Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #309 in Watches
• Brand: Casio
• Model: AW590-1A
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Band material: Resin
• Bezel material: Metal
• Case material: Resin
• Clasp type: Buckle
• Dial color: black
• Dial window material: Mineral
• Movement type: Quartz
• Water-resistant to 660 feet

Features

• Quartz movement
• Protective Mineral crystal protects watch from scratches
• Case diameter: 45 mm
• Resin case; Black dial; Day-date-and-month functions; Chronograph functions
• Water-resistant to 660 feet (200 M)

Amazon.com Product Description
This Casio men's watch features a dual display that has both the elegance of an analog watch and the functionality of a digital one. The stainless steel case has a protective silver-tone metal bezel. A red hours hand and a white minutes hand sweep around a black dial that has dashes for indexes while containing a digital display that allows for five daily alarms, a countdown timer, stopwatch, auto LED light, a calendar pre-programmed until 2099, and world time functionality with 29 time zones. A black resin band secures the watch to the wrist. The watch is water resistant to 660 feet (200 meters), and is covered by the manufacturer's 1-year 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

Best overall G-Shock watch for performance and value
I spent some time researching every G-Shock offered by Casio and narrowed it down to the AW590-1A for several reasons.

-> I prefer traditional battery over Tough Solar. I have read numerous negative reviews about the rechargable batteries giving out anywhere from 1-5 years and in the end are very difficult to replace.

-> This watch uses a larger CR1220 battery which Casio estimates will last about 3 years and is easily replaceable.

-> The AW590-1A uses round metal buttons, and not the cheaper rectangular plastic ones on some other G-Shocks, which can get "squeaky" and wear out.

Now on to the watch itself. You need to set the analog time separate from the digital, however they do sync up perfectly once both are set. The analog minute hand moves every 20 seconds and seems very refined.

The top led bar simply ticks off every 10 seconds while the left circle shows numeric seconds. The bottom circle shows whether certain functions are activated, like DST, alarm, snooze, hourly signal and split time in the stop watch function. The left circle does the most: in normal time mode it can be toggled to show month/date, day of the week or digital time. It has a nice resolution and also serves as the stopwatch and countdown timer.

World time is cool as only the left circle changes to show you the digital time in another time zone, while the analog stays in your home zone, allowing you to compare times instantly.

The watch has a whopping five separate alarms, one of which has a snooze function. I don't find the need to have that many alarms but some may find it useful. Countdown and stopwatch are nothing special, pretty much what you expect.

There is also an Auto LED feature which I find an unnecessary battery drainer. Once enabled, a quick upward motion of the wrist automatically causes the light to come on. I found that you can quite often set the light off unintentionally. Luckily you can disable this feature.

The physical dimensions of the watch are a good combination of form and function. The mineral crystal face is recessed nicely and protected well but still offers a clear view with a quick glance.

Overall I'm very pleased with my purchase and would highly recommend this watch to anyone who genuinely appreciates Casio's G-Shock line watches.

Great all around watch
I'm a big fan of Casio's analog-digital watches. I prefer the look of an analog but need the functionality of a digital for running in the 5 a.m. dark. I own another Casio analog-digital watch, the Casio Men's Ana-Digi Electro-Luminescent Sport Watch #AQ160W-1BV, which is not a G-Shock, and the only issue I've ever had with it is the ease with which the crystal seems to scratch. So it would seem only natural I would replace it with a G-Shock: same basic functionality but a little beefier with better crystal protection.

As an everyday watch the AW590-1A is wonderful. It's lightweight, not terribly huge (and I have smallish wrists), and the chronograph functions are super easy to read. I found the setup to be fairly easy, though it was identical to the other ana-digi. My only complaint is that I cannot use it for running at night. I thought that the light would be similar to the AQ160's (the digital numbers light up against a dark screen--a reverse Indiglo), however the light is a small yellow LED right under the "Mode" button between the 7 and 8 markers. The hands themselves are luminescent, which is good because I can barely read them with the light, and forget the digital readouts.

That said, the aesthetics and features of this watch are so nice that unless I'm running in the dark this barely leaves my wrist.

Worth every penny!!!
This watch is replacing my Swiss Army that I had for a few years and so far it is stellar. A lot of features for the money and with the price being so reasonable I'll probably purchased another one or two in different colors. I had a little trouble setting it up (not as intuitive as I think it should be), but when I called tech support they were great. If you're looking for a reasonable, reliable, stylish watch with loads of features, look no further.