quick review:
i was holding up for the rumoured Iwatch, and when i got sick of waiting i started looking at other good quality watches. i found the casio pathfinder PRW-2500T (T for titanium) on Amazon on special - still cost me $550 though. delivery was quick through DHL - was sent wed morning, and was on my wrist Friday afternoon. i had actually written off Friday delivery as it didn't clear customs until 10:30am.
Pros: Light weight considering the functions included
- Baromiter
- Compass
- Tide and Moon Phases
- Stop Watch
- Altimeter
- World Time
clasp mechanism is solid and won't slip off my wrist
the backlight is even, and not too bright for night time use and will not kill your night adjustment
never needs a battery change due to inbuilt solar panel around the outside of the watch screen
nice, solid construction - feels like it could take a bump or 20 which is great as i work in early childhood education and am frequently chasing after pre school kids
the moon phases can be flipped so if you are viewing from the south it is correctly orientated.
Cons:
The backlight, which i have set on auto doesn't always work when i bring it up to check the time - could be because it is a fraction too big on my wrist. i have already removed 2 links form the titanium band, but it's probably a half link too big resulting in a small bit of slippage.
this model boasts atomic time. there are no atomic time radio signals being sent out in Australia. the closest is in japan, and there are reports of north east coast Australia picking this up. the way to have this work correctly so that the time is not 1 hour out is to set the watch to Japan time and turn daylight saving on. this is fine if you are in QLD as there is no daylight saving here but if you are in a state that has this, it could cause a bit of trouble. one solution is to turn it off completely.
the rotating compass marker bezel is resin and doesn't click. it's a smooth operation which to me is a bit of a disadvantage - i prefer a click as the bezel is rotated.
the watch housing (as opposed to the band) is resin. they have to be careful to use materials that won't effect the compass feature but still for the price i paid and the market segment where they are marketing this...
the watch does have a bit of height to it, but having just switched from a nike+ sports band which is one of the smallest watches on the market it's not fair to compare a (pretty limited feature wise) cheapish watch with a watch 10 times more expensive and with miles more features. it's just going to be bigger.
wrap up:
the watch is good for astronomy due to one main thing - the inbuilt compass. as log as the watch is flat parallel to the ground the readings are pretty good. the moon phases and tide charts are a bit gimmicky to be honest, and really don't assist astronomy.
would i buy this again? based on initial impressions the answer is a yes with a caviet. i won't pay what i paid for the watch - almost $550 with shipping from amazon. i'd recommend the cheaper model. the cheaper model has all the features of the model i have with one exception - the band is resin, and has a buckle config instead of the titanium with a clasp. this model is about 1/2 price of the titanium model and would be what i recommend.
if you have any questions feel free to ask
