Casio

Casio Men's LIW500DJ-1A Edifice Sporty Solar Atomic Watch

• Quality Japanese-quartz movement
• 1/100 Stopwatch
• Dual Time

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With a classic chronograph design, the Casio Men's Edifice Sporty Solar Atomic Watch #LIW500DJ-1A is both fashionable and user friendly. In addition to a handsome silver stainless steel band with a fold-over-clasp-with-double-push-button-safety clasp, this Casio has attractive sub dials at the six, nine, and 12 o'clock positions. There's also a small digital display at the four o'clock position for keeping tabs on the date. By positioning the LCD screen at four o'clock, the LCD not only reads easily, it also functions as a reference sub-display for its 1/100th second stopwatch. To further enhance visibility, the watch employs an automatic LED light with Afterglow that automatically activates when the watch is tilted in the dark. Not only is this watch attractive and user friendly, it will never need resetting or batteries--this atomic watch can reset itself automatically several times a day, and runs on artificial or natural light. Water resistant to 165 feet (50 meters), this Casio keeps time with reliable Japanese quartz movement.

The Casio Story

With the launch of its first watch in November 1974, Casio entered the wristwatch market at a time when the watch industry had just discovered digital technology. As a company with cutting-edge electronic technology developed for pocket calculators, Casio entered this field confident that it could develop timepieces that would lead the market.

In developing its own wristwatches Casio began with the basic question, ""What is a wristwatch?"" Rather than simply making a digital version of the conventional mechanical watch, we thought that the ideal wristwatch should be something that shows all facets of time in a consistent way. Based on this, Casio was able to create a watch that displayed the precise time including the second, minute, hour, day, and month — not to mention a.m. or p.m., and the day of the week. It was the first watch in the world with a digital automatic calendar function that eliminated the need to reset the calendar due the variation in month length. Rather than using a conventional watch face and hands, a digital liquid crystal display was adopted to better show all the information. This culminated in the 1974 launch of the CASIOTRON, the world’s first digital watch with automatic calendar. The CASIOTRON won acclaim as a groundbreaking product that represented a complete departure from the conventional wristwatch.

Casio transformed the concept of the watch — from a mere timepiece to an information device for the wrist — and undertook product planning based on this innovative idea. We developed not only time functions such as global time zone watches, but also other radical new functions using Casio’s own digital technology, including calculator and dictionary functions, as well as a phonebook feature based on memory technology, and even a thermometer function using a built-in sensor. The memory-function watches became our DATA BANK product series, while the sensor watches developed into two unique Casio product lines of today: the Pathfinder series displaying altitude, atmospheric pressure, and compass readings.

In 1983, Casio launched the shock-resistant G-SHOCK watch. This product shattered the notion that a watch is a fragile piece of jewelry that needs to be handled with care, and was the result of Casio engineers taking on the challenge of creating the world’s toughest watch. Using a triple-protection design for the parts, module, and case, the G-SHOCK offered a radical new type of watch that was unaffected by strong impacts or shaking. Its practicality was immediately recognized, and its unique look, which embodied its functionality, became wildly popular, resulting in explosive sales in the early 1990s. The G-SHOCK soon adopted various new sensors, solar-powered radio-controlled technology (described below), and new materials for even better durability. By always employing the latest technology, and continuing to transcend conventional thinking about the watch, the G-SHOCK brand has become Casio’s flagship timepiece product.

Today, Casio is focusing its efforts on solar-powered radio-controlled watches: the built-in solar battery eliminates the nuisance of replacing batteries, and the radio-controlled function means users never have to reset the time. In particular, the radio-controlled function represents a revolution in time-keeping technology similar to the impact created when mechanical watches gave way to quartz technology. Through the further development of high radio-wave sensitivity, miniaturization, and improved energy efficiency, Casio continues to produce a whole range of radio-controlled models.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001V9K9P0
• Item model number: LIW500DJ-1A
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,810 in Watches (See Top 100 in Watches)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great watch but steep learning curve, August 13, 2009

By 

Moshe ben Asher "Watch watcher" (Chatsworth, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Men's LIW500DJ-1A Edifice Sporty Solar Atomic Watch (Watch)

I've only had this watch for a few days, but I'm very happy with it. If it turns out to be reliable over time, it'll be the best I've ever owned. It deals with the two most annoying aspects of watches I've had in the past--replacing batteries and regularly resetting to the correct time. This watch can reset itself automatically several times a day, and it runs on natural or artificial light-power.

Notwithstanding some of reviews I've read elsewhere, I can't say that reading the dials on this watch is any different or more difficult than several other chronographs I've owned; and I've found that the back-light feature works very well, both in the automatic mode, when the wrist is turned a certain way, and manually by pressing one of the buttons. However, the watch can be programmed so that this feature is permanently off.

I would rate this watch with five stars except for the User's Guide. It's incredibly small, so it's very difficult to follow the rather complex directions for setting the watch and using its various functions, such as the stop-watch and alarm. Having said that, however, a much more readable User's Guide is available online from Casio at no charge.

On balance, when compared to watches that are not programmable, there is a steeper learning curve involved in the set-up of this watch and becoming familiar with its functions, so it's not for technophobes or the electronically challenged.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent watch, so, so bracelet, January 8, 2010

By 

Jee Chung (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Casio Men's LIW500DJ-1A Edifice Sporty Solar Atomic Watch (Watch)

My automatic watch started losing time in a major way. I wanted to get a replacement watch that didn't require changing batteries every couple of year. I was initially considering a Citizen Eco-Drive model, but then found the Casio models that offer not only the light-powered movement, but also the added benefit of atomic time (via radio signal). After looking at several similar Casio watches, I settled on this one mainly due to the slightly smaller size compared to other sports models. Overall, a great watch, but with some quirks.

Pros:

- Solar-power never needs batteries (in theory)

- Atomic signal time sync works well every night (I am in New England area, about as far as one can be from Boulder, CO)

- Bright lume

- Easy to read

- Relatively comfortable to wear given the 12mm thickness

Cons:

- Bracelet links are loosely coupled resulting in constant clatter with the smallest of the arm movement

- Bracelet size adjustment is too course

- The digital display in the display window is too small to be practical. Can't imagine why the letters/numbers inside are so small when the window itself is decent size.

- No full calendar feature, just date. Why?

Overall, I like mine enough to keep it, but I hope Casio designers make some simple enhancements to make this an even better watch.

UPDATE: After having owned the watch for couple of weeks now, I am downgrading my rating of the watch from 4 stars to 3 stars. The main reason for the downgrade is the poor precision of the second and minute hand movements. As the second and minutes hands move around the dial, they don't line up with the minute markings. Worse, they line up reasonably well through one portion of the dial and poorly through other portions. This lack of precision is rather disappointing from a watch of this price range.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Watch!, February 22, 2010

By 

J. Shao (Saint Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Casio Men's LIW500DJ-1A Edifice Sporty Solar Atomic Watch (Watch)

I've had this watch for a week now. I cannot wait to share my thoughts.

This is a great watch! There is no need to replace any battery and the time is always accurate to the second (I checked with the internet time#.

Easy to set up #unless you are not electronics-savvy#. I took it out of the box and set it to my time zone. That is about as much setting as you need. It was charged already out of the box, so it was working properly after a few minutes.

The sync was never a problem. I tried multiple locations in the house, by the windows, by the door, and on a counter by the fridge #far away from any door or window#. At all locations I tried, the sync was completed without any problem #my home is about 900 miles from Fort Collins, CO#.

In response to an earlier review, the minute hand advances 1/3 of the division every 20 seconds, so the minute hand does not alwasy point to the division marks. All the hands are aligned well enough on my watch, so no hand setting (one of the modes) was needed.

The watch looks really good on my wrist. Now I just hope it will last long, if not forever.