Geocaching has changed a lot in the fifteen years it has been in existence, the technology we use has seen the most changes. The first GPS units had black & white or gray scale displays and weren’t always the most accurate or easy to use. Many of today’s GPS units have touch screen color displays, cameras, and other bells and whistles. Now with the popularity of smart phones with GPS receivers built in, just about anyone can get in on the fun of geocaching.

Recently I have come across a new way of geocaching that uses a smart phone as the GPS and the Pebble smart watch as the display I use to find the cache.  At first I wasn’t sure if using this combination would make a good replacement for my dedicated GPS unit. After finding many caches using the app on my smart watch I have to say that I have been impressed by the accuracy of this setup.

To geocache with a Pebble smart watch you will of course need a Pebble Smart Watch, the watch app for both the watch and phone (sorry Android only), and c:geo as the geocaching app for your phone. Once you have these installed using the watch to geocache couldn’t be simpler.

Just open c:geo, select a cache to search for, and choose Pebble as your method of navigation. Once you’ve done this the watch app will open with a compass arrow and display the distance to the cache in meters.  Just use the watch as you would the compass display on a GPS unit until you reach ground zero.

While caching I place my phone in my pocket or in the phone holder of my backpack and look for the cache exclusively from my watch. If I require more information to locate the cache such as hints, or instructions for a field solve puzzle I get my phone back out to get the required information.