Customer Reviews

Casio G-Shock Solar Powered Atomic Watch

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have owned this watch for over 6 months now.
It has many positives and one negative.

1) For the money/features its a 10 out of 10
I own several watches, I choose to use
this one everyday

2) I was tired of buying watch batteries for my watches, even
ones that I haven't worn in many months.

3) I want a accurate watch, even my citizen watch lists
+/- 30 sec a month? It fortunately is much more accurate
than that.
The G-Shock atomic is set 3 times a day to the atomic clock
in Colorado, it also tracks daylight savings so you don't
have to ever have to reset the time.

4) The G-Shock case is sturdy plastic and the face is recessed
to avoid scratches.

5) Its inexpensive enough that if I do seriously damage it
I am not worried about the cost of a replacement.

6) Good to 200m. I don't dive but I might go swimming.

Only downside is the time recorder feature. It will record a time/date event. ???? So what... I would rather have had a countdown timer instead of the mostly useless time stamp feature.

Hence my 4 of 5 (better would be 9 out of 10) rating.
I just bought another one of these for my father, and am
thinking of buying a 3rd one for my brother!

You can find this watch at Amazon.com, Costco and even Walmart!

This watch is a huge bargain. It is the last word in accuracy, tough as a hockey puck, and never needs battery replacement. On top of that, it has rugged good looks.

Once you start using an atomic watch, there's no going back: A luxury once sampled becomes a necessity. You will no longer tolerate clocks or watches that drift further off every day. A car clock off by three minutes will actually start to annoy you.

The solar cell in the watch face doesn't need direct sunlight -- ambient light is sufficient to recharge its permanent battery. There is even a charge indicator that reads High/Mid/Low to let you know when the watch needs light. In ordinary use, mine reads 'High' about 95 percent of the time, and I'm no sun worshipper.

The watch face, body, and buttons are protected by tough, shock-absorbing rubberized cladding. This protects the watch against catastrophic failure, but it also protects the bezel from little scratches.

It is water resistant to 200 meters, which is better than a WW2 submarine. If you start flooding the engine room on this Casio, you are way...too...deep.

Style-wise, this is a handsome watch, and looks a lot better in person than it does in pictures. It is big, but unlike many big watches, you don't need a beefy wrist to carry it off. I have fairly thin wrists and it looks fine.

Readability is excellent. The day of the week appears at top, the month and date below, and the hour and minute are oversized. For night viewing, the face illuminates with a soft blue glow.

What about shortcomings? First, the buttons require moderately high effort to push (maybe related to that 200M water resistance). Secondly, if stealth is important, two things to know: In daylight, the chrome trim is reflective; for night use, if you're not careful, you can accidentally engage a feature that turns on the backlight when you flick your wrist, possibly giving away your position.

This watch can survive things the wearer can't -- perhaps the perfect watch for the fashion-conscious crash test dummy.

I have now purchased two of these watches and both batteries have died after exactly 2 months of use. Overall, this is a really great watch; well made and solid. I've had no problems receiving the atomic signal each night at 5:03AM. The only problem I've had is the fact that the battery does not seem to recharge itself under normal conditions. I wear the watch everyday, outdoors and indoors and in all types of light. I have since discovered, however, that if the display ever goes blank (like mine did) then all you need to do is get into some direct sun light and it should recover. I can't seem to ever get the battery to show a "full" charge regardless of how long it's been in the sun. I turned off the auto light feature on my watch as I believe that was probably contributing to excessive battery wear. Again, a great watch but a bit of an annoyance with the quirky battery performance. I had to edit this review and revise my rating on the watch once I discovered the trick to the battery. I would recommend this watch but just be aware of how to solve the problem if the battery goes dead and the display goes blank.

Even though I lead a life of leisure, knowing my watch is correct to the second is important to me. I find this watch very comforting in that respect. I would like to address the problem of picking up the atomic signal that a couple of previous reviewers mentioned. I wonder if they set up the watch as the instructions dictate, laying it flat, near a window, away from electronic interference, etc. I live in an area of poor radio reception, far from the signal in Colorado, but the watch successfully receives the signal overnight if I follow the instructions. It's true, however, that it can be difficult or impossible to get the signal manually or if I haphazardly leave the watch lying around overnight. I have found that if the watch misses the signal one night it's still on perfect time the next day. Therefore, I'm very happy with its accuracy. I can't give it a five-star review because I find the function buttons don't work well. The way they're recessed makes it hard even for slender fingers to push. I like to use the stopwatch function for cooking, but it's rather annoying to start and stop it.

This watch is a delightful bit of gadgetry that still has me grinning months after its purchase. I would happily describe each fun feature in detail, but should point out that Casio thoughtfully provides a .PDF owner's guide for the 2608 on its Web site. I like this watch so much that I bought one for my father, too (just like another reviewer).

One of my favorite aspects of this watch is that it allows the user to specify which combination of automatic features may be in operation at any given time. Each feature may be individually turned on/off at will, allowing a custom setup that works best for the owner. I also think the external appearance is the most attractive design I've seen from Casio in years. The dial is well-protected, yet very legible. The buttons are also well-protected.

This an (almost) perfect digital watch. Casio really did a wonderful job, but I do have a few minor quibbles:

1) I live in an area that does not observe daylight savings time (part of the MST zone). I don't seem to be able to maintain both my MST setting and an MDT setting (when applicable).

2) I agree with another reviewer about the time memory feature--I'd much rather have the countdown alarm I had in my old Casio DW-5600 (G-Shock) instead.

3) The push button material seems soft (or maybe my fingernails are hard?). Some of the button material has already worn away.

Wishes for future editions? GPS and a screw-in back (rather than a screwed-down back)

I bought this watch nearly two years ago (Fall 2003) and absolutely love it. The accuracy is amazing thanks to the nightly satellite feed from Fort Collins and the display still shows the battery's charge as "high" thanks to the solar recharging feature. The watch takes a lot abuse and still looks practically new. In short it's a tough, accurate, long lasting watch. Unless you're a style maven (I'm not) it's the only watch you'll need.

The one small 'but' here is the lack of a countdown feature. My old Casio G-Shock watch which was given to me in 1990 had this feature and I'm stumped why Casio would leave this one out when there are so many other features on this watch that do not seem as important as a countdown capability.

EDIT: As of May 2007 I have had this watch for nearly four years: it still keeps perfect time and the battery charge is still on "HIGH". Great watch except for the lack of countdown feature.

EDIT: Beginning in the summer of 2008 the watch's battery began losing it's charge despite lots of exposure to solar power. At this point, the watch only lasts a couple of days before needing to be charged. This means all functions stop working until charging. I've learned from Casio that you cannot have the battery replaced locally and that you have to mail it in to a speciality shop in California. My previous Casio G-shock (regrettably misplaced) ran on a conventional battery yet ran perfectly for the fourteen years that I owned it. This one is limping along after only five years. It makes me wonder whether the solar charged watch is really a good idea and makes me re-think my four star rating.

Please note, despite the editorial review description, this watch does not have a countdown timer. Indeed it's the only flaw. I don't know why the description is in error, but beware!

I have had this watch for almost a year. I love the watch but cannot give a good review because it has become unusable due to the battery only lasting an hour after sitting in direct sunlight for a full day. I have requested support from Casio and have not heard anything from them. If you buy a new watch every year this would be a good purchase.

Like someone else said, this is the best watch I've ever owned. (Prior to this I mostly wore either a Casio databank/calculator watch or a Timex triathlon.) I have been wearing it since December 2003, wore it in Iraq for almost a year, and it's still going strong and looks fine. I found the timezone feature very handy when traveling: all you have to do is set the timezone you're in and you have the correct time. Highly recommended.

Only issues I have are that the time memo feature is useless to me, and it sometimes won't sync its time overnight due to not getting a good signal.

As of March 2006, this watch is still ticking on the original battery and doing fine.

As of later in 2006, the battery stopped holding a good charge. When I would activate the light, the light would only come on for an instant and then the watch would go into recovery mode. After some googling, I found that this is a known problem with earlier productions of this watch. Any watches bought now shouldn't have this problem.

I replaced the battery myself with a non-rechargeable battery of the same size. I also removed the springs from the solar panels so that it wouldn't be trying to charge a non-rechargeable battery. Works fine like a normal watch with a normal battery.

I now go surfing with this watch all the time and haven't had any water leakage problems.

This watch it the best watch that i have ever had in my life. I have beat the crap out of this watch and you can not even tell. One of the best things that i like about this is the option that lets you turn on your light by just moving your wrist. Also not having a battery is very nice as well. Being in the millitary i am allways in a different country so it is nice to have every time zone in the world at my finger tips.