Customer Reviews

Casio Men's WVA470DJ-1ACF Waveceptor Solar Atomic Ana-Digi Sport Watch

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Build:
Mostly steel -- wrist band and on the front and back of the watch piece. Most of the watch casing is plastic, with a front steel cover and and on the back, a steel plate(behind it is the battery). The bezel or the outer front ring of the watch doesn't turn like some watches do. The wristband is a two button release, so you push in both sides of the clasp to release the wristband. Watch face is made of hardened mineral, and has not scratched yet, and hopefully not. The mineral is slightly concave, so it bulges out slightly.

Aesthetics:
I have grabbed people's attention, friends and strangers, and they comment on the great looks of it. In my own opinion, I also say the watch has the "prestige" look. The only bad is the plastic casing, but it is usually doesn't grab your eye at first look.

Features:
Atomic Time
It features atomic time in both analog and digital, and it has done its job properly. Every day at 12 a.m., it will sync with the satellites to keep the time updated. Most of the time it will sync successfully in Houston, but when I traveled to Tokyo or various sections of China or Taiwan, it will not always sync successfully. My guess is that there are dead spots around the globe, and I am pretty sure within the States too. Another great thing to the atomic time feature is that it will take care of your daylight saving time changes. Set it to "A" or auto-DST mode, and it will automatically set the correct time in your current location. No more guessing the time when traveling. The date is also automatically set for you, whether in leap year or whatever. Both the analog and digital time sync together.

Solar
It's great to not have to worry about changing out the batteries. My biggest problem with changing battery is re-pressuring your watch, otherwise the watch face will fog up from the inside. With this watch I won't have to worry about changing out the battery and thus re-pressuring it. The digital display on the watch can also display the solar battery charge, and it has been on "HI" all the time. When you first get the watch, however, you do need to let it sit in light since it has been in the box in the dark for who knows how long.

Alarm Clock
There are 3 alarms, and it will be as loud as your typical Timex watch or other Casio watch you might have. I don't depend on it to wake myself up since I am a heavy sleeper. It will shutoff by itself after a minute or so.

Hourly Chime
Great to have, but it will chime every hour for 24 hours, even during sleeping hours.

Stopwatch
Display format as "00:00". The "00:" section will count up in seconds with the ":00" as microseconds. For example "01:00" will be one second. If you let it continually run into the minutes, for example "11:03", that will mean 11 minutes and 3 seconds. There is the split time mode, but I have yet to figure out how to use it.

Second Time
The watch can also display a second time through the digital display. For example if I want the time in Tokyo, you can set the digital display to show the time in Tokyo. There is a list of various areas to set your time to. The analog time will be your current time.

Manual Time
You can also set the analog time manually -- for whatever reasons you want.

Readability:
The digital display can show you the following information separately and not together: date, seconds, and current time. For example: "SA 8" for Saturday of the 8th in the current month, 23 for 23 seconds, 8:17(with a little "P" on the top left corner if current time is P.M.)

There is also an orange color yellow LED that shines from the right side of the digital screen. The hour, minute, and second hand, and the hour markers have the luminous glow paint, so it will glow well if you let it shine in the sunlight, and dim but barely viewable otherwise. I use the digital time and the LED backlight on if I can't read the analog time. The LED will NOT illuminate the whole watch face, only the digital screen.

Accuracy:
For the nitpicky that want the analog to tick accurately, the second hand doesn't always match up to the second markers, but it still somehow ticks at the right second markers(almost). It has never been a second ahead or behind. Again the analog and the digital time sync together, but the analog is a microsecond faster than the digital time -- the analog second hand runs ahead slightly than the digital second.

Waterproof:
Supposedly rated to 100 meters. I don't scuba dive so I can't comment on whether it goes that deep. I do swim occasionally and it has not given me any problems. No rusting, not staining, and looks the same as when I first got it.

Comfort:
Comfortable to wear, didn't pull hairs for me like some of my other metal band watches(and I am not a very hairy person). Easy to put on.

Weight:
Not heavy at all for a mostly steel watch. Part of the reason is for the mostly-plastic watch casing, but I wanted a light watch as well. I would consider this watch to be in the "light" category. I have seen plenty of heavy watches, and they seriously are heavy-- its like carrying weights around your wrist. If you want a reference for heavy, try any of the new Fossil watches that have thick watch casings. For light, grab a titanium made watch that does not have a slim watch casing.

Overall opinion:
Great watch, accurate, and comfortable. It was useful and crucial for travel. Worked great out of the box -- just had to set the watch to correct timezone and let it charge for a day. Only complaint is the plastic material used, but it is durable and doesn't bother me at all. It would have been 5 stars if it were all metal, but it probably would have been a lot heavier.



**I uploaded some pictures of the backlighting of the watch if you are curious. Its in the customer image section where you can see all the various photos of the watch.**

Nice watch. Save yourself the trouble of trying to read the included instructions and download the manual for module 3311/5052 from Casio's website. The module number is also on the back side of the body. No problems synchronizing time settings by setting the watch in the window as directed by the instructions at a distance of ~1,200 miles from Fort Collins, CO. Battery charge has remained on "HIGH" for two months after an initial charging in the window sill on the afternoon of purchase. Unless you have the specific tools, take it to someone who does to re-size the band. Afterglow feature lights up the digital portion of the face only, not the entire watch face. Non-metallic enough to go through airport TSA while still on wrist and not set off the alarm. Purchased from Amazon with free shipping. Would buy again if needed.

Several years ago, I purchased a black, plastic-band Casio watch that automatically synchronizes the date/time. It ran on solar power, so there was never a battery to replace.

Recently, I decided I was a grownup and needed something that was more professional looking. I was looking for a watch that had analog hands, but still had the atomic synchronization and solar recharging. I was surprised very few watches fit the bill. To my knowledge, only Casio makes watches that have atomic clock synchronization. I laugh at people with expensive "precision time instruments." My watch will be accurate to within 3 or 4 seconds for the life of the watch because it synchronizes every day. I don't care how precise your watch is, it will never measure up to mine.

The WVA470DJ-1ACF is a nice looking watch that provides all the functionality I was looking for.

Just remember, this watch has a metal band. You will need to get the watch sized to your wrist. After spending an hour trying to remove the pins and size it myself, I decided to take it to the watch kiosk at the mall. It was well worth the $10 fee, since the job required special tools and a lot of patience.

This is a great watch that I recently purchased for use at work and home. It will wake up and set itself for you right out of the box (when the light hits the solar panels). The display window at the bottom can show the date, time or seconds and can be set to 12-hour or 24-hour time format. This is invaluable for those who need to quickly notate exact time with the digital clock, but maintain the look of an analog watch. And solar power means perpetual use without worrying about batteries. Overall excellent, durable and combines many advanced features for one great watch!

I bought this watch for my husband for Christmas. It initially looked like a great watch until he tried to get a few links taken out so the band would fit his wrist. He took it to a local store that sells the same brand and when they tried to remove a link the pins started falling out of other links. He called Casio and the first person he talked said that they have had this problem with this watch and to send it in to the repair shop. We had to pay to send it in and about a month later we got a bill in the mail wanting us to pay for the rapair (over $30). The watch had never been worn. We fought this charge and eventually they sent us back the repaired watch (no cost to us). My husband took the watch back to the same store to get the links taken out again and once again had the same problem. We called Casio and they told us the same thing, to sent it in for repair...they couldn't tell us if we would receive another bill. At this point we just wanted our money back, but we were outside the return window. So I decided to write this review to hopefully prevent others from suffering as we did.

Well, I finally took the plunge and got this waveceptor watch. For starters, it is a very nice, elegant, large size watch (definitively not for you if you have small wrists). The metal finishing in the body and the buttons is impecable. The only flaw is the gray plastic underneath the metal faceplate; however, this makes the watch lighter and I'm pretty sure non-metallic enough to go through metal detectors without waking up the guards (have yet to test this, though).
As for the features, the light-rechargable battery works well, you still need to be careful not to cover it all the time with sleeves (beside, you want to show it off all the time, right?). The atomic clock signal sync works like a charm. Just follow the instructions for proper reception and, voilá! Extreme time accuracy without the price tag of a Rolex. Bottom line, a looker-kind of watch for the hardcore techie.

Bought this watch for my 72 year old (but still a high tech kinda guy) father. He loves it. He lives on a farm in North Georgia and yet the Waveceptor feature has worked flawlessly.

My sister also bought him a more expensive watch for Christmas. He wears this one and brags about it to his friends because of its neat features.

First, thanks to all the people who reviewed this product. After my much-loved Seiko Kinetic finally passed last year, I spent several months mourning and doing research. I didn't want to spend the money necessary to replace the Seiko, but I wanted something accurate, reliable and as functional as the old Seiko. This watch seemed to fit, and the reviews told me it probably would satisfy my needs. So I appreciate your honesty and accuracy.

What makes a product good to me is function. "Style" means little to me. For a watch this means essentially two things:

1. When I look at it, the thing must be readable. I'm not interested in squinting or trying to figure out where white hands are on a white background.
2. I can trust that the time will be right -- the more accurate the better.

Finding a watch that is truly readable is extremely difficult. The stylists want them to look pretty and that apparently doesn't mean readable. This watch is marginally well readable. The hands are white and the background is dark gray. Amazon says the face is blue -- it is not. The face is dark gray just as in the picture of the product. No light I've ever put it in makes it look like any shade of blue.

The accuracy of this watch is perfect. I've seen it late night go into its synch mode to receive the time signal. That takes about two minutes, and given the overall quartz accuracy, you can be sure when you look at this watch anytime during the day that it's exactly accurate. I experimented with placing it in different locations overnight. As long as it's not near computers, monitors or other electronic equipment, it receives the time signal. I've found it best to simply put it on the windowsill; that way it also gets some light in the morning for battery charging. I check it every day against other "atomic" clocks I have, and I always find absolute accuracy.

Some reviewers have said the manual is difficult to read. Some have said it does not provide easy instructions to follow. I haven't found either of these to be the case. The manual is small, but adequate, and any directions I needed were straightforward and easy to follow. That said, I'm not doing anything exotic with the watch. I want to see the day and date in the digital box, and I want the right time from the analog portion. That's about it. I did try many of the other functions as I went through the manual just to be familiar with them, and I had no trouble following any of them. Also, there is the online availability of a manual so the one that came with the watch is really disposable. That's a nice convenience.

One review of this or a similar watch suggested the control buttons could be easily tripped by wrist movement. A couple of times I've had this happen so I find myself being careful in the ways I bend my wrist. This is a minor drawback. It has never affected the time accuracy.

My main reason for four stars instead of five is the bracelet on this watch. As soon as it arrived I took it to the local jeweler to have the band sized. They did the job for $5 and in five minutes. By the time I got home, the band was literally falling apart. Several pins had fallen out. When I went back to the jeweler he said nearly all the pins were so loose they were falling out. He tightened all of them and it's been fine ever since. But I know the band is not going to last long so that's a detriment and it will add to the overall cost of this watch.

Bottom line -- for a hundred bucks or so I get the security of absolutely accurate time with no foreseeable hassles over the next few years. It will never be my old Seiko, but it's reliable and I can trust it to give me accurate time.

this watch performs as adveretized, is great looking, the dial is very easy to read including the digital window,is user friendly, is comfortable to wear (fits well and is light weight), and has a positive closure for the bracelet. Be aware of two things. 1. The bezel that looks like it should ratate, since it has 15, 30, 45, and 60 on the face, does NOT rotate. It can't, as the bezel is a intragal part of the case. 2. This watch is not all stainless steeel. The body of the watch is resin with stainless steel over top of the resin. It does make the watch lighter than all stainless and the resin not very noticable. Most people, other than the wearer probably won't notice.

This is the 3rd casio watch, i purchased from Amazon. i decided to switch to solar from battery operated watches. it comes with atomic function. but the atomic function will work in USA and Japan. It works like solar quartz in rest of the world (official mail from Casio, USA). It looks cool. i made myself cool that atleast i got a solar watch cheaper than other brands, no atomic in India.

After one year usage, i realise that its band shows some RUST mark while i notice one day. So i doubt the band material. I even noticed that the watch was assembled in china. so there may be chances to use low grade Stainless Steel materials.

But it is worth for its price. Its functions properly.