How to Find North With a Watch

You can use a wrist watch to locate north.

Do not panic if you need to find north but do not have a compass. With an analog watch, you can determine where true north lies. While useful for scouts, anyone can use this technique if caught outdoors without a compass. This skill only works for watches not set for daylight savings time, but changing the hour on your watch to standard time before using it quickly solves this dilemma.

Instructions

1. Remove the watch from your wrist and set it on a flat surface.

2. Place a twig upright in the ground to cast a shadow from the sun.

3. Line the hour hand up with the shadow from the stick so the hour hand also points toward the sun.

4. Look at the angle between the hour hand and the number 12 on the watch dial.

5. Mentally bisect that angle (cut in half) to find the line halfway between 12 on the dial and the hour hand, which points toward the north.

Tips & Warnings

• This method is not very accurate if you are close to the equator or within a very wide time zone in which the local (solar) time differs significantly from Universal Coordinated Time (also known as Greenwich Mean Time).

References

• Qwerty: How to Find True North The Scout's Way
• Learn-Orienteering: How to Use a Compass