This newest version of Casio's Pro-Trek 5000/5100 series is visually striking mostly matte black and sporting a polished black inner bezel where the degrees are listed in orange. With its' one-piece coated nylon strap, this new Pro-Trek sits around 18mm high or about 3-4mm higher on a wrist than the standard 500/5000 model depending on how tight the watch is worn. It also comes with a second elastic band with rubber no-slip grips on the back, and the buckle must be removed the band to thread it through the strap adapters on the watch. The solar panel on the face has a nice dark color, not a blue or purple tint that some other solar panels have. The LCD display has a sight orange tint keeping with the theme of the watch. While the minute hand will cover the LCD display, there is enough space to read the display at an angle even with the hand covering it.
The hour and minute hands have a generous amount of illumination on them (for Casio standards) and even the second hand is completely luminous on the tip beyond the eye. The hour markers do not have as bright of illumination, nor do they stay bright as long. The back-light is a bright white LED that illuminates across the face from the 6 o'clock position. It is bright enough to read the hands and most of the LCD display which is not back-lit, and can be set to auto-illuminate in 1 or 3 second increments.
The ABC functions are similar to other Pathfinders and pro-treks in this series as the second hand is used to measure barometric and altitude differential as well as acting as a compass needle. In the compass mode, the degrees are also listed on the LCD display. The graph is small located on the right side of the LCD display, giving trends for barometric pressure and altitude. The markings on the watch are small, and do hinder some of the functions that are easier to read on an all digital Pro-Trek or Pathfinder model.
A unique feature to this series of watch is the Tough Movement, which will auto-correct the position of the hands should they be exposed to shock or a magnetic field. Other things to note are that the world time is selected from the list of cites around the dial. The watch also has multi-band 6 atomic reception and the buttons can be muted. Holding the mode button for 3 seconds in any mode brings the watch back to the home screen.
This Pro-Trek is one of the most expensive of all models released in this series, but the striking color scheme, rugged looks and robust feature set make this a buy for any collector or casual adventurer willing to sacrifice some readability found in all-digital ABC watches for slick styling.
This is an amazing watch at a great price, it is almost half the price of the Black Titan PRW-5100YT-1J, with the only differences being the band, the color and the sapphire crystal, all things I do not need on this watch.
I would likely give this watch 3.5 stars if that option were available.
I have owned, and still own, a number of Casio watches, primarily G-Shocks and Pro-Treks. All in all, they are great, utilitarian and functional timepieces that I actually travel and trek with. When I need a watch that I don't have to worry about for any reason, I leave the swiss chronometers on the winders and head out with a Casio. These are the watches that have borne witness to far away jungles and Himalayan peaks.
I recently received this reviewed timepiece, and though still very new, here are my impressions. It is remarkably light given the size and number of functions built in. I can barely feel it on my wrist. It seems lighter than my other Pro-Treks. The analog hands are orange and easy to read against the dark face. Positioned properly at night, the watch picks up the atomic signal with no issues. All the functions work well enough, besides the thermometer which always registers body temperature, and has to be removed from the wrist in order to properly measure temperature. This is a fault that all Pro-Treks have, and I don't know why Casio hasn't built in some sort of compensating feature, since it is highly impractical to remove the watch and let it cool down in order to take an accurate temperature reading.
The countdown timer has a maximum of one hour, as opposed to many other Casios which allow countdown measuring from a full 24 hours. I often measure events at longer than an hour, so this is an inconvenience. The alarm functions are typical of Casio watches, and the alert volume is average. It would be nice to have a vibrate feature, as do some of the Garmin watches. It is easy to miss the alert tone in noisy environments, but I never miss the strong vibration of the Garmin. This watch attempts to use the analog dial for a host of functions, such as world time, barometer, compass, and altimeter. The problem is that there are so many different markings and they are so small it is nearly impossible to see what the second hand is pointing to. If you are relying on bearing, etc when you are on the move, you will have to stop and squint to see what the watch is indicating. It is much easier to rely on the digital display, but the digital display does not show everything that it might.
I also do not know why Casio doesn't encase the watch in its famous G-Shock housing. I am sure that the watch is sufficiently tough for most situations, but given that Casio touts the watch as a worthy companion for arduous sports such as high altitude mountaineering (it endorses at least one climber), it makes little sense that they don't add on the G-Shock protection. Also, this watch is water resistant to 100M, not 200M, so I would think carefully about dousing a watch filled with delicate sensors in the ocean for any significant period of time. I'd be much happier swimming with it if it had the G-Shock casing.
My biggest issue with the watch is its backlighting. The hands have a nice luminous glow (I don't know how that will hold up over time), but that glow lasts for less than a minute. After that, you need to rely on what Casio calls its LED backlighting with afterglow. This backlighting is simply ridiculous, and I imagine, would be terribly frustrating if you're trekking in the dark and need to see the watch data. There is a tiny light at the 6 o'clock position and when illuminated, it casts a dim glow onto the face of the watch, with the bottom half of the watch brighter, and the 12 o'clock position barely lit up at all. It's like the lights on the first digital watches from thirty years ago, that shone from one side and lit only a portion of the screen properly. What's worse is that the LED light casts not illumination but a shadow, yes, a shadow onto the the digital display. Using the light, the digital display is quite dark, and completely illegible. And, unlike most other digital watches, the digital rectangle has no back lighting of its own. What happened to that really nice blue back lighting that Casios have had for the last decade? Not here. Also, there is also no afterglow whatsoever. I don't know what Casio means by afterglow unless it's hoping that the moon might provide some light. The little white light comes on for a second or two, then it's gone. I have a PAW 1500 which has the blue backlighting that makes the entire face easy to read at night. The sum of these design decisions is to effectively render the watch useless at night. Unless you have a flashlight in your other hand.
The digital display is also rather small, and all the data on it is also small. Altitude measurements, for example, are difficult to read, much more so than on the digital PT's. I can accept this as a tradeoff for having a large analog face, but given the back light issues, it makes the watch much less user friendly, even in during the day. Forget about doing anything other than telling the time during dusk or darkness. You simply cannot see any of the digital display data once the sun goes down.
So the question really is what you're going to do with the watch. I think that for activities where data is critical, this is not the best choice. The digital-only versions of the Pro-Trek, while not as elegant, are far more useful. Likewise with the G-Shock models. You can actually read the data when on the move, and of course, day or night, you can see what you need to see. My PAW 1500 looks a bit goofy on my wrist around town, but it's far easier to use when I need the data that it provides (other than temperature). Aesthetically, this model looks very nice. It is large, yet understated, substantial yet somewhat refined (at least for this sort of watch). So it looks good on the wrist, but it trades practicality for its appearance.
I am still evaluating whether I will keep the watch, primarily because of the lighting issues. I do have to say that the price for this watch, $275, on Amazon is a bargain. It has a street price of $500-$1000 at the moment. It's also a very rare model, one that best as I can tell, has not been officially introduced to the U.S. market, other than Amazon's offering. I happen to really like the black and orange color scheme. The orange makes the hands very legible without being garish and the black case draws no notice. Given the price and the overall functionality of the watch, it's a pretty attractive buy. And, with the solar battery, it's one that won't let me down when I need it the most. It's really a fine watch- with the exception of the back light-there is no other brand out there that comes close to packing the number of features into such a refined package. It' just that the standard of G-Shocks and other Pro-Treks is so high, that it falters somewhat against its own cousins.
- Tough solar power; Battery power indicator, power saving function, solar rechargeable battery approx. Battery life: 5 months on full charge (without further exposure to light)
- Full auto led light with afterglow; 5 daily alarms; Countdown timer
- Water-resistant to 330 feet (100 M); Additional band, low temperature resistant (-10 C / 14 F), full auto LED light with afterglow
- Multi-Band 6 Atomic Timekeeping, 100M water resistant, Digital compass, Altimeter, Barometer, Thermometer, World Time (29 cities + UTC), 1/100 second stopwatch, 12/24 hour formats.
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