Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #182 in Watches
• Brand: Casio
• Model: GW5600J-1
• Band material: Resin
• Bezel material: Resin
• Case material: Resin
• Clasp type: Buckle
• Dial color: digital
• Dial window material: Mineral
• Movement type: japanese-quartz
• Water-resistant to 660 feet

Features

• Quality Japanese-Quartz movement
• Tough Solar Power; Shock Resistant; Auto EL Backlight with Afterglow
• World Time - 29 times zones (30 cities), city code display, daylight saving on/off
• Rugged case and strap made of resin
• Water-resistant to 660 feet (200 M)

Amazon.com Product Description
This Casio G-Shock watch is a highly accurate and durable digital timepiece perfect for travelers, adventurers, or anyone looking for a multi-function, rough-and-ready watch. Featuring atomic timekeeping, the watch automatically sets using radio signals to ensure perfect time accuracy. Charged by solar power, the battery can last up to eight months on a full charge without further exposure to light. The screen indicates the battery level, and the watch comes with a power saving function. Ideal for world travelers or international calls, the watch can be set for 29 time zones (30 cities), with or without daylight savings, and comes with a city code display so you know where you are. The watch also features four daily alarms and one snooze alarm, a countdown timer, a 1/100 second stopwatch, hourly time signals, and an automatic calendar pre-programmed through 2099. The octagonal bezel of dark gray resin gives the watch a distinctive look, and the octagonal digital display window offers an automatic EL backlight with afterglow for easy night reading. The rugged band and case are also made of resin. The watch is designed for enhanced shock resistance, is water resistant up to 660 feet (200 meters), and is backed by a 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty.

The G-Shock Story

G-Shock - Absolute Toughness

With the launch of its first watch in 1974, Casio entered the wristwatch market at a time when the watch industry had just discovered digital technology. Armed with cutting-edge technology developed for pocket calculators, Casio entered the field confident it could develop timepieces that would push watch technology forward.

Casio’s G-Shock line was created on just such a directive: to build a watch that never breaks. And in 1983, this product was developed to shatter the notion that a watch is simply a fragile piece of jewelry that needs to be handled with care.

G-Shock is renowned as the world’s toughest watch and is in the midst of a huge renaissance since its 25th anniversary celebration last year. It is the best trending watch brand in the industry right now and thanks to its toughness and durability as well as it’s cutting-edge technology, it is among the best values in not only timekeeping but all personal accessories.

In addition to toughness, 200 meter resistance and fantastic cutting edge and hip styling some G-shocks also have such technology as Tough Solar Power for battery life of 20-30 years (great for our planet), Atomic timekeeping for the more precise time available on earth as well as unique features like moon phase and tide graphs.

G-Shocks come in a variety of styles including Rubber/Resin bands, Solid Stainless Steel and even Titanium.

Since it’s launch, Casio’s G-Shock continues to evolve and push the envelope. The non-stop, self-adjusting (solar-powered atomic-timekeeping) G-Shocks featured in the Amazon.com assortment are the latest, greatest example of this evolution!

The Casio Story

In developing its own wristwatches Casio began with the basic question, "What is a wristwatch?" Rather than simply making a digital version of the conventional mechanical watch, we thought that the ideal wristwatch should be something that shows all facets of time in a consistent way. Based on this, Casio was able to create a watch that displayed the precise time including the second, minute, hour, day, and month — not to mention a.m. or p.m., and the day of the week. It was the first watch in the world with a digital automatic calendar function that eliminated the need to reset the calendar due the variation in month length. Rather than using a conventional watch face and hands, a digital liquid crystal display was adopted to better show all the information. This culminated in the 1974 launch of the CASIOTRON, the world’s first digital watch with automatic calendar. The CASIOTRON won acclaim as a groundbreaking product that represented a complete departure from the conventional wristwatch.

Casio transformed the concept of the watch — from a mere timepiece to an information device for the wrist — and undertook product planning based on this innovative idea. We developed not only time functions such as global time zone watches, but also other radical new functions using Casio’s own digital technology, including calculator and dictionary functions, as well as a phonebook feature based on memory technology, and even a thermometer function using a built-in sensor. The memory-function watches became our DATA BANK product series, while the sensor watches developed into two unique Casio product lines of today: the Pathfinder series displaying altitude, atmospheric pressure, and compass readings.

In 1983, Casio launched the shock-resistant G-Shock watch. This product shattered the notion that a watch is a fragile piece of jewelry that needs to be handled with care, and was the result of Casio engineers taking on the challenge of creating the world’s toughest watch. Using a triple-protection design for the parts, module, and case, the G-Shock offered a radical new type of watch that was unaffected by strong impacts or shaking. Its practicality was immediately recognized, and its unique look, which embodied its functionality, became wildly popular, resulting in explosive sales in the early 1990s. The G-Shock soon adopted various new sensors, solar-powered radio-controlled technology (described below), and new materials for even better durability. By always employing the latest technology, and continuing to transcend conventional thinking about the watch, the G-Shock brand has become Casio’s flagship timepiece product.

Today, Casio is focusing its efforts on solar-powered radio-controlled watches: the built-in solar battery eliminates the nuisance of replacing batteries, and the radio-controlled function means users never have to reset the time. In particular, the radio-controlled function represents a revolution in time-keeping technology similar to the impact created when mechanical watches gave way to quartz technology. Through the further development of high radio-wave sensitivity, miniaturization, and improved energy efficiency, Casio continues to produce a whole range of radio-controlled models.

Customer Reviews

For me, the best watch in the world.
Way back in 1982, I bought one of the first Casio 5000 models. It was incredibly accurate, easy to use, had a countdown timer (which I used a lot) and seemed set to last for ever. In 1988 I crashed my motorcycle, and smashed the crystal on my watch. I threw it in a drawer, bought a new cheap casio (with less functions) and carried on. 3 years later I found the smashed one in the back of the drawer. It was still working and only wrong by 15 seconds! I've had various other watches since then, (really missed the countdown timer), but the Casio G-shocks were all way too thick to suit me. I really fancied the new Solar Powered and Atomic Clock synced Casios, but they were still too thick (and didn't have a countdown timer).
Then I found the GW5600J. Based on the old 5000 series, Atomic, Solar Powered, 5 alarms and a countdown timer, full backlight. And the same style and thickness as my old 5000! Not thin, but not ridiculous either.
I've had it a week now, I love it, I expect it to last the rest of my life (this sucker is tough), and neat, clear, easy to use and accurate!
If you like digital watches (as opposed to analog), this is the one.

Fantastic, Retro Look, Just right functionality
Multi-Band (US and Japan), Solar, G-Shock, World Time, and great retro looks makes this a great watch.

I've been looking for an Atomic Solar watch for some time and it appears that everything in the market is just too fancy for me....many atomic solar watches are gigantic, others have compasses, barometers, thermometers etc and although those functionalities are great....

sometimes, most of the time, during weekends - when going hiking etc -- many features needed in a great outdoors watch are unnecessary at the pool, mall, movies, bookstore etc.

The 5600 has all the right features:

1) solar (8month power reserve on one charge)
2) atomic (two zones US and Japan)
3) power saving mode
4) back light (the good backlight that makes the whole display glow)
5) world time (29 cities)
6) easy setup of two time zones
7) stopwatch
8) countdown timer
9) g-shock -- very tough
10) waterproof to 200meters (good for scuba diving or the pool)
11) replaceable band
12) multiple alarms
13) Auto sync with atomic or manual sync
14) Manual time set (calenar to 2099--I'll be dead by then so that works I think)

On the con side, this watch is a bit big but for some reason its not overpowering on the wrist even for midsize guys -- it looks like it belongs there....big but not huge and definitely not small.

In its basic mode it tells:

1) time (hours minutes seconds)
2) day or month/date
3) pm (or 12/24 hour time zone and whether you're in daylight savings time)
4) how much battery you have
5) whether it has signal from the atomic time sync

Overall, I feel comfortable wearing this watch and don't feel like I'm wearing a supercomputer on my wrist. It certainly won't impress anyone but it does what its supposed to to: tell time accurately without replacing batteries and without worry that it'll get banged up against something.

This is a great watch. I owned one like it in the 80s and am very glad they updated it with modern technology while keeping the core aspects of it the same. I got from mytimepiece on Amazon (quick delivery and exactly as promised -- great store).

Only hard thing was going through the extremely wide selection of great Casio watches to find this one. I'm sure I'll get a Pathfinder at some point to go hiking etc and feel like I can survive in the wild with just it and a knife (and to keep up with the joneses) but for the mall, supermarket, pool, backyard, and for treks through Cambodia, Africa, Asia -- this will be my go-to watch probably for the next 10 years.

Very functional, very tough! Great value!!!
I really like this watch. It has all of the standard 'toughness' you expect from a Casio G-Shock: 200m Water Resistant, Shock Resist, tough plastic casing, quartz movement accuracy, stopwatch, alarm, backlight, etc. It is also a "Tough Solar" (solar powered watch- needs no battery changes), and a "WaveCepter" (syncs with atomic clocks for total accuracy). Please see the main watch page or other reviews for all of the watch features- they've already been listed here, so I'll just elaborate on my favorite features with this watch.

Looks wise- It is another in the line of the classic G-Shock looking 5600 series (the two previous ones, the 5600C and 5600E are approved by NASA to fly on the Space Shuttle! This watch is probably too new for that rating yet.) In my opinion the 5600 series is the most subtle of all the G-Shocks. That is important for me since I wear this watch more than any other watch I own, and I want a tough watch that I won't damage being my normal active me, but I also want it to slide under my shirtsleeve if I'm at work so I won't look like 'office Rambo' with my superwatch!

In my opinion, what really makes this watch great is that you can strap it on your wrist, and just forget about anything having to do with the watch except for having it tell you the info you bought it for. That means: Don't worry if you get caught in the rain or you want to go swimming- it's waterproof enough to scuba dive with. Don't worry if you have a very active or athletic lifestyle- it's shock proof. Don't worry about batteries- it's solar recharged. Don't worry about it being incorrect- it syncs itself to an atomic clock! It adjusts the month/day of year, Daylight Savings Time, you name it.

The Casio engineers get big kudos from me- they added the tough solar and waveceptor features to this watch without detracting functionality from it. The solar cell is completely unobtrusive- it doesn't cut down the display size of the watch one bit, and is not really noticeable when looking at the watch unless you know it is a solar watch and you look for the solar panel, which is completely integrated into the display of the watch. The solar design includes a rechargable battery- so it's not like the watch will shutdown if it doesn't get any light- it can go for weeks if not months in powersave mode, which is initiated automatically. But as long as the watch gets exposure to light (sunlight is the best, but normal house lighting works too) the watch will keep trucking. As for the waveceptor feature- When I place my watch by a west or south facing window, it syncs every night. Even if the watch was unable to sync, it has a quartz movement, so it wouldn't be off by more then a few seconds a month anyways. I had the opportunity to place two waveceptors next to each other, and then sync them both. After the sync, both watches were lock-step synchronized to the NIST standard time, down to the exact second!

In conclusion, I honestly think that for the price, this is possibly the best value for your money if you are looking for a reliable, accurate, go-anywhere kinda watch. I also think that it is great looking for the type of watch that it is.