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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Survival Watch: Casio Protrek Triple Sensor Tough Solar PRG250T / PRW2500T


I had my eye on one of these for some time but back in Argentina due to the crime a low key watch was better. Now that I live in Ireland that isn’t nearly as much of a problem and besides that I actually had a use for most of the watch functions. Given the almost constant cloudy sky I find myself missing the sun and starts as a reference point so I liked the idea of a compass. I’m close to the sea so the tide graphics was a good addition and I’m surprised how often I find myself looking at the barometric chart so as to see if the weather is going to be getting better or worse. The moon phase data I haven’t used that much, maybe more during winter when it gets dark sooner.

Casio Protrek PRW2500T-7 Triple Sensor Altimeter Watch
Casio Men’s PRW2500T-7CR Pathfinder Triple Sensor Tough Solar Digital Multi-Function Titanium Pathfinder Watch


Watch my review:
In a nutshell:

*Very good construction. Not as bomb proof as the GShock but still pretty rugged. The titanium bracelet is as solid as it gets, still comfortable due to the light weight and plastic inserts next to the back plate.

*Being “Though Solar” it uses light to charge an internal battery, so you don’t havy to worry about changing those. That to me is a big plus.

*The compass is accurate and easy to read thanks to the LCD display. The barometer and thermometer are accurate too but the altimeter not so much. You can adjust it on your own to known altitudes (I recommend taking an accurate reading of your home so as to use as reference) but eventually it loses precision again and needs to be set again.

*The barometric chart is constantly displayed on the home screen showing the barometric tendency in the last 10 hours. This gives you a good idea about the weather getting worse (pressure going down) or getting better (pressure going up) and how fast that is happening. A steep fall of pressure is an indication of a storm coming your way.

*The watch includes all the typical Casio functions such as world time, stopwatch alarms, etc. It also records different altitudes and has other trekking functions that can come in handy.

*The model PRW2500T is Atomic, that means that it includes atomic timekeeping through radio signals every night in most of the northern hemisphere and some places in the south too, making it an extremely accurate watch that doesn’t need manual adjustment to be precise.

Join the forum discussion on this post!
FerFAL

5 comments:

Don Williams said...

1) But..but..but what if another nuclear reactor melts down? Do you think the French are more disciplined than the Japanese and Russians? And they are just across the Channel from you now --not on the far side of the world.

And what about terrorist setting off a nuke?

You need a watch that can detect FALLOUT. GAMMA Radiation. You need ..Gammawatch!

http://www.radjournal.com/articles/Gammawatch/gwatch.htm

ha ha. I don't know if it works well or if it is a piece of crap but it would definitely put the Rolex wearers in their place.

By the way, I believe your Casio can read altitude (straight forward mapping from barometric pressure to altitude). If so, then it could be helpful in finding your likely location if you ever get fogged in while hiking in the mountains (e.g, in the Alps.) Assuming that you also have a topo map, you can find the altitude line on the map corresponding to what you are reading on your watch. Might be helpful to know if you are heading toward the edge of a cliff.

Anthony Jones said...

I love how handy this watch could be in a fix. I do wonder how accurate the other parts of the watch stay over a long period if already the altitude function needs to be re-tuned.

Don Williams said...

1) Northern Ireland is about 60 to 100 miles from the Scottish/English coastlines -- easily crossed in a small sailboat if the weather holds.

The Protrek would be highly useful for sailing -- it's water resistance of 20 bar is good enough for scuba diving so it should handle any drenching on the surface. As Ferfal noted, the barometer lets you predict the weather-- even more important at sea than on land.

Ferfal, you might look into learning to handle a sailboat --it would give you a very useful backdoor exit and the boys would probably find it a lot of fun. Learning how to handle a daysailer in protected waters can probably be learned in a weekend or two. Coastal sailing would probably take a few more weekends once you had some experience.

However, ocean sailing is very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing and takes a lot more training.

The Royal Yacht Association and American Sailing Association define several levels of expertise and describe the training progression.

Larry said...

Would such an obnoxiously large watch violate the Gray Man Theory?

anjamag95 said...
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