Casio

Casio Men's MTG900DA-8V G-Shock MT-G Atomic Tough Solar Watch

• Quartz movement
• Auto receive function (4 times per day); signal: WWVB, Frequency: 60kHz
• Auto EL backlight with Afterglow; world Time

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

This Casio G-Shock digital watch offers a stylishly rugged look, world-savvy features ideal for business or adventure, and a durable design. The watch's atomic timekeeping calibrates the displayed time with radio signals to ensure a high level of accuracy, and the tough solar power offers a battery life of approximately 11 months on full charge without further exposure to light. The watch is built with a round stainless steel bezel, stainless steel case, and a stylish stainless steel band with a fold-over push-button clasp. The digital window shows the time in a bold central display, with world time settings for up to 29 time zones (30 cities), daylight savings option, and a city code display. The digital window also conveniently shows the day of the week above and the month and date below, automatically pre-programmed through 2099. The battery power level and calibration signal reception are indicated on the sides. This watch also offers four daily alarms and one snooze alarm, a time recorder, a 1/100 second stopwatch function, and a handy automatic EL backlight with afterglow. Specially designed for shock resistance and water resistant up to 660 feet.

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: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00134L8XU
• Item model number: MTG900DA-8V
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (238 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52 in Watches (See Top 100 in Watches)
  • #17 in Watches > Sport Watches

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Toughest watch I've ever owned, August 23, 2008

By 

D. Matheny (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Casio Men's MTG900DA-8V G-Shock MT-G Atomic Tough Solar Watch (Watch)

I've had this watch almost 5 years now, so I thought I should sit down and write a quick review of it. I'm the kind of person that tends to break a lot of watches, so it's amazing to me that this watch has lasted this long at all - although the buttons and part of the front bezel have been beat up pretty good.

First, the things I really like about this watch are:
1) Because it sets itself off of the atomic clock in Denver every night, it is completely accurate - the longer I wear it, the more I find myself setting all the other clocks I use by this watch. As a reference, I live in Austin, TX and have never had a problem getting a signal - it also picked up the change in daylight savings when congress decided it needed to change the dates (thanks to the atomic clock).
2) The solar power is also a great feature, I've found that it sits on full power from about March through November each year. Once the days get noticeably shorter, it tends to settle on the second highest battery setting until spring. This doesn't impact the performance at all, but it does give me an idea how much sunlight I'm getting.
3) This thing is completely waterproof and very tough. Believe it or not, I actually throw it in the dishwasher when it gets dirty and it comes out sparkly clean. It's been through some beatings that would have completely destroyed pretty much any other watch and it still works perfectly.
4) I really love the auto-backlight feature. It's very convenient not to have to push any buttons to see the time at night.
5) I also like how easy it is to adjust the time by just changing the timezone whenever I travel.

This wouldn't be complete without a list of things I don't like, so here they are:
1) I really wish this watch had a countdown timer instead of the databank feature. I've found the databank to be pretty useless, but I think I would use a countdown timer quite a bit.
2) Going back to the dishwasher theme, this watch does tend to get pretty dirty since it has some large recessed areas. The reason I even tried the dishwasher in the first place was because it was kind of a pain to clean any other way.

Overall, I really like this watch and would recommend it to anyone. If I ever do manage to break it I will definitely be replacing it with another one of the Atomic-Solar G-Shock models.

105 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's very big and shiny, and does it all, February 8, 2007

By 

John E. Vidale "conventional Earth scientist" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

I surveyed vast field of digital choices before getting the watch a month ago, and I'm well satisfied. Most digital watches (as opposed to analog with hour and minute hands) are ugly, IMO, so my surveying has mainly been frustrating. I found a nice line of digital Casio Edifices, with big digits and glimmering colorful faces, which served for a while, but has apparently been discontinued a year or two ago, and my last one quit working two months ago.

I bought this watch, grimacing at the price, just because it wasn't particularly ugly and had big digits, but it exceeded my meager expectations. The manual was a bit of a slog - it took about 20 minutes to read, but well worth it.

The features are outstanding - about 5 alarms, one of which can be set for snooze alarms, the expected stop watch, easy access to Greenwich Meridian Time, markers for noting times, a backlight, waterproof enough for scuba diving (not that I dive).

The special features include checking with a radio signal daily so the time is always correct (important for catching my buses and winning arguments about what time it really is), solar power (so run-down batteries should never be a problem), and backlighting that turns on when one turns one's wrist (surprisingly convenient). A nice touch is when one cycles back to the time, the watch gives a different unobtrusive beep.

There are other features available on other watches - tape recorders, flash drives, altimeters, compasses, but none that sound remotely useful in the long run.

I had to shorten the well-built wriststrap by 5 or 6 links, a little tricky, but any watch shop could do it in 5 minutes.

If you want a big, full-featured, easy-to-read and operate digital watch, this is the one, and I've surveyed most of them.

Post originally written mid-January, this added 2-25-07: I've found there might be problems with battery life, or maybe it is just the Seattle winter. I've had to leave my watch sometimes under a light when the power get low, and changing the battery can only be done by Casio, according to one watch shop. Also, the price on the watch is coming down quickly to more reasonable levels. I still like it a lot, despite having to juice it up from time to time.

83 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Perfect, But Close, August 5, 2008

By 

John S. Johnston (Newnan, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Men's MTG900DA-8V G-Shock MT-G Atomic Tough Solar Watch (Watch)

I bought my Casio MTG900DA-8V over four years ago, and I was surprised to find it still being produced and sold by Casio as I browsed Amazon's watch selection.

Overall, I think it is a great timepiece, and I have never regretted buying mine. But, you will notice that I only gave it four stars, because like anything made by man, it isn't perfect. Here's the scoop:

Pro's
1. Superb accuracy. I live near Atlanta, Georgia, which is probably close to the limit of this watch's radio reception range. But even here, my watch will sync with the atomic time station over 99% of the time. But as another reviewer said, you will probably have to experiment with locations within your house where you leave the watch for its overnight radio sync process.

2. Not just water-resistant, this thing is waterproof. I have worn mine while doing all kinds of nasty chores, including mowing, weeding and related dirty jobs. And when I get in the shower afterward, I just leave the watch on so that it gets a good clean-up, too. Never a problem.

3. Very tough. Again, I've worn mine doing some pretty harsh work, including using a chain-saw, axe and hammer. Never a problem.

4. The solar power is great. Some people may think that solar power is a gimmick, but here's the deal: since you should never have to replace a battery, your water-resistant (or waterproof) watch will stay that way. All my previous watches, including some pretty expensive ones, lost their water-resistance after they had a battery change. (Casio does say that their rechargeable batteries may need replacing some day, but mine are still going strong after more than four years.)

Con's
1. This watch is BIG. It is about 15mm thick and is about as big around as the old-style silver dollars. If you have a small wrist, this watch may not be for you.

2. The band and SOME of the bezel appear to be stainless steel. After four years, the stainless steel parts of my watch still look OK, even after the hard life my watch has had. But, the stainless steel band is connected to the watch with a big final link that appears to be made of some type of plastic (or "resin" as Casio likes to call it). This plastic has held up well, but it has faded in color somewhat. Also, there are what appear to be anodized aluminum parts decorating the four corners of the bezel. The anodized surface of the aluminum has begun to wear off, leaving these aluminum parts looking somewhat mottled.

Conclusion
1. My Casio MTG900DA-8V has had four years of very hard use. It is as accurate as ever, all the features work as advertized and I am still wearing it every day.

2. But keep in mind, if you give it the kind of rough use that I have, it will probably develop some cosmetic issues.

3. If you are looking for a rugged, super accurate digital timepiece, look no further. This is the one.