Customer Reviews

Casio Men's AWS90-7AV Ana-Digi Tough Solar Alarm Sport Watch

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This watch has a whole lot of amazing features. To start off, it's solar powered! Solar collectors around the watch face recharge it's battery during the day. I love that it's got Analog stylings but the added option of Digital time keeping. It has glow in the dark numbers for 12, 9, and 3 along with back-lighting of the digital screen. There's more interesting features though. A couple of features you won't find on your average watch are it's power save mode, and it's auto-back-lighting feature.

The Auto Light Switch is controlled by a couple sensors which detect when you've raised your wrist to look at the watch and what the availble light is. If this feature is enabled, and it's dark, and you tilt your wrist to see the time the back light turns on and illuminates the digital readout auto matically.

The Power Save mode will conserve power during the night by putting the watch into a "sleep" mode just like computers have to conserve power. During the day it draws power from the sun to recharge it's internal battery so power save mode only activates during the night. The watch will awaken automatically for a ton of different reasons. Touch a button, tilt your wrist, or move to a lighted area, or just by the time of day progressing awakens the watch.

The worst things about the watch are that it tends to get scratched. I hear that car polish can rejuvinate the face of the watch, and I'm going to try something like that to fix some small scratches mine recieved. Also, the rubber band will wear out after heavy use. I'm the type that almost never takes off their watch for long. However, I do tend to take it off frequently for short periods to let my skin breathe. I wear it so much my skin under the plastic band has it pretty rough, but this is true with all watches of this type. I think the heavy use is the biggest the cause of the wear on the band, but the plastic may be slightly weaker than average in an attempt to make it more soft and comfortable. The final negative aspect I can think of is that only the digital portion features back-lighting, not the full face. Wait one more thing, the standard digital functions are lacking a count down feature, so if you're expecting that, you're out of luck.

The positives far out way the negatives for me though. This is one of the coolest watches I've ever seen! I love analog/digital watches. I think they merge style and function best, giving me the flexibility to read either indication of time depending on what I'm in the mood for. I think that this watch especially has great style and looks to it. The only thing that could make it better for me would be if it featured some sort of titanium watch band or something. This is an awesome watch and if you like the looks and you like the features I've mentioned then you'll probably really like this watch. It's got everything, including a standard set of watch functions that like every Casio digital watch has so I won't bore you with those. This is a great watch for any techie type that likes nifty gadgets!

Very Nice looking watch- the band seems a little flimsy and the light isn't nearly as nice as indiglo. Worst of all, however, is that the dial window material is PLASTIC, contrary to the website description. If you're not the active, outdoors sort, pay no heed to that. If you are, the window will look terrible within a few months. There just isn't such a thing as a plastic that's anywhere near as scratch resistant as glass.

This is a nice watch at a fair price. The only problem is that some of the units can be defective. Mine did. After a few months the digital readout will turn off and display a Lo C battery status. I placed it for days under full sunlight and still had the problem (I live in the Caribbean...). Worst of all is that when the digital time is set, the analog never matched. At the beginning it did but later started to fail. So I took the watch apart and spent some time studying what went wrong. Found out two things. There is a primary and secondary battery. Since it is a solar watch, it seems that heat allows the solar sell and casing to expand somewhat. When doing so, one of the contacts gets loose, thus the watch disconnects itself from the main battery. That's why it will go to Lo C since it has a poor contact with the battery (second battery is carrying all the burden and it cannot keep it running). What i did was place a small piece of conductive tape over the battery (square bit, making sure it didn't block the contact terminal to the speaker in the case cover), and tighly close the case cover in order to press down the battery and the contacts into the watch. Voila!!! Problem solved and watch is working flawlessly. Hope this helps.

I had been using a watch that I picked up at the local pharmacy which I liked but the battery didn't last long. So, I decided to see what was out there in solar watches to avoid having to change batteries. I went to Amazon and looked a several solar watches. This is the one I decided to get.

What I like: 1) solar technology -- no more replacing batteries, 2) analog (big, hand, little hand), 3) numbers of the watch face (9 through 3)
4) lower half of the watch face works as a digital watch (alarm, chrono, stopwatch, dual time zone, calender pre-programmed to last my lifetime -- no need to manually set the date for leap year or months with fewer than 31 days. It's like two watches in one.

What I don't like: 1) The backlight only lights up the LCD digital portion, so the big/little hands aren't really readable with backlight 2) the watch I got was not the exact one shown as I received the one with the light tan faceplate. (Not sure if it was Amazon, or the seller who made the mistake) The contrast between the hands and faceplate isn't the best, but readable. (I decided to keep this one instead of returning, as the color is unique and I didn't want to go through the return process).

There are also other neat features like a sleep mode to conserve battery power, a battery status indicator, and auto turn on of the backlight when turning the watch at an angle. Plus, the watch includes a detailed user manual in a little book that fits in a plastic watch box.

Overall, this is a really great watch with lots of features and it being solar so that no more battery changes are required is a big plus.

Had this watch for a bit over a year now. For one reason or another this watch tends to reset itself back to 1-1-2000 every couple of weeks. I leave it next to the window at work, so it's getting plenty of light (in fact I have never seen it display mid or low battery status, it has always been on hi). What's worse is that once I correct the digital time, the analog would fail to sync properly, resulting me having to hold the handset reset button for several minutes while staring at the arms swing in a circle.

This watch is worthless as a time piece, since it doesn't really keep time.

This has been a great watch so far. Keeps time well, has a comfortable band and great look. Alarm function works well and is relatively easy to set. Only issue I have with the watch is that the shiny reflective face of the watch can make it difficult to see the analog hands and numbers even when indoors. Not an issue, but would have nice if the light lit up the whole face of the watch, rather than just the digital portion. Overall, a good product.

UPDATE:

Watch was working fine until a couple months ago when the digital portion started to reset itself to 12am 1/1/2000. Time and date are reset despite plenty of sun. Analog time is still correct, but when correcting the digital time, the analog gets changed to some goofy time and you have to hold on the manual setting button for a couple of minutes to correct. Buyer beware.

This is the 3rd Casio Solar we've had; old ones are beat up, but still work fine. This one has repeatedly shut itself off, despite plenty of light, and when you reset the digital (which is TOO SMALL for anyone who needs readers), the analog is supposed to reset. It does, then soon resets again to something totally off.

I've had this watch for more than 7 years and it's still going strong without any change of batteries. It truly lasts as long as advertised! The strap has just started to tear, which isn't bad considering I wear this watch daily since new. A real testament to its longevity. Will probably replace this watch with something similar when the strap finally gives way. Recommended!

I've had this watch for just over a year now, and I have had absolutely no trouble with it. The face size was a little larger than I had hoped, I had been looking for a more "casual" watch to replace my velcro-band stopwatch, but something that still had all the functionality I needed for sports- swimming, running, biking. I love all the features, I'm from FL but lived in CO for three months, and loved being able to see two times zones on one watch. I've never had a problem with the power running down, but it's gotten lots of exposure to FL sunshine. All of the features are nice, but if you don't readjust the time a lot, it's hard to remember which buttons to push- I just need to find the manual again. It's been a great watch, the face is a little scratched but I'm pretty hard on watches. I get lots of compliments on it, even though sometimes I feel like it's a little large to be considered feminine, but I love it.

I purchased the AWS90-7AV in 2010. It is the second Casio watch I have owned. I previously owned the AW-590 which was similar. I love the features. I prefer the analog face, but use the digital features of the alarm and timing features. It is aesthetically pleasing and comfortable on the wrist.

As noted by others, the "crystal" scratches easily. I found out the hard way that mosquito repellant with DEET etches it. In that sense it is not really a sports watch.

But the worse thing about it is that it stopped working -- resetting the time to its default beginning time and date -- after about a year. I had the same problem with the AW-590 watch, but because of the features I decided to give the watch another try. I thought it wasn't getting enough light, but even after a full day in the sun it only work for a day, a week, or a bit longer and then stops or resets. It may start working again, but I cannot rely on it. Maybe the battery is bad, but it started to fail after only a year. This is unacceptable.

I suspect that Casio has followed so many manufacturers to China where the manufacturing is cheap and the quality is also. Too bad. They used to be a trusted brand for moderately priced watches.