Customer Reviews

Casio Men's GW2500B-1A G-Shock G-Aviator Chronograph Sport Watch

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a Pilot and watch enthusiast/collector I can tell you this is a very good aviation watch, with many features that are very useful, all in a very attractive design, but it needs some minor improvements

1-they should incorporate a back light for the LCD, right now it doesn't have any kind of light for the LCD, my suggestion a cool red for the LCD's so that we can see whatever we select on those displays, as the light that it comes with at the 6 o'clock position when illuminates it actually blinds those LCD's, the dial light should remain but they should replace that light for a dial indiglo and make it "softer" and more adequate, may be of a cool blue or cool green color, to contrast with a future LCD back light without blinding the LCD as it does now the light that it has now is my biggest complaint and then again I'm afraid Timex has a patten on the indiglo

2-the countdown timer should be 24 hrs and not just limited to 60 min, I'm disappointed about the 60 min countdown timer limitation on the current model, many casio cheaper model watches come with a 24 Hr countdown, I don't see why they would limit this one to just 60 min

3-add more cities, my suggestion at least 100 cities just like you have on one of the data bank models, although the ones that are programed now are adequate

4-make the numbers displayed on the left lower LCD as big as the ones displayed on the lower right LCD which displays the seconds

5-the alarm sound should be of higher decibels (louder, a lot louder) since this watch is supposed to be used in high noise environments like airplanes, and noisy airports

6-all of these alarms should be interchangeable between local and UTC or any other city selected on world time without having to change the home town time or T1 as it is right now

7-It would also be nice if they incorporate a data bank even if it''s just a 30 page, that would be fantastic, but I''m not sure if this is wishful thinking on my part, and if it''s too much technology to pack in a little watch

8-the right analog dial should only move in whole numbers since you can always see the minutes on the bigger hands of the watch, sometimes it's confusing especially in low light conditions when it's in between times, ( I.E 8:45 ) and I would also opt for a more classical lay out of the times on the 3 o'clock dial with 12,3,6,9 instead of 12,4,8 as it is right now, I think it would be more intuitive and easier to read but that just may be my personal preference and it's not a big deal

Over all it''s a great watch for the money, but I''d like to see some of those design improvements in the near future and I think with those this model would sale even more than what it probably does right now. would I recommend this watch, Yes

I bought the GW2500B-1A to replace the Swiss Tissot T-Touch 3000 (a more expensive timepiece). Since the US has changed it's DST, a lot of watches with world time functions, and with preset DST, are more than useless - they're confusing/frustrating. This problem alone made me look at watches that have Atomic Timekeeping. I was apprehensive about how well this time sync would work (I returned a clock because it could not sync at my house). I am happy to report the GW2500B-1A syncs every night while I sleep with the watch on my wrist - no holding it up to a window in Contra Costa or San Jose CA. The coolest feature about this watch is, like the Tissot, it will swap the main dial hands from you home time to the city you select as your 2d time zone - you see the main hands move to the correct time from say NYC to Madrid (and just do one button press to swap back to NYC when you return). Or you can have the small-right-dial's hand show the hour in Madrid while you keep NYC's time on the main dial and have the digital screens show DAY of Week, DATE and SECONDS. This is really nice for me as I keep China's timezone on the right when I'm working. The LCD can be seen clearly for me (I hear is is a problem for the other colored models in this series). The night light works great for looking at all the analog dials - it could be better for the LCD. Finally I have become a frequent user of timers and alarms on wristwatches for cooking and travel and these features work well on this watch.

After a battery powered watch stopped working I decided to find an alternative and this solar powered watch caught my attention. I also have a kinetic self-charging watch which is nice but is heavy. This G-Shock watch is light and has several useful features. At first I noticed was there's no crown, but rather 4 buttons for set-up and adjust the watch. With that said there's a little bit of a learning curve to get the full use out of the watch. Also, the watch is bulky & thicker than I anticipated - fortunately it's fairly light. I've had the watch for almost a month and have been happy with it.

Suggestion: Rather than struggling with the tiny owners manual, visit the Casio web site and check out the online owners manual [.pdf file], which is much easier to read.

Pros: Light attractive design. Multiple features including solar recharging and auto-calibration. Great value for the price.

Cons: Poor night illumination, the time can be seen, but the LCD displays are hard to view, [should be back-lit].

The upper LCD has both large and very small acronyms - they shouldn't expect the user to have a magnifying glass handy to view the small acronyms.

Would I recommend this watch: Yes

First of all let me say that I've never been much of a watch person. The idea of wearing a miniature wall-clock on my wrist has never been all that appealing, or necessary, to me. However, due to my increased activity as a pilot, a good wristwatch became an accessory I could no longer operate without. Also, having never paid more than $20 for a clock in my life, I was a bit hesitant to purchase one for $170. I can say for certainty though that after owning and wearing the G-Aviator for about a month I've come to love it.

Looking for a watch I knew it had to include several functions before I could even consider it. The G-Aviator came with all of them needed, and then some, so let me go over those now:

<> Ani-Digi Display: The display setup is perfect for what I want. It allows me to always have my home (primary) time on the analog hands, and whatever I want on the digital display depending on which mode it is in. The digital display can show me my primary time or date, secondary time or date, world time or date, the stopwatch, the timer, or my alarms. Sidenote: The mini 12 hour hand on the right is constantly going to be set to your world time, so don't expect to be able to swap that with your primary or secondary.

<> Primary, Secondary, and World Times: The watch has all the world time zones programmed into it, so in order to set any of your three times all you have to do is select which time zone you want the time to be set on. Your secondary and world times stay synched relative to your primary time; so if you update your primary time (via the radio-update or manually), your secondary and world times will change accordingly.

<> Radio-Controlled Atomic Timekeeping: For those of you who don't know, the "official" US time is constantly being kept by an atomic clock in Fort Collins, CO. Fort Collins also constantly sends out a radio signal (60kHz) relaying this time across the US. The G-Aviator has the ability to pick up on this signal and adjust its internal time accordingly. The watch is set to automatically receive an update between 1AM and 5AM in the morning (when reception is typically best). However, your location within the US can greatly affect your signal reception; living far away from Fort Collins, in the middle of a city, behind mountains, or around large amounts of electronic interference can have an adverse effect on reception. As an example: I live in Louisiana (1000 miles from Fort Collins), in a very rural community, at sea level, and with no hills or obstructions to speak of. When I place my watch in front of my window every night, I'll pick up the signal about 2-3 times a week.

<> Power Supply: The G-Aviator is solar powered and has a visible charge meter ranging from low(L), to medium(M), to high(H), and from my experience it does a good job keeping a charge at H. It arrived with an M charge, so I left it in the sun for about a half-hour and the charge went up to H. The following morning it was back down to M. So I then took a more patient approach and left it on my windowsill in the sun for about 6 hours. The charge went up to H and has remained there ever since.

<> Stopwatch: What you would expect from a clock stopwatch. You can do "elapsed time" and "split time" depending on the button combination pressed.

<> Countdown Timer: A somewhat-useful little timer with an optional auto-repeat feature (timer resets to initial countdown time after 0 in reached and starts the countdown again). I've used it a couple times when cooking, and once while running for interval training. However, a downside to the timer is that it will only go up to 60 minutes. This was a slight inconvenience for me because I was hoping to use the countdown timer as a safeguard to know when I was about to go over my preset flight time. Instead, now, I have to use the alarms or stopwatch. Not a huge drawback, but I don't see why Casio couldn't have given this feature a larger time range. Sidenote: you can only set the timer in minute-intervals.

<> Alarms: Four separate single-alarms, a Snooze alarm, and a hourly beeping signal. I've played with the alarms a bit but haven't actually used them for anything productive yet. Also, the volume of the alarm isn't low, but it's not very loud either. I wouldn't trust it to wake me(deep sleeper), or to alert me if I was working around heavy equipment. For everywhere in between though, it should be acceptable.

<> Light: This was another part of the watch that I wasn't a big fan of; the light is a small orange illumination bulb below the 6'oclock symbol. When you press the "light" button the analog face is illuminated pretty well, but it's rather difficult to read the digital display. So, if you're in the pitchblack and you ever need something other than your current primary time, you're probably going to have to illuminate it a few times whilst squinting in order to read something. Also, the light is very battery-expensive; one illumination requires an equivalent of 8 minutes of direct sunlight charge.

<> Watch Construction: It both looks, and feels, like a Casio G-shock. I haven't banged it up too bad since I bought it but if I had to guess, just from the feel of it, I'd say it could take a small beating if it had to. I have however been swimming with it on multiple occasions (though I've been nowhere near the 200m it's designed to withstand) and I've had no problems. A complaint some people might have is that this watch wasn't offered with a metal band. I can see how some might not like the resin; after all if it needs to take punishment then a metal band would work much better. However, for me, I prefer the resin band due to the fact that I didn't want a heavy watch and that I think it would be a bit uncomfortable to swim and run with a metal band.

So let's quickly review:

--Personal Pros: Multiple displays, dual & world time, useful time-functions, atomic clock time keeping, solar powered, and rugged construction.

--Personal Cons: Expensive, a poor illumination system, radio reception isn't available everywhere, and a countdown timer that doesn't go over 60 minutes.

Bottom line, I feel the pros of this watch do indeed outweigh the cons. At first I was hesitant to buy an expensive wristwatch, but after I got it I believe it was money well spent. If you have any questions leave this review a comment and I'll try to respond promptly.

~Will~

I have owned this watch for approximately 1 year, and consider it the best I have ever owned. I have three Rolexes, 2 Breitlings, 2 Kobolds 1 Fortis and the typical sports watches. This watch combines the best functions of all the other watches, and is the most accurate and trouble free. Set it and forget it. Love the snooze alarm.

Great watch with a lot of functions that are EASY to access and use - some of my other watches actually have to be removed from the wrist to actuate the stop watch feature! I've also given up on battery powered watches, so the solar charging function is a big plus. And the atomic timekeeping is another big plus. I was a little concerned that the "metal looking" part of the bezel would be a bright brushed chrome finish, but it's a nice gun-metal gray that looks good (like the picture) and blends well with the design. The dial is easy to read and the light illuminates the analog hands well (but not the digital display).

I am a Pro Pilot and I want to say that this is a very good aviation watch.

The LCD can be seen clearly for me also the digital numbers are of a standard kind of color that makes them pretty easy to read.

I think it has few negatives and I highly recommend this G-shock watch, especially if you are a pilot who appreciate UTC (12 and 24hr format) with digital display feature.

As far as features go, this is a terrific watch. Set atomically, it is always correct to the second. HOWEVER, I wear eyeglasses for reading and the dials and indicators on this watch are just too small. Even while wearing my glasses, I have difficulty reading the face of the watch, and it isn't because the strength of my glasses is too low. It would be a great watch for young folks with 20/20 vision. Anything less and I would look for another watch.

This watch has great useful functions and is well laid and thought out, its easy to navigate and I use the functions for everyday and proffesional life. Furthermore, if you're like me a visual person need an analogue portion of a watch instead of having a digital and visualising the hands this watch is great, because you still have great functions like alarms, hour timer, countdown timer etc and have the strength and quality of a Gshock. What's really cool is that you set the time buy the digital feature and the analogue hands respond to the digital time, so there is no clunky wind bezel to adjust the analogue portion of the watch. In addition (and this is a bit pathetic) but I like both analogue and digital portions of the watch to sync, so this feature keeps both portions of the watch in sync always.

I dont know why previous reviews complained about this issue but this watch is really easy to see in the dark! and for people who say they cant read the digital portion in the dark - well der!! your're not meant to, thats why the analogue portion of the watch is coated with super luminova and if you want to read the digital portion turn on the light. People who complain about this watch will probably never be happy with anything.

Bottom line its a good watch, one of the better Gshocks but I wouldnt be using it for hard use.

This is my third G-shock over time and one of two I've bought again recently. In fact I really missed the first one from 20 years ago. It went missing, but I still had years use with it. I don't think I'll ever go without a G-Shock wristwatch again. I made one previous review for the GW-6900. Now this is for the GW2500B-1A. I've had it for about six weeks.

I've quite happy to be wearing these types of watches again. One gets used to whatever he has to use. I've been wearing mostly Seikos in the last 10 years, and I like them very much. Could say many good things about Seikos too. But G-Shocks fill in some important gaps with watch use. In fact all of the G-shocks are tough, heavily water resistant, practical, and keep very good time. They all have a kind of manly look as well. In particular to this analog/digital beauty (and others with the GW naming) you have the added benefit of radio receiving(multi-band 6) for atomic clock based time, and solar recharging. I've seen pretty much routine resets on this based off the radio receiving with just a few details to take care for. You will feel good about setting clocks and other watches to this one without having to rely on telephone time or computer clocks. If you're like me you won't always have the computer on or with, you nor will you always want to use the phone or have a phone with you. Unless you live in a very hilly area or live at an extreme point in perhaps Maine or south Florida, you will probably have good reception as well, even with storms. It's actually a wonder to me. As for the Solar recharges, it cranks up to the highest level (high) from medium after perhaps two hours of close floresent bulb or good sunlight. Use your common sense here and mind the heating! It pays to make your estimates and give it 100% charging ASAP. Once you've done your bit there, you've got six months reserve. The sub dials take a little more power so the pure digitals would give you a little more time.

With regards to reading the time, the analog hands are pretty easy to see in all light, and have adequate illumination without it, even hours into the night. Yes, in the dark you can't really see the digital readout. But you wouldn't be about to see the digital numbers in the dark with anything else anyway without using the light. It's illumination light is a little bottomed on the watch but it does what you need. Also the digital numbers are of a standard kind of color that makes them pretty easy to read, understanding that they are smaller than normal. Since it is a mixed read watch (ana-digital) you have to expect this. Someone without his glasses who needs them might be not able to see them, I have to admit. My eyes are normal and I have no problems under varied light, honestly.

Lastly as to looks, this is really a fine looking watch. Unlike digitals in general which kind of look a little too sporty for going out, I feel perfectly respectable with this. (Yes I'll wear my alternate G-Shock too anyway since it still looks good.) It has an analog face and looks quite a lot more conventional (per my definition) than a big black or small black digital watch. It's also not all rubber since it has a large amount of metal in the frame. Thus so it's also somewhat smaller in width than the 6900 type frame.

I think it has few negatives and I highly recommend this G-shock watch, especially if you appreciate conventional looks and like analogs. It's a very versatile wristwatch.