Casio

Casio Men's PAG50-1V Pathfinder Solar Altimeter/Barometer/ Digital Compass Triple Sensor Watch

• Quartz movement
• Protective Mineral crystal protects watch from scratches
• Case diameter: 51 mm

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Set a course for adventure every day you wear this solar-powered Casio Pathfinder Triple Sensor men's digital watch (model PAG50-1V), which includes a built-in digital compass, altimeter, barometer, and thermometer. The digital compass displays 16 directions and has a 5-set memory capacity that captures direction, month, date, and measurements time data. The altimeter measures up to 32,800 feet (10,000 meters) in 20-foot (5-meter) increments, and it can store 50 sets of altitude memory with date and temperature. It also provides a target altitude alarm and graphing capability for target and altitude tendency.

This large, round watch features a silver resin case that's accented with large black buttons. Because it's solar-powered--charging in either sunlight or indoor light--you'll never have to deal with changing the battery. Light enters the watch through the sapphire crystal and dial, and hits a solar cell beneath the dial. Current is created and stored in the battery.

The duplex LCD provides two liquid crystal panels, enabling you to select from among different display patterns. It offers a 1/100-second stopwatch with a 60-minute measuring capacity and elapsed time, split time, and 1st/2nd place time modes. It also includes a daily alarm, optional hourly time signal, and 12/24-hour formats. Other features include a comfortable resin strap, scratch-resistant mineral crystal, AfterGlow LED electro-luminescent backlight, and water resistance to 100 meters (330 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: 8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FPVUK4
• Item model number: PAG50-1V
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As usual, Casio provides great quality if not ease of use..., June 10, 2004

By 

Jeff Edwards "RadioJeff" (Twin Falls, Idaho) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Let me start out by saying this: I am a hopeless watch collector. The bigger the size and the more nifty options they offer the better. I am also VERY partial to Casio products specifically because of my past history owning many models and their incredible durability.

With that said, I have been (as of late, anyway) collecting Altimeter/Barometer/Digital-Compass watches, mostly from the VERY well made Suunto Observer, X-Lander, X6HR and the really BIG GPS Suunto X9, along with the HighGear Axis and Summit models and when I discovered Casio manufactured a model that also offers several of the same options, I knew I had to have it. I wanted the Titanium model, and almost wish I had spent the extra $ (which really wasn't that much extra, by the way) but the rubber strap version is still great and quite durable.

Initial reaction was a VERY NICE looking instrument. I am particularly happy that Casio went with a mineral crystal lens rather than something cheaper. It IS large (but still smaller than my X-Lander and virtually tiny compared to the Suunto X9) but is surprisingly lightweight and comfortable on my wrist. I own 2 other Casio Solar powered watches so picking up a 3rd watch that I can enjoy without worrying about battery replacement was a very nice plus.

It wasn't until I sat down to calibrate the watch that I decided this would be a 4-star review instead of 5. As I mentioned before, owning several other Altimeter/Barometer/Digital-Compass watches, I was rather familiar with how to do this, and maybe it was ignorance, but I stupidly thought that this particular model would be calibrated in much the same way...NOT SO. Both Suunto and HighGear make it so simple a totally in-experienced person can calibrate the compass and the altimeter with ease. With the Casio Pathfinder (at least with this particular model) you need a separate compass in order to correctly set the internal digital-compass which is ridiculously complicated when compared with the other watches I mentioned. One item I DID like was how you can adjust the temperature reading to compensate for your own body heat, which affects pretty much every watch I am familiar with that has this feature.

One other small item that bugged me was the day, month and year feature at the bottom of the screen being backwards -- at least for us Americans who are used to Day/Month/Year rather than Year/Month/Day. It can throw you a bit -- until you get used to it.

The Barometer graph is useful when keeping track of weather trends (although the HighGear Axis & Summit will go one step further and give you an actual weather icon predicting the next day's weather, whether cloudy, sunny or rainy it shows up right on the screen. So even if you don't fully understand how to read Barometric trend, the watch does it for you -- really slick) and when I compared it with my other watches, I noticed it seemed to be right on the money each time.

The Digital Compass, while a pain in the arse calibrate is easily the coolest looking. Casio has virtually perfected how to project a slightly see-thru LCD image above the regular watch image which gives you all the necessary functions of a normal compass. I give Casio HIGH marks just for how good it looks. LOW marks for how difficult it was to calibrate, and I imagine I may have to do some additional adjusting as I put it to actual use.

The Altimeter, as with ALL watches like this is totally at the mercy of the weather. As weather patterns abruptly change, so too can the altitude reading. I understand Nike has an Altimeter watch which compensates for this and gives extremely accurate readings, but I'll wait to comment on that until after I get one (which I probably will sooner or later). This is only slightly annoying for someone like me who uses my altimeter only sparingly, I can see this could be a HUGE problem for the average Hiker or Mountain Climber, or worse yet, Base Jumper. But since this seems to affect pretty much ALL Altimeter watches in the same way, I suppose the problem is moot for me, but not necessarily for YOU.

As with pretty much everything you purchase, doing your homework will ensure you will not waste your money on something you don't need, or worrying about purchasing something with a bad track record. I would imagine I fall somewhere in the middle. Other than the calibration pain, I feel this is a nice electronic gadget which I will no doubt enjoy for years to come.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it, June 8, 2007

By 

C. Ashfield - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

I started out on a search for a watch that would last and never need a battery replacement. I also wanted a watch with hiking features to use at school as part of my military training. The resulting find was this watch.

This watch is by far the coolest and most useful watch I have ever owned, and I have gone through many watches. It is very easy to program and even easier to use. One button pushes connect you to the watches main features.

It is a little bigger than I anticipated but overall it is a great watch.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful watch, but..., January 10, 2009

By 

J. Schindler "jas001" (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Men's PAG50-1V Pathfinder Solar Altimeter/Barometer/ Digital Compass Triple Sensor Watch (Watch)

How could a watch that has all of these features not have a stopwatch? That's right - despite what the description says above, this watch does *not* have a stopwatch. I ordered this from another site for about $130 (actually got it as a xmas gift) and was shocked to see it didn't have a stopwatch. In addition, it didn't have multiple daily alarms, which I find very useful. I've had an older Pathfinder watch with all these features, and I guess just assumed this would have it also (never checking the fine print). Don't get me wrong, this is a beautiful watch and a big upgrade from the older, more bulky models, but it's gotta have a stopwatch. I ended up sending it back and getting the PAW12001V for $100 - it has everything this watch has plus atomic time keeping, stopwatch, and 5 daily alarms - it doesn't look quite as good, but for the features and the savings, it's well worth it.