Customer Reviews

Casio Men's SGW100-1V Digital Compass Twin Sensor Sport Watch

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great watch. About accuracy: After performing the compass calibration, I can say it is fairly accurate. I always get acceptable direction of where the north should be. Temperature is also accurate but it is true, you need to take off the watch for about 10 to 15 min to get a good reading. If not, then you get a constant 31 degrees.
About size, I think it does has a very good size, big numbers, clear display and very nice to press buttons.
Band is resin.
I gave 4 stars because I think alarm is dim but that is just a personal point of view.
Very nice to use. In all, I am happy with my purchase.

Update dic 21 08: Yes, time is display normally in the central area of the screen, where the 330° is shown on picture. This picture here in amazon shows the compass mode. I have added some images for size and display info.

I ordered this watch for my 20th birthday, and it's been 11 days that I've worn it so far. I love it. Here's my review:

Casio's SGW100-1V (Sports Gear Watch 100-1V), offers an above-average set of capabilities for its price range. I bought this watch for its high water resistance, sleek-rugged design, its 10yr. non-solar battery, and water-blue accents on the face. Also, it just looks sexy in person. I can never stop staring at it.

The Watch band is made of a sturdy, pliable, resin in Black color, fits snugly around the wrist and is comfortable to wear. Usually, I wear my watch bands all the way to the bottom of the wrist, but the face of the watch is almost two inches and there is some restriction with the dial when I move my hand up and down. So I had to wear this a little above where I like to have my watches. However, because the watch doesn't move around, it can stay there all the time without re-adjusting at all. It looks a lot better there anyway.

The Dial or Watch face is slim, but pretty wide across. The case is 1.87 inches in diameter and 1.32 centimeters (or about a 1/2 inch) thick. It might sound big, but it's really slim to wear. It doesn't look bulky like the G-shocks, but it's got the same rugged accents to go with it. Six top dial screws add durability, protection, and an asthetic element to the face. The watch is extremely easy to read while wet or dry, thanks to its clear display and face size. The numbers and letterings are crisp and clear in any light. The dial also has a teal colored backlight that illuminates the digits and characters only, instead of the whole face, which makes identification easy on the eyes at night. Don't expect to use the light in place of a flashlight though, because it lights for approximately one second (timed using the watch) and is not bright enough for anything else. Also, the light is electro-luminescent and its power and duration will diminish when the battery becomes too low signaling that it's time to replace.

The watch's main features include the "Twin Sensor", compass-thermometer device functions. Readings are displayed digitally as an arrow and degree for direction and degrees in F or C for temerature. They last for 10 seconds before going blank and returning to the Timekeeping Mode by default.

Neither of the two sensors are as accurate as their authentic instruments. The Twin Sensor does give average, general readings. However, that is to be expected given that the watch is to be worn and not always situated perfectly horizontal. The instruction manual does provide that "The measurement functions built into this watch are not intended for use in taking measurements that require professional or industrial precision." Some drawbacks in calibration include that the compass be re-calibrated every 3 months for accuracy (reccomended) and that the watch must sit for 30 minutes when being re-calibrated for temperature to acclamate to the surrounding air. It takes readings while on the wrist though, so I don't know what people are saying about taking the watch off every time to measure temperature or direction. It works on the wrist.

What I like about the watch though is the 200M water resistance. Standard Casio depth. Not that I'm going to be going that far down, but it's a nice ensurance.

Without hard suits or sub-marine vehicles, a safe diving limit for humans is around 100ft. 200M and below, being the hazardous limit. So, as with the Casio G-shocks, where the watch will survive as much G's (acceleration due to gravity) taken as the human body can accept, Casio also provides the deepest limit the human body can safely endure under pressure of water.

Like all of the other Casio wathces, it's got the basic setup of funtionalities for Local Time, Date/Day, World Time, Stopwatch, Timer, and an Alarm which boasts a set of four different alarms, an hourly alarm setting, and an optional snooze timer. You have the adjustment button on the top left, Light buttion on the top right, Mode on bottom-left, and Comp (computer for compass and thermometer readings) on the bottom right.

So for under 50 bucks, the Casio SGW100-1V offers a variety of funtionality, a solid construction, and clean design elements. The watch is perfect for surfing. It's not heavy, but light on the hand and easy-to-read, good solid watch. Just be sure to replace the battery. As with all watches, it's reccomended that you know what you're getting to get the most for your money. With this watch, I got all I wanted/needed, so that's why I rated 5/5 stars. Thanks for reading, hope this helps.

I was looking for a watch with a compass built into it to use when on holiday in strange cities so that I could get oriented after getting out of subways, etc. This was the least expensive of the bunch. It works great and has helped me to navigate home from the pub already! If you don't need an altimeter or anything like that it serves the purpose.

Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
***** Highly recommended with warm fuzzies!

I mainly bought this watch for use as a water-resistant basic time and compass watch while hiking in the mountains and going on walking tours in foreign cities while traveling. And for those purposes, it is great watch *** for the price ***. Yes, you can get better watches with more features such as altimeter and barometer readings in the $100-$200 price range if you need to have those options. After calibration, the compass reading is quite accurate. The temperature readings are only accurate if you take the watch off of your wrist or else it is affected by the heat emanating from your wrist. But for my purposes, I usually do not care about what the exact temperature is, only if I feel the subjective need to add or remove a layer of clothing :-) All displays have excellent legibility.

Well the watch is accurate. Fairly simple to use. Very visible in all lighting conditions.

The compass is fairly accurate, but only stay's active for a short period of time (a few seconds) before it goes away. It would be nice to stay in that mode for a longer period of time.

The band is not that comfortable and is what I'd expect on a watch that costs less than $20, not what I expect from a watch costing around $50.

This is a great watch for the money, I like the World Time feature where I can switch time between different places while traveling with just a single press. The compass seems to be fairly accurate but the temperature reading requires you to keep the watch off your body for 20 mins or so just as others have observed. Here is the most impressive thing - I am a SCUBA diver and on a recent trip to Cozumel by mistake I forgot to take off the watch before I jumped in the water to dive at the Santa Rosa Wall where I hit a max depth of 123ft as indicated by my dive computer. Nearing the end of the dive during my safety stop I notice to my chagrin that my watch is still on my wrist and that I had forgotten to take it off, I surely thought it was DEAD but to my amazement it was still working perfectly and still works without a hitch after a journey to 123ft!! I know you're not supposed to use it to SCUBA dive but I am impressed!

Great watch. Good size, fits my wrist well. The strap is great-- it doesn't absorb dirt and sweat, and it's easy to clean. My biggest complaint is that the compass is not very useful. I've seen it off by about 25%. In other words, I've seen it point West instead of North. I work at a camp, so I use a compass a lot. Needless to say, I just carry an analog one anyway.

Other than that, this is an awesome watch. It's durable, water resistant, and has 5 alarms (one with snooze), a stop watch, and a timer (among other things). I don't really use the world clock that much, but it's still cool to know what time it is in Kabul or some other random city.

All in all, great watch. Glad I got it.

Overall, this is a good watch for the price. It is light weight and seems pretty durable. However, I have set the sensors and the compass is not always on the money. The biggest criticism I can give this watch is that the buttons are set in a very bad position. I have hit buttons just simply by moving my wrist which at times goes through the watch's options. On numerous occasions, when the buttons have been pushed without me knowing, the world time option is selected causing me to sleep in, be late for appointments, and confused on time as I was following a time off by 2 hours! This is the biggest down fall to this watch. I have only had this watch for 4 months and I have already found this to be a big issue. My old G-Shock never had this issue.

I wanted a cheap sports watch from Casio to wear all the time, without being too concerned in case it is stolen. I like the way this one looks, and I like the features, including the backlight, which illuminates the digits only - subtle and effective. And it is not too expensive for what it does (I paid $43). It's also comfortable to wear.
The compass is a bonus. It's not accurate enough for sailing or mountain climbing, but gives me good directions when I'm walking or driving around in an area I don't know well. The drawback is the calibration process, it is cumbersome, and doesn't seem very reliable to me. And the more expensive Pathfinders don't need it every 3 months, so why does this one?
The material is not the best either. The case is made of plastic, which means the grey area near the buttons will probably fade over time. The case back is metallic though, and fixed with screws - making battery replacement easy. The bezel also seems to be metallic, but surely very thin.
The only thing I miss a bit is a databank. Every digital watch should have a 20 or 30-page databank to store some phone numbers, in my opinion. And it shouldn't be too hard for Casio to add that feature to this watch at a few more cents. But it's not a big deal, anyway.
Another thing to notice is that the button layout is different from all other Casios I had: it doesn't have a front button for the backlight, so this function is activated by the top right button. And the split/reset is on the top left.
Don't count on the thermometer. I have never known a Casio watch that displays the correct temperature unless I take it off my wrist for 20~30 minutes - and this one is no exception. Just makes no sense.

I love the watch. Previous watch was a Timex Expedition which I liked a lot. Wanted the Compass and somehting that was "more" water-resistant. This watch met thos conditions. Only thing I wish was that the illumination lasted for a few seconds after pressing the button instead of going off immediately after releasing it. I find the temperature and compass readings accurate. All-in-all, great watch.