11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Best looking, most practical digital watch ever
Date of Review: Aug 19, 2009
The Bottom Line: Casio has a long history in the pathfinder watch field. This watch is the ultimate example of that tradition.
I guess I'm lucky enough to live 300 miles north of Boulder Colorado the source for the atomic time radio broadcasts. Suffice it to say that this watch connects every night evidenced by the R/C mode which give the date and time of the last successful "atomic signal" This is double confirmed In the upper left corner of the face where there are bricks from 1-5 indicating signal strength.
As I write this I've owned this watch for about 2 months and haven't made any special effort to place it where the solar cell would presumably keep the battery charge at it's highest level. Yes I've worn it daily and the 3 segment battery meter at the 6 o'clock position has never wavered from the highest position.
I bought it at Sam's club where it sold for $199.95. At first I balked at the price but after researching the watch I realized it was a bargain. On first handling the watch I was stunned by how little it weighed, given it's size, thanks to the titanium band.....more on that later.
Props to the designer at Casio responsible for this being a six button watch with all of them being flush with the rest of the case yet large enough to be pushed even with a gloved hand yet next to impossible to be pushed accidentally.
The only button on the left side is MODE which cycles thru TIME, REC (records altitude), WORLD TIME, STOPWATCH, COUNTDOWN TIMER, 5 ALARMS & SIGNAL and the previously mentioned R/C. In the WORLD TIME, timer, stopwatch and alarm modes the current time is always at the bottom of the display.
At the bottom of the case are two buttons next to one another, they are ADJ & LITE. When brand new still in the store I pushed and held the ADJ button and I was prompted to enter my home city. From that point on I have not needed to touch any of the time or date functions of the watch. Some may disagree with the following design, but you can't show day of the week and month/day at the same time. The ADJ button cycles between them. Holding the ADJ button causes the settable modes to flash for setting alarms etc.
LITE button....The watch has an auto EL function which activates the position and ambient light sensitive switch to turn on the backlight when you tilt the watch towards you. This is switchable and the light only comes on when the sensor detects low light levels. It is also disabled if the battery is low. There are even two settable duration levels for the light and of course a simple push turns the light on briefly.
The three buttons on the right side are ELECTRONIC COMPASS, THERMOMETER/BAROMETER and ALTIMETER. Typically the thermometer is not very useful on your wrist because of body temp. It will suffice here to say that they all work well and are settable for european and american units.
The watch is rated at 100 meter water resistance. The crystal is scratch resistant mineral.
A quick word about the band. If it needs adjustment involving link removal leave it to the professional. Nuff said!
