I've been collecting mechanical watches for ~30 years, and never knew this.

 

The SARB017 Alpinist booklet/manual has a nice diagram about this too.

Edit: Would be interesting to know if anybody has actually used this when needing orientation pre-cellphones.

 

Yeah it's an old bush trick

 

Yup knew about it from the Alpinist. Sometimes do it as a party trick.

 

Yes, I learned it, when I was in the Bundeswehr.

 

When I was a Webelo leader back when my sons were young I taught my young Webelos how to do this. (Yes, I do like saying Webelo.)

 

Taught to Boy Scouts in the UK. But in the 1960s few of us had a wristwatch so looking for the mossy side of trees, roofs, etc was more commonly used. Keeping track on your map was the most reliable...

 

I've tested this a few times and am always surprised at how well it works. As the instruction states, if you are in a location where the clock has been advanced forward for Summer Time (and you're located in the Northern Hemisphere), take your Sun sighting from the marker that's one hour less than the indicated hour.

 

I had to look up "Webelo". 1970s I was a Cub Scout leader (~= 8yo to ~= 11yo) so your Webelos would be at the age when they were just getting to have an attention span slightly greater than a goldfish and could follow at least two sentences of an explanation -- then we had to hand them over to the Boy Scouts. We never did any map & compass work at that age although I was very keen on map-reading, but they couldn't have absorbed it

 

Webelo to Cub Scout to Boy Scout was my progression.

 

Webelos is a transitional group between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. I guess the idea was that that age group is a bit more mature than Cub Scouts, but aren't quite ready for Boy Scouts.

I don't recall what was in the actual manual. I wasn't always by the book and had a tendency to sprinkle things into our activities that I enjoyed. So, sometimes we did things like map and compass work, mostly for my own enjoyment.

 

In the UK (at that time, I have no idea how it's done now) there was a sharp cut-off from Cubs to Scouts. In a large space the Cubs were at one end and the Scouts at the other. You left the Cub side, lost your cap with the "both eyes open" stars and walked to the Scout side and put on a beret. Next week you wore a new shirt with none of your old badges or awards on the sleeves and started all over again. Then you did much the same Boy to Senior Scouts four years later.

Was it better to go "Bang, that's it. New life." or ease the kids in gradually? I'm not enough of a psychologist to give an opinion. A friend at work was at a serious level in the educational side of the Scout organisation and we talked about the theory and practice behind it, but his main focus was how to get the amateur volunteer leaders with no teaching experience to a position where they could effectively teach the boys.

 

Even has night sorted



https://omegaforums.net/threads/new-watch-new-brand.37211/

 

I clearly remember it was

Tiger Cub (very short lived)
Cub Scout
Weblos (not as short lived)
Boy Scouts
Eagle Scout.

born 1976 for context.

 

Of course over cast conditions, fog and night time limits the usefulness of your watch as a compass, I have a Citizen Promaster that features a compass and an altimeter as complications.



apologies for the pic quality it’s what I had with me at the time of posting

 

In Canada we had Beavers, Cubs, then Scouts. By the time we’re in Scouts, most us us were getting less interested in navigation and more interested in beavers…

 

No doubt that interest in beavers out lasted the scouting