Cammenga CGJ582T-BRK Tritium Wrist Compass - Multi-Colour, N/A

This review covers the tritium lit wrist compass model J582T manufactured by Cammenga in America - the current title of this listing saying "Cammengacammenga" is an error. This particular compass is official issue to the US military. That doesn't necessarily make it perfect in every way, as I shall explain in a moment, but it does indicate a reasonable level of robustness and utility. The base and body of the compass is made from machined aluminium and the lens is plastic. It comes supplied with an 18mm wide black NATO style nylon strap that's 240mm long excluding the metal buckle. The compass housing is 30mm in diameter and 12mm high. The rose is marked N,S, E & W and has phosphorescent graduation points at every 10 degrees. The north cardinal has a tritium batten and the fixed lens has two tritium battens in the same axis as the strap, one top, one bottom. The good points about this compass are the quality of construction and the tritium markings. Finding ones way in low light or even total darkness is easy because the tritium markings constantly emit a green glow, and their service life is last at least 10 years. Ten degree graduation is perfectly fine for general navigation unless you're involved in detailed long range navigation, accurate triangulation or sighting. And if you are you'd be carrying an additional larger and more accurate prime compass anyway. Remember that military personnel have navigated across whole continents using way more basic button compasses when they've needed to. Five degree accuracy is perfectly possible with the Cammenga. What I dislike like about this compass is the rattle! I really wish it was oil filled to both damp the movement and prevent the constant rattling noise. This isn't a compass to be carrying in covert situations where any slight noise can give you away. For that I'd recommend the slightly smaller Silva 40NL which I also own. It's completely silent and a wonderful piece of equipment, but very sadly out of production at present. Hopefully Silva will bring it back. Unless you've used one, you possibly don't fully appreciate how useful a wrist compass is. It enables me to orientate myself and navigate around unfamiliar terrain. Such a tool is a major advantage when exploring new towns and cities too, because I always know I'm walking in the right direction. Trudging south in pouring rain to a tube station in London, only to discover you've just walked a mile north in error, and now have a wet two mile walk in the opposite direction, is both incredibly annoying and time wasting. It once happened to me, which is why I bought a wrist compass in the first place. It also assists me with navigation when driving without a Satnav. Overall this is a good compass and one worth owning. It's extremely useful in everyday life and could very well save your life in an emergency or survival situation. It would have been so much better though if Cammenga had oil filled it, but that omission, and the resultant constant rattle lose it one star. I'm not the only user to express this opinion, so I hope Cammenga take notice and upgrade their product. If they do so it would rate as a superb 5 star purchase, but at present it does not.

The compass works well as advertised. Nice tritium glow in a dark. Special thanks to a customer service of the seller. They worked out a minor issue in a swift and professional manner.

UPDATE: ANNNNNNNNND six months later it's broken. Inside rattles more than usual. Believe magnet has become un-attached under the dial. ORIGINAL: Great compass for your watchband, but only fits small watchbands without some creative modification... I used one piece of 550 paracord sheath to attach this to a 22mm NATO band, alongside my Casio solar-atomic watch. I used just the sheath of the paracord to reduce it’s thickness, making the compass sit flatter against the watchband and less likely to snag. At first I was kinda frustrated that they didn’t offer this for a larger size watch band, but now I don’t really mind because my modification worked great. I removed the core from a piece of paracord, leaving just the sheath. Then I threaded it through the compass and around the watch band, got it reasonably tight, and tied a square not. Then I removed the paracord and melted off the excess after pulling the knot extremely tight. Then I rethreaded the loop of paracord sheath through the compass. The way I did this was by inserting a bite down through both of the compass’ metal watchband slots, but before threading the second slot, I twisted the loop of paracord sheath 180°. It’s a little tricky to get the size of the loop perfect, and after I had tighted the square knot and melted the excess paracord, I realized that my perfect length of loop had stretched due to the extreme tension I had applied in tightening down the square knot. But originally when I tied the knot, I had not used the 180° twist, which leaves an X of paracord directly underneath the compass. So upon final installation of my modified attachment loop, adding that half twist took out just enough of the slack I had added when I tightened the knot that I was able to thread the 22mm NATO strap through both bites and underneath the X. This left me with an extremely firm and low-profile attachment to the watchband, which is almost imperceptible unless you are looking quite closely at it. The tritium glow is superb. The accuracy is unparalleled in other watchband compasses. Cammenga is a great brand and I fully expect this thing to reside on my arm for many years —at least until the tritium decays and ceases to glow brightly enough. 3H has a halflife of about 12 years, so it’ll still be glowing faintly in 20 years I think. Maybe in 30 years it will be so faint as to require replacement. I fully expect this compass to last longer than that given the durability of its construction. I like it so much I added a 25mm round adhesive film watch protector to ensure I don’t scratch up the glass. Super happy with this purchase!

Can't return through amazon because of "chemicals", yet they shipped it to me?! It doesn't do anything but cost more than any other compass in this category: does not point to either magnetic or true north, shockingly dim glow (old manufacture date?), wrist strap buckle doesn't buckle because pin/prong within buckle too short to reach the buckle/frame/clevis/shackle (another QC issue)! Pros: wrist strap length designed to fit adult wrists, & readability. Cons: everything else. It does reliably point in one direction but it's not north, so if you could probably pick one direction and stick with it in a crisis. I've not yet compared it to my GPS to see what it's actually indicating. Originally purchased this as it was made by the same company as the lensatic compass I used for 27 years in the Army (which was an outstanding compass). But this one is worse than junk, it's expensive junk! Recommend going with (Finland) Suunto M-9 wrist compass for half the price, however the printed numbers are backwards so that you can hold it at eye level and read the bearing, once you get used to that the M-9 is a great compass.

OK, just a reminder: This is a compass. It's entire operation is based on magnetism. I assumed it could not be made of metal, because I figured that would interfere with the accuracy of the compass. It seems (based on some of the emotionally charged comments below) that I was wrong, and indeed compasses CAN be made with a metal case. So hallelujah for that. This one is not. It's plastic. Even a $300 Suunto compass will be ineffective in a car or a truck. If you're carrying rifles or shotguns or anything large and metal, you will need to hold your arm away from the metal to read the compass. That being said, this is a great buy. Hard, durable plastic housing, nice bright tritium indicators. Supposedly water resistant, but I don't know to what degree/depth. This is not a compass for actual map & compass work. There are no degrees, no bezel, and no adjustment for declination. It's a quick, workhorse reference only, but it's good and fast. It points north agressively (quickly) because there is no liquid inside as a dampener. That is also why it rattles. There are two things things I think I would change about this: One, the face is exposed. I think a better product would have the face counter-sunk, to protect it against scratching/cracking/breaking in the bush. I would recommend putting it in a military style wristwatch band with a protective flap. Two, I would rather see it full of liquid, to dampen movement and stop the rattling. But for the money, this is a good buy. In fact I plan on buying some more for my friends an family... ...after I find a seller that will SHIP TO CANADA. (I had to have friends in the USA forward it to my address)

First thing, this is NOT designed to replace my MILSPEC Cammenga Tritium Lensatic compass that i own...I was trained in land nav on that compass, and it is a go to unit for all things land nav related for me..I know it will work, period...With that compass, i can find fence post in the ground from miles away, using the compass, terrain association and a good topo map... That said, i attach the wrist compass to my Traser H3 watch band, when i out in the woods fly fishing. as i am out in some pretty remote areas, and the ability to determine ones general direction is priceless...Yeah, yeah, i know all about the Sun, Stars, Moon and moss tricks, but this little guy works perfectly for the intended task.. I is accurate, well built and glows like crazy, right next to my Tritium watch... This is an essential piece of my edc kit and should be part of yours...Don't go cheap on kit like this that could save your life..