great if you want to trek Annapurna, but not much point on shorter excursions.

And as useful as these tools may be, there's an altogether simpler solution: Choose an automatic or solar powered analogue watch because it doesn't need batteries - and it works as a compass (more on this in a minute).

While digital / analogue preferences vary, here's the basics we'd want to see in a great trekking watch, and a few cracking examples.

 

Battery Free

Watch batteries fail, and we've not spotted a model that has a power gauge so you don't know when this will happen.

So go for a quality automatic model (generates its own power from your movement) or a solar powered one.

Analogue not digital

Unless you need all the bells and whistles, pick an analogue watch (traditional hour and minute hand). Not only are these easy to read at a glance, you can use one as a basic compass should you need to.

Simply hold the watch in front of you, point the small hand at the sun and a straight line between the hour hand and 12 o'clock on the watch face points south. Now do that with a digital.

Waterproof

The more the merrier in terms of depth, but there's no need to limit your choice to watches good for 200m scuba trips if you're not a diver.

Any watch that's good for 30m is probably good enough for trekking Europe. Same goes for extremes of altitude.

Survivable

Watches do get bashed - every caught your watch face when taking your rucksack off? Happens all the time. So as well as weatherproofing, look for sturdy build qualities and solid casings.

For really rugged designs, look out for mil-spec standards.

Visible

Make sure the tips of each hand are covered in light-reflective coatings and perhaps the hour gradients too.

Take care to check it's clear which hand is which when you look at your watch at night - its surprisingly easy to make a mistake.

In this case, battery powered watches really have the advantage as they always feature a backlight function of sorts.

Replaceable strap

Watch straps get damaged over time. So, not only should you choose one made with strong material, you should consider one that can be easily replaced without taking it to a jewellers.

In this case, look for models with simple bindings - a great example is the G-10 issue watch - unlike most modern models this one from MWC is an automatic.

And if you ever venture far from the beaten track for any stretch of time, you'll be well advised to have a watch as well as some other travel gadgets.

While you shouldn't discount battery-powered watches (a new battery is typically good for 5 years), when it comes to the best trekking watch, we'd still say keep it simple, keep it manual.

The new generation of GPS watches are incredibly powerful and will add another navigation tool to your armoury in case your hand-held GPS fails and you loose your map and compass.

And as I've mentioned, if need be you can always navigate off your watch - if it's analogue!