Building a Digital Compass in a watch was a long awaited project for Victorinox Swiss Army, since there were many requests from the ‘Outdoor World’ looking for an easy-to-use instrument.
In the past, only simple analogue compasses were combined with watches, with a very relative accuracy and problems caused by the magnetism of the watch movement.
In Spring 2004, Victorinox Swiss Army observed that a new generation of magnetic sensors was being developed essentially for the aviation and automotive industries. These small electronic elements were able not only to find the magnetic north in a fraction of a second, but also were capable of solving simple navigational equations and giving their user key indications such as actual heading and bearing.

Simplicity of use
The motivating task of the Victorinox Swiss Army product development team was to define an original user interface in terms of features as well as of display, the choice being between a full LCD display, an analogue classic display or a combination of them. From the very beginning, the option of a single pushbutton was chosen to avoid the complex multi-command system and the need for a user manual. The simple approach of the brand’s NightVision was followed.
The chronology of the features came next, which went from a simple indication of the Magnetic North to the indication of the heading followed by the user and, last but not least, the exclusive PathFinder display, an efficient way to stay on the right track particularly in bad lighting conditions. Thus the ST-5000 was invented.





Design
In terms of design, the choice was made to capitalize on the ST, the one already in service with VSA for the altimeter barometer ST 4000, but this time produced in titanium - to avoid any magnetic influence.
The originality of the invention of the ST 5000 is certainly the manner in which the results of the measurement of different calculations can be immediately seen and understood be the user.
The use of LED (Light Emitting Diodes) permits the display of very simple indications, extremely legible and easily understandable at first sight, thanks to the use of go/no-go signals - the use of red and green being understood in any culture. Hence the defined three levels of path tracking when using the PathFinder feature.

User friendly
In an outdoor or even a ‘tactical’ urban situation, when a ‘direction to go’ has been defined, the user has the possibility to ‘lock’ this direction by simply pointing the ST-5000 at this direction, without having to manually enter information. Then, the ‘where to go’ being locked, the PathFinder confirms by a green LED that the direction followed is correct. An orange indication means being off-track by an angle between 5 and 20 degrees on the left or on the right. A red LED means a deviation of more than 20 degrees.
Returning on track requires a movement to either the left or right until the green LED is once again displayed.
The ST-5000 was entirely developed by the Victorinox Swiss Army Watch Design team, with the support of a team of engineers based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, specialized in ultra-low energy consumption. The prototype was revealed by Sue Rechner (CEO of VSA) and Jean-Bernard Maeder (Creative Director) at a Press meeting during the BaselWorld 2005 exhibition and is now available.

www.victorinoxswissarmy.com


Source: Europa Star June-July 2006 Magazine Issue