CasioRangeman GW-9400

I have owned this watch for a number of years now and I feel very comfortable with it. When I first bought it, I had some problems to the point that I needed to return it for some servicing.. I might have just got a very uncommon 'lemon' as the returned item has been flawless.First off, its a big watch.. so the wife hates it as I wear mine facing down from the wrist and that rubs when we hold hands and walk. It occasionally jabs her too, and I have to remind her it was her mom's gift to me.. the debate over the coolness of my watch is, at this moment, unsettled. That being said, its mostly comfortable for me and I do not have heavy weight wrists or size. I will take it off or rotate it when working on a keyboard as it can get in the way there - but otherwise, even given its size, it doesn't get in the way.One of the features that probably eliminates all other watches from consideration for me (the wife has tried with Movados, Rolex, etc... they are stylish.. but not what I look for) is the World Time feature. Your 'home time' is set and maintained on what I suppose you can refer to as your home screen. This screen is easily found by cycling through the screens with the lower left button, you will hear an audible beep each time and the home screen will have a beep of slightly different pitch. This is an incredibly smart feature as you can do this in the dark, know where you are, and then cycle to the screen you want and THEN punch the light button. It saves on battery and allows you to operate the watch by feel. World Time is the next screen after the home screen and allows me to set it to a specific timezone. I travel frequently internationally.. and I use this constantly. I can set the WT timezone to where I have landed and I now have the time at home and where I am at. Simple. I DO run into problems with DST being automatically incorporated and I have not figured out why (I am in LAX timezone.. so it shouldn't be an issue..), but this is easy to remedy by simply turning DST on and off at the appropriate times of the year. A minor annoyance.Stopwatch (STW) and Timer (TMR) features are standard and as useful as they are anywhere else. I don't use the stopwatch a lot but on occasion its handy to have one. Timer I use for BBQ or just a quick reminder to keep a schedule. For example, when I am on the road and have a number of meetings.. I will try and break up my day a bit and a 30 minute timer to focus in on specific items. Its a fairly standard feature so I am sure most are familiar with it. One item that I thought was odd though, is when you are setting the timer, the top right button DECREASES the value and the lower right button INCREASES the value. This is kind of silly and should have been configured in the opposite manner. Again, minor annoyance.There 4 Alarms and a snooze setting that can be configured. So far, I have only found use for 1 alarm and a 2nd on rare occasions. I dont use the snooze and the 'signal' feature, which iirc beeps on the hour or regular interval is not useful to me.I have not used the data recall feature, but I can see where hikers, hunters, and outdoorsman-type people would have a use for this and I think it was a tremendous idea to incorporate it into the watch. I would definitely read up on it and make use of it if I were to go on an extensive hike or remote hunt for sure. As of this time, for me, its not necessary.The sunrise/sunset features are nice from an informational standpoint. I don't use them a lot but I could see where a more tactical need of the watch would find them valuable. For me, its useful to get an idea when the sun will set or rise when I am out rafting for time management purposes. I don't need it on business travel at all currently.The Radio Controlled Atomic clock updates. I do run into a weird problem where DST doesn't seem to get sorted (perhaps its not just BJS and HKG that don't have that?) but again, minor inconvenience. The fact is, my watch ALWAYS has the right time, and with the WT I am always looking at the right time for the TZ I am in. It simply makes keeping time as simple as it should be.The last feature is the solar charging... this is quite frankly astonishing and the reason I would probably never give this watch up. For me we the watch seems to stay on HIGH for probably 25% of the time and MED for about 70% of the time... I do not 'charge it nightly' or even routinely. Probably once a year (actually... its probably closer to every other year) it hits low and I just set it up outside before I go to bed and leave it there for a day. I'll repeat again the next day till about noon and then its on HIGH again. This is also with the watch pointed down from my wrist and being indoors a lot (office job). I minimize power use and turn off the light functions so the drain is minimized. Honestly, if I could remember, probably leaving it near an open window monthly would likely be enough for it to never leave the HIGH charge value. Its simply a no-brainer and I will never own a watch that doesn't have the same feature and performance as this one: my issues with shaking, winding, or changing the watch battery came to a halt here - and I am not going back. period.It would be nice if alarms could be set based on WT or Home time, Increment and Decrement made sense, and if the DST thing would just work - but these are minor inconveniences. I am very hard on watches and have prbably broken the crystal on at least a dozen watches. This one doesn't have a scratch from over 5 years of use thus far.It does what it does exceptionally well, and is decently affordable. It will not win you any awards on the red carpet, but that't not its purpose or charter. Its a rugged, water proof watch that has reliably told me the time across the globe (literally... this watch has been through all time zones and almost all continents). Its a tool I would rely on if my life depended on it (I doubt that will happen.. but I would rely on this watch if it did) and it has the proper features and function that I think anyone looking at this TYPE of watch would want.

TEN YEAR REVIEW: This watch has withstood the test of time while never missing a second accurately. I have primarily worked construction during these past ten years and have always worked with this watch on my wrist. It has been banged, dropped, bumped and scratched against everything imaginable and is still cosmetically sound. The screen is every bit as bright and readable as when it came out of the box and has adorned my wardrobe as a high value tool. It has been in the ocean, sauna, extreme desert heat, tundra, jungle and suburbia. From extreme endurance events to scuba dives it has lasted and blasted the competition especially for the price. All while delivering in a comfortable package. This watch is tougher than the conditions I have put it through and is still ticking with solar and atomic time. It’s tougher than me and it’s tougher than you. G-Shock for life.

After owning the watch a month or so, I think I'm ready to give it a long-winded review:A Triple Sensor G-Shock is pretty much exactly what myself and a lot of other G-Shock fanatics have wanted for many years now. The Rangeman is a great first model, especially with the new Version 3 sensor. The biggest benefit of the new sensor is the speed at which these sensors pick up their settings - altitude readings, compass bearings, and barometric pressure (and temperature). My older Casio Pathfinders would often take a few seconds to pickup a compass bearing or barometric reading - the Rangeman does so noticeably quicker. I didn't think this would be that big of a deal, but the increased speed of the sensors make feel more like it's a tool as compared to a toy. And speaking of the triple function sensors, here's a bit of a review on each:Compass: Definitely a lot less "travel" in the compass. On the Casio Pathfinder watches that I've had in the past, I could leave them still on my wrist and they'd still change readings by up to 10 degrees or so. The new sensor in this watch fixes that and the travel now is only a degree or two. The compass stays on for a minute now as opposed to only a few seconds for previous Triple Sensor models which is nice. Be sure to set magnetic declination in your area for more accurate readings. Large chunks of metal will throw the sensor off however. When in my vehicle, I'm assuming the engine block is throwing things off as my readings are 100% unreliable. While outdoors or in my apartment however, readings are pretty much spot on.Barometric Pressure: Probably the most accurate sensor. The absolute pressure on this watch has been spot on compared to the National Weather Services reading for my location. One thing that confused me with when I first got this watch....the watch comes from the factory calibrated to read the ABSOLUTE pressure (NOT the adjusted Sea-Level pressure readings that you see on websites/newscasts). As such, my readings in Fort Collins, CO (around 5000 ft. altitude) provided a pressure reading of around 25.00 inHg. Not knowing this was absolute pressure, I quickly adjusted my watch to match the 29.90 inHg listed on my location's weather report. This worked fine until I visited my parents in Nebraska (around 2200 ft. altitude). Since I had set my pressure to adjusted Sea-Level Pressure in Fort Collins (compounded by the fact that traveling downhill means an increase in pressure reading), when I got to my parents place in Nebraska, my watch mysteriously read "ERR" when taking barometric pressure readings. This is because with my altitude drop (and my manually adjusting the barometric pressure) the watch was unable to take a reading because the new pressure value at my parents place registered off the scale. Long story short, keep the pressure settings to the absolute pressure!Altitude: By far the least reliable sensor. It's not the fault of the watch necessarily, it's just that it gets the readings from the barometric pressure. If you're sitting still and the pressure changes, your altitude will change on the watch (rising pressure = altitude drop, decreasing pressure = altitude gain). There's no way around this (my Suunto Core did it too as do other watches) other than perhaps getting a watch with a GPS built in. It's fun to use as a general guide when I'm driving in the mountains as it always tends to be within +- 200 ft. of my actual altitude. Just don't expect accuracy unless you're out hiking and you know that the barometric pressure isn't going to change.Temperature: For me, it's pretty much always 10 degrees warmer than what it really is. It picks up on my body heat, no big deal. For my purposes I never need to know the exact temp anyways, an estimate is just fine.World Time, Stopwatch, Timer, and Alarm are all pretty standard compared to my other Casio watches. I do like that I can start the stopwatch from the main menu.Sunset/Sunrise: Haven't had this feature before. Not mind-blowing, but I appreciate having it. You're able to program in Latitude/Longitude areas which make for very accurate Sunset/Sunrise times, accurate to the minute compared to websites where I can look up the info.Recall Mode: Again, haven't used this feature before, but like having it. Basically you can time-stamp any setting that you'd like (time, pressure reading, altitude, etc) and it keeps track of it. Also keeps track of the total altitude that you've ascended or descended, along with minimum and maximum altitude readings.Atomic Time: I'm about 10 miles away from the Atomic Clock here in Fort Collins. As such, I have no issues (nor should I)!Watch Strap: Casio has watch adapters (search Google) that will fit these watches, so I wear it with a Zulu 24mm nylon strap as I do most of my watches. Nothing specifically wrong with the factory strap, just my preference.Watch Style: Some people love Casio's look, some people hate it. I'm somewhere in the middle bordering on liking it. I work in IT, so wearing this to work is no problem and adds to that geek factor all of us IT people are looking for ;) I have a fairly skinny 6.5 inch wrist and while the watch looks big on my wrist, that's kind of the style these days.Final Thoughts: Really, I love all things tech and wanted to purchase something on my wrist loaded with features. However being in Colorado, I wanted something that was reliable when out on a hike where I wouldn't have to worry about battery life, durability, etc. Looking around at the latest Suunto and Garmin offerings, they sure do look cool, but each have their own quirks as well as very short battery life (this is the price you pay for having GPS enable watches). In the end, I'll give the technology another couple years to figure itself out before looking at watches again. As it stands right now, I have a watch that never needs a battery and is always EXACTLY the right time.