Customer Reviews

Casio Men's PAW1300T-7V Pathfinder Multi-Band Solar Atomic Silver Watch

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have admired the Casio altimeter/barometer/compass pathfinders for several years. But I never cared for the huge size.

I wanted their functions in a smaller, lighter watch. When Casio introduced the PAW1300T-7V, I decided I would try it as a replacement for my aging Luminox Navy Seal watch. I needed a watch that was fairly light and easily readable in the dark. The Luminox had fit that bill perfectly with the Tritum capsules on the hands at at the hour marks. But over time those capsules loose their luminosity. Also batteries have to be replaced. The prospect of a solar powered, rechargable watch that automatically corrected itself with the Atomic Clock signal was an added benefit.

I fly for an EMS helicopter service for a living. Half of my shifts are night shifts. This watch works very well for quick time checks with its auto-illumination feature. I have found if I calibrate the altimeter and barometer with local conditions that the altimeter function is very accurate, usually within 20-40 feet of the calibrated altimeters in my helicopter. I frequently check the watch against the altimeters when we are flying. Dual time zones means I can leave the secondary time zone on UTC for filing filght plans. The temperature function is not of any real value to me as it is greatly affected by body proximity. But it is accurate if the watch is removed from the body for about 30 minutes. The alarms work well but the alarm tones are too soft for my ears after flying turbine engined aircraft for almost 40 years.

So, a quick recap: Automatic self-correcting time snychronization, Solar powered/recharged, Excellent automatic self-illumiation, Accurate altimeter and compass functions when calibrated for local conditions. It smaller than previous PAW's and lighter, especially in the Titanium version. I was just thinking the other day that I have been using Casio watches for the last 30 years. (I just put a battery in one of the oldest and it still works great!) I have always liked their layout and user interface. This newest Pathfinder of mine is no exception. It is easy to use, easy to set. If you like Casios, for the money, it is hard to beat this watch, especially on Amazon!

Just received my watch today and wanted to contribute to the reviews that helped make my decision. Bracelet is plenty large for all wrist sizes. I had to stop by a jeweler and have 3 links taken out. It fits perfectly now. Immediate impression is this is a very good looking watch. I am a little dissapointed with the barometer thus far. The manual implies that there should never be a need to calibrate the barometer but if one arises, luckily they gave instructions to do so. Mine read 29.75"Hg out of the box. As a pilot i checked this with my local airport's recorded weather briefing (only minutes old) and NOAA web site's reported pressure, both were 29.93. I went ahead and calibrated mine to 29.95 (only shows .05 "Hg units) and it has been changing well with the reported pressure changes the rest of the afternoon. Altitude works well so far. I am upgrading from a Highgear Summit that showed altitude in 1 foot increments while the pathfinder shows 20 foot increments which is obviously not as precise but to be fair, the Highgear fluctuated wildly. Compass seems adequate. I wouldn't use it if you had to navigate to a destination to the degree but for general reference it is fine. One thing i wanted to remind buyers is Amazon's excellent price guarantee. When i ordered this watch last week it was listed at $223.00. The day after it was shipped the price fell to $214.00. I contacted amazon and they promptly refunded the difference. You can read the details but it has to be within 30 days of purchase and must be an item sold by "Amazon", not another vendor. All in all, a good buy.

Downsides: The watch is rather large but thinner than the Suuto I was considering. The instruction manual is small but a half inch thick! The lighted dial seems rather dim to me. At first I thought it would get brighter after it got a good charge but it's still dim.

Upside: Solar powered (no batteries!) and super accurate time piece. The Atomic Clock calibration feature works fine and automatically adjusts at midnight. This feature will work in the US, Japan, and Germany.

Note: I have the titanium band. If you adjust the band, there is a very small metal bushing inside. When you push the pin through, it will likely fall out. You must replace this bushing or the pin will not stay put. To use the thermometer, take the watch off or it will only read your body temp. While using the compass, hold it horizontally or it will be off.

I would buy this watch again.

I've got a bit of a watch fetish but tend to be loyal to one watch that I wear into the ground over years. My beloved Seiko was ruined after two decades of dependable service by an inept repairman, so I've been looking for a new everyday companion. Requirements: rugged, reliable, feature-rich, yet good-looking enough for everything ranging from outdoors activities to formal business meetings. Illumination. Dual-time capability, ideally with city-code time-zone selection. And gadgets... I love gadgets in my watch.

After a lot of semi-obsessive research including lurking here, I found what I was looking for in the titanium PAW1300T-7V. Previously I'd been attracted by the features and technology of Casio Pathfinders, Suuntos, etc, but put off by their bulk, clunky plastic looks, and the difficulty of getting replacement bands as needed after a few years' wear. Plus, most service technicians won't warrant the water resistance of a watch after a battery replacement, so a solar-powered movement was attractive.

The PAW1300 series is considerably slimmer than previous ABC (Altimeter-Barometer-Compass) Pathfinders and others such as Suunto, with no loss of functionality, thanks to clever design, and the titanium model's solid metal band should last pretty much forever. The watch's compass display is a good example of how Casio has managed the downsizing trick: the dual, overlaid LCDs that provide a cool but bulky compass solution in other Pathfinders is replaced in the PAW1300s with a radial tick-mark in the main LCD. Same functionality, half the thickness.

Observations:

o In my West Coast house, the atomic time update works every night even though I tend to wear the watch to bed. The instruction manual's advice to leave the watch on a windowsill so the nightly shortwave radio update from WWVB can be received isn't necessary for my home's lath-and-plaster construction. It was, however, necessary in a recent hotel stay, with thick concrete walls and steel framing. No worries, though: the watch is highly accurate even if it must miss the nightly updates for some reason. It's a digital quartz watch, so you can depend on it in any circumstance. The atomic updates just provide millisecond-class icing on the cake for crazy accuracy-obsessed people like me.

o The world time feature is essential to road warriors like me. It's very nice to be able to display the local time (selected by scrolling through major city codes) as well as the time back home, simultaneously on the same screen.

o The barometer is fantastic. It's like having your own weather station on your wrist. Love the mode with the baro graph visible at all times-- great for at-a-glance weather trend estimations.

o The altimeter works well, typically accurate to 100 feet or so, but read the manual so you understand how it works, how to use it, and how ambient conditions can impact its accuracy. Since it's based on barometric pressure, changes in the weather will affect its readings. In a climb or hike where you care about accuracy, take the extra few seconds to calibrate it against known waypoint elevations every once in a while. It's a ten-second process. Incidentally, the altimeter is a nice tool to evaluate airlines with. The lower the effective altitude in the cabin at cruise, the more the airline values your comfort and health.

o A review I've seen elsewhere that complains about the band being unable to go over a wetsuit sleeve is rather annoying. First, it's not a diver's watch. It's not marketed or specified for diving, and frankly I'd be concerned for the safety of any diver (and his companions!) who is so clueless about an essential piece of equipment. 100m water resistance is fine for swimming and snorkeling, but to repeat: it's not a diver's watch. And diver's watches generally have widely-adjustable rubber straps rather than size-and-forget metal straps, so gripes about the band are prima facie evidence of folks to avoid diving with.

o The solar battery recharge works great. (The solar cell is cleverly configured as a decorative ring around the display that provides a contrast to the tick-markings and alphanumeric labels that rim the display.) I've yet to see anything but maximum charge despite habitual playing with the watch's features and frequent use of the backlight.

o The compass works great too, quick and accurate. (Be sure to hold the watch level, and read the manual for greatest satisfaction.)

o Stopwatch, alarm and similar timing features generally work as expected.

o The thermometer works accurately if you leave the watch off your wrist for twenty minutes or more-- for example, next to your sleeping bag when camping so you can check the temp when you wake up. Its purpose really isn't to measure ambient conditions but to compensate the calibration of the pressure sensor, a tiny piezoresistive silicon element about the size of a grain of salt if you were to dig into the triple-sensor assembly. Piezoresistive sensors measure strain, such as the strain on a diaphragm due to air-pressure. But they have a thermal dependence, so the thermometer is mostly intended to monitor the watch's temperature on your wrist rather than the ambient air, and having it available as a readout is a bonus. If ambient temperature is important to you, take the watch off for a while.

o The button-activated backlight's duration is a bit brief, but made up for by the ability to trigger the backlight automatically just by tilting your wrist. This feature is easily enabled and disabled, too. I do wish the illumination button had a little pip or something on it to make it easier to locate in the dark. And a two-second illumination option, as found on other Casios, would be nice to have... but I suspect this was omitted as an engineering choice favoring battery life. Shrug.

o The buttons are easy to work and sensibly laid out.

o Comfort: excellent. The construction and materials are top-notch, with a nice finishing touches. It's a really good-looking watch, and not comically huge like most in this class. It has no trouble sliding under a shirt cuff... but you'll want it out, both for best solar charging and maybe, let's face it, to show it off just a little. It's a head-turner.

o The band uses an uncommon pin arrangement; be sure whoever sizes it to your wrist knows what they're doing. I suspect folks posting an occasional review here or there who have complained about pins falling out are the victims of clueless technicians who are unfamiliar with this type of pin-and-sleeve arrangement, also used by Seiko on some of its models.

o There are other clever engineering tricks that presumably aim to maximize life of a thinned battery. The display, for example, will go blank in the dark, then automagically come back on instantly if the room lights come on (and of course if you press the illumination button). You have to be quick to catch it blanked!

All in all, I'd give the watch a 10 out of 10. Nice work, Casio. The PAW1300 series is a world-class accomplishment.

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UPDATE: After two-and-a-half years of 'round-the-clock wear, the watch is still going strong. I still have yet to see the battery dip below the maximum-charge level on its meter, and all functions and buttons continue to work flawlessly. The watch still looks good, with no scratches on the crystal and just a few little character-marks elsewhere. The band remains comfortable and solid. Happy customer here.

Yes, the watch is about twice the size of most other watches (although this makes it about half the size of other pathfinders) and has a users manual that comes in volumes, but the watch itself is absolutely wonderful.

Once you get used to how the watch's functionality is laid out, there is a logic to the commands that becomes intuitive. The screen is very easy to read and adjust to what you wish to see.

Pros: Surprisingly light, and it really doesn't look that huge once you have it on. Functionality, of course. I really haven't had the time to field test all the functions... but my office seems to be reasonably stable from an altitude standpoint. Great band - very stylish and very wearable as a work and play watch.

There are a couple of cons. The compass no longer has the "clock face" directional pointers. It has the dots on the periphery that show the 4 primary directions and a digital value for the current heading, but the nice and expressive pointers have been removed. There is no adjustment for the length of time the backlight stays on. I use the auto light function (very nice) but sometimes have to shake my arm like I am having a seizure because I missed the time the first time I did it.

Fantastic watch.

I received the watch about a month ago and have loved wearing it.

At first it was a challenge to adjust the titanium band. My advice is to watch out when taking out the links that you don't misplace some very small tubular spacers that WILL come out when you remove the pins.

Everything works perfectly. The time and date are easy to read. The various modes are intuitive. The watch is VERY functional.

Apparently casio solved the issue of making the watch smaller. It fits perfectly and stylishly on my smaller than average wrist. It looks like a normal, but very nice sports watch. Thank goodness it doesn't look like a PDA strapped to your arm! The discrete silver/black/grey finish matches my entire wardrobe.

I love that the watch is solar and will never run out of batteries in normal use. I also like the way it will automatically synchronize with the atomic clock via radio signals without any prompting from me and it reports the time it last successfully did so.

The compass, barometer, and altimeter are great features to have, especially for the outdoorsman. They seem to work well. American wearers will need to figure out from the manual how to display the default metric units of meausure into feet, inches of mercury, etc. But once you change the setting, you don't have to think about it. Casio also made sure it's water resistant to 100M, which is an essential feature for a water-sports lover like me.

One thing I would like to have is the ability to have the light stay on as long as I hold the button. Currently it will stay on for exactly 2 seconds per button press and then turn off. However, there is an autolight feature that will turn it on momentarily when you raise your wrist to look at the watch (nifty). Still, it would be nice to be able to use the watch as an mini flashlight of sorts when in a pinch (as I did occasionally with my previous watch) by holding down the light button.

Overall, this is my finest watch purchase yet and I can't think of any truly big negatives to mention. My view of this watch is overwhelmingly positive. I have really enjoyed wearing it so far.

I got this to replace my earlier solar atomic watch which had a plastic band failure. I got the ti band and had it adjusted at a local jewelery store for $8. I am very happy with it. On a recent climb to (map stated) 5964feet the casio's altimeter said 5980, without any presetting etc. Obviously the temp is an issue on your wrist, and anyone out to explore will have bruntons, silvas galore strapped to them. But navigating subways in strange cities the compass will work well enough as will the world time function. Overall just what I wanted.

I had several of the Pathfinder watches including the latest Casio Titanium Pathfinder PAW1200T7V. Although the previous watch was light and worked fine, it was a little big and lacked a couple of features that I wanted. This watch is thinner, lighter, and has every feature and mode I've ever seen on Casio G-Shock and Pathfinder watches. It is very comfortable, not too big, and the face is layed out very well (there is no wasted space with useless displays). By far, the best Pathfinder watch Casio has produced by a long shot. Why did I say it was "almost perfect"? , it wasn't free :)

UPDATE: After eight months of ownership, the watch is the best I've owned. I kind of wish I would have bought the black (plastic?) rubberized band instead of the titanium. The titanium lets the watch pass for a nice dress watch but the black band would be more comfortable and fit better during sports activities where the wrist swells and contracts.

Casio Men's Multi-Function Pathfinder Silver Watch #PAW1300T-7V
This watch is very useful for hiking and other outdoor activities. The barometer changes can show on a graph on the time display. The graph works well as an indication of coming weather changes. The altitude changes work well also and accurately (within 20 feet or so) reflect the changes for that episode. The atomic time setting has been very reliable in the mideast US. The titanium watch is smaller and much lighter than earlier versions of this watch. The clasp is a unique and much more secure design that incorporates a pin that latches behind two clips rather than the more typical friction clasp that can fail more easily over time. Once I got used to the new clasp design it is easier and quicker to take the watch off but more secure when it is on. And the solar charging is icing on the cake. I've never had problems with the charging.

I have had this watch for about 3 weeks now and I still love it! I am a 6'4" man and the large watch face is a perfect fit for me. The watch is very light for its size and eventually you don't even notice it. The manual is about an inch thick (half English/half Spanish) and I still have not tried all the features. Some features are intuitive and others require a lot of trial and error OR the manual. Out of the box the altimeter and compass seem to be fairly accurate as I compared them to a GPS and a magnetic compass. As the manual states the temperature will not be accurate while wearing the watch. If you want an accurate temp then take it off for about 3-5 minutes then take the temperature. One of the coolest features though is the ability to tilt your arm to look at your watch and the light comes on automatically for about 2 seconds. Oh yea and I love having split second accurate time!