Customer Reviews

Casio Men's WVA320DJ-1E Atomic Tough Solar Waveceptor Sports Watch

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I need a sturdy watch that requires little to no maintenance and keeps accurate time. I also need to display zulu time and local time simultaneously. I need timers. This watch can be set up to do all that. Whats more, once I have it configured, I can see all three at a glance, local time on the analog hands, zulu digital in the window, elapsed time on the rotating bezel!

As for needing sturdy, my previous watch was a Casio Waveceptor battery powered. I had it for 5 years, never had to replace the battery and it worked flawlessly at keeping perfect time. But the case was plastic and the crystal was easily scratched. The plastic case broke and the band fell off. My new watch is 100% stainless steel and the crystal seems to be very high quality, no scratches after one month. The solar feature has no trouble keeping it charged, unlike the lousy motion-generator/condenser system in my Seiko Kinetic. I paid to have the Seiko condenser replaced twice in four years and it needs it again. Those two repairs alone cost more than my new Casio!

Time will tell if the Casio "Tough Solar" really is tough, but I expect it is.

I also should comment that the alarm/signal tones are muffled by the heavy steel case. That is fine with me. I have not used the alarm feature on any of my watches going back to my first digital in the 70's.

Other comments; it has a night light in addition to glow in the dark hands, it looks great and it feels like quality.

I'm very pleased with this watch.

I just bought this watch and couldn't be more pleased. As soon as I took it out of the packaging, the hands started quickly moving to the current time. The time zone was set to Eastern time, but that was easily changed. All the numbers are very easy to read. The luminescent dials are easy to read and maintain their glow all night. They are best viewed while your eyes are still adjusted to the dark, don't turn on the room lights then expect to see the glowing. The dial does have a light, but the light only stays on for one second, then you have to hit the button again. The manual cautions against repeatedly hitting the light to avoid running the battery down, but you'd really have to be abusing the light to do that, even heavy use doesn't seem to drain it too fast. The solar panel does a good job of recharging, my battery charge was "mid" as delivered, and today just with normal wear and only exposed to sunlight during a half hour drive with light coming through the window, the battery charge reads "Hi." The bevel rotates counterclockwise, with 120 'clicks' per full 360 degree rotation. Each click is nice and firm, the bevel will not wiggle beyond where you turn it. The digital readouts are easy to read, it just takes time and some memorization to scroll/toggle through the menus. The atomic clock downloads can be done manually (easy to do, fully explained in manual) or left set at automatic. The manual makes a big deal about having the watch properly placed in a window, but mine updated just fine sitting on my nightstand nowhere near a window (and approx. 900 miles from Ft Collins where the signal originates. There is a function to tell you your signal strength, so you can move around to find a stronger signal if needed. The watch is fairly large and relatively heavy compared to most cheaper models, which is a personal preference, but if you want a lightweight thin watch, this is not it. The band is nice and large, my wrist is 7.5 inches around, and I'll have to take out a couple of links in the band. The manual does a really good job of written and diagram instructions, but the print is pretty small. Anyone with trouble reading fine print will want some reading glasses or magnifier to read the manual. As I said above, the watch itself is very easy to read. You can set 3 different alarm times, and also have the option of turning on or off the hourly alert that beeps every hour on the hour. The "alarms" are typical watch beeps, not very loud. I wouldn't recommend depending on it to wake you up unless you are a VERY light sleeper. The clasp on the band is nice, you just squeeze buttons on either side of the clasp to release it. It fastens back very easily and stays closed, no accidental opening/releasing of the clasp. The stopwatch function is nice, it continues to run even if you switch to a different function (i.e. to see what time/day it is). The ability to record split times is a nice option also. Only problem is that if the minute hand is between 25 and 35 minutes past the hour, it partially covers up the digital display. This would not replace a dedicated stopwatch for track meets, swim meets, science experiments, etc. Overall, I couldn't be happier with this watch.

Cool electronics; When first taken out of it's metal (radio wave and light proof) container, it wound around to updated time immediately. Resetting time zone and getting other functions going is a little involved, but the instructions are pretty good. I'll learn how to deal with it, but won't need to do much after the initial set-up. Ability to show another time zone(s) time will be useful in my travels. Been practicing; i.e. playing; with the zone settings just to see the motor drive the hands forward and backward. New Toy, for sure! Love it.

Great watch! Buy the $10 watch tool kit so you can adjust the links out of the box. This is a very well built time piece. I got it at shopnbc dot com for $99 new - fyi.

I've tried to find this watch for the last 20 years. It has the exact combination of features that makes it right for me: stylish enough to wear with suit, primarily analog face for classic look with subtle integration of desirable digital features, alarms are loud enough to wake me up, solar and atomic for ease of use/setting/maintenace, and a light. At ~$150, it's also fair to use this on the weekends without worrying about hurting it. Although, at only ~$150, I'm thinking of getting the version with the rubber band too!

I hesitated on purchasing this a few times because of the strange symbol in the digital window. As it turns out, that is a Japanese symbol for the day of the week. I have set my watch to English and now enjoy easily reading the day of the week (MO, TU, WE, etc).

After reading the other reviews posted here, I, too, decided to buy this watch. It appeared to have all the features in which I was interested. The watch arrived yesterday. The superlative reviews are all vindicated. This is an excellent watch in all respects! It has lots of high-end features and it has a large, lumninescent dial with wonderfully large hands. However, it is also much bigger and heavier than I imagined. Therefore, my only addition to the other reviews already posted here is to be aware that this is a large watch. It is fully-featured, but heavy.

I have owned an Omega Seamaster Pro for 10 years, and worn it daily. Recently, some condensation got inside and I had to give it to a jeweler for repair. I bought this watch to wear while my Omega is being fixed, and I'm so impressed with it, that I'm not sure I'll switch back to the Omega. First of all, the quality of the case and band are good- definitely not as solid or high quality as an Omega or Rolex, but still quite reasonable (especially considering that this watch cost less than 1/20 what my Omega did 10 years ago). The solar power and atomic timing are spectacular. When I took the watch out of the box, it immediately set the time, I just had to set the correct time zone and re-sync for DST, but it was all fairly straightforward.
Incidentally, I figured that after I got my Omega back, I'd wear this watch when working in the yard, playing sports, etc, so I wanted the rubber strap. However, the rubber strap model was about $30 more expensive (!??), so I ordered a cool orange 22mm Modena rubber strap ORANGE 22mm MODENA President / Submariner Style Italian Rubber Watch Band w/ Deployant / Deployment Buckle / Clasp, which worked very well with the watch, and was inexpensive.

Purchased this watch from a fellow Watchgeek and I could not be happier. The previous reviewers sum up the attributes of this watch well.
From my perspective, the clean watch design, the easy to navigate operation of all the watch functions and the benefits of the atomic and solar features make this the perfect watch to wear virtually anywhere and anytime. The lume is outstanding and the backlight, although functional, is really not necessary.
I would highly recommend this watch to all. Get it!

All I can do is echo the previous comments, but I thought it was worth the trouble. This watch is a terrific value for the money, and as a previous commenter wrote, it's the watch I've been looking for for a long time. I wanted solar, atomic, day/date, and good nighttime visibility, and that's a tough combination to find. I was considering watches costing several thousand dollars, but I just couldn't justify paying that kind of money for a watch that would need a new battery every couple of years, would need expensive service every five years or so, and which wouldn't keep time as accurately as this one does. This watch is great to look at, easy to read, keeps perfect time, and needs no maintenance or batteries. I like the fact that it will never be opened up. It has tons of useful features, is comfortable, is just the right size for even my fairly thin wrist, and the band has a mini adjustment in the clasp that makes it fit perfectly. Although the watch itself is substantial and comfortably hefty, the band is quite light, so it's extremely comfortable to wear. I like the clasp, which operates with a push button on each side. My only small gripe is that the link that attaches to each side of the watch folds beneath the watch any time you take the watch off, so it's impossible not to scratch each of those links; it happened pretty much right out of the box. Buy it!

Previous reviewers covered all the salient points. To add; I received this watch after the resin case on a WVAM490D-2A failed and the band pin pulled through. Casio informed me that they could neither repair nor replace the particular model and offered to replace it with another style. They recommended the 320J along with 2 other G-Shock styles. I prefered this style and am happy with it so far. Key pros are the stainless band and case as well as the WaveCeptor features. Key cons are the size. Though not overly large, I was looking for a slim case such as the 490D had. That being said, I can certainly recommend this timepiece.