Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1358 in Watches
• Brand: Casio
• Model: AWG101-1A
• Dimensions: 2.90" h x 3.30" w x 4.90" l, .35 pounds
• Band material: Resin
• Bezel material: Metal
• Case material: stainless-steel
• Clasp type: Buckle
• Dial color: grey
• Dial window material: Mineral
• Movement type: Quartz
• Water-resistant to 660 feet

Features

• 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
• Water resistant up to 660 feet (200 M)
• Water-resistant to 660 feet (200 M)

Amazon.com Product Description
Casio's Multi-Band Atomic watch for men is a high-tech timepiece designed for superior performance under a variety of conditions. Featuring a gray, brushed stainless steel case with gray dial, sporty, black plastic resin band, and a combination of analog timekeeping and digital stopwatch functions, this solar and battery-powered watch also offers accurate timekeeping for 28 time zones, water resistance to 660 feet, an LED backlight, a daily alarm function, a calendar function, and a power-saving option with battery power indicator.

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

Great looking analog style G-Shock!
Just got this watch two days ago for a great price and I am very impressed so far. I have a decent collection of watches and this is my first G-Shock. I had been looking awhile for a tough durable watch with atomic timekeeping and solar power, but never really found a G-Shock style that I was completely enamored with. I am a real fan of analog style watches so when I came across this watch I finally knew I found what I was looking for, and let me tell you this watch is even cooler in person. I highly recommend this watch for anyone looking for a analog style G-shock with all the features listed above. My only gripe albeit small, is that I wish it had better illumination at night for the digital dials.

Some great features, but ...
First, let me say that I've owned this watch for about six weeks. I bought it on Amazon for $103. after watching the price jump around between $98 and $130. My timing in the market should be so good.

Positives:
* This is truly a beautiful watch. Stylish, not gigantic like some, great band, and rugged.
* It is accurate. Because I live too far from Ft. Collins, CO, I had to set the watch manually. It hasn't varied by even one second.
* There is a certain wow factor in designating you time zone and watching the hands move automatically.
* The watch has a lot of features, most of them useful. I especially like having both a stopwatch and countdown timer.
* Instead of using the teeny included manual, you can download a PDF and actually see what you're reading.
* Never needing to replace the battery is a wonderful feature.

Negatives:
* As many reviewers have mentioned, the digital readouts are hard to see except in perfect lighting.
* Don't expect the illumination feature to do much good.
* The bottom digital window is worthless. Casio could have assigned a useful function.
* If you want to use a digital window, try not to do it when one of the hands is in the way. Oops, that's most of the time.
* I'll take an analog watch over digital any day. However, this one lacks a sweep second hand. This is something I didn't catch while researching this watch, and I must say I really miss it.

Bottom Line:
If you decide to purchase this product, prepare to read the manual and tinker with the watch for at least an hour. I love gadgets and figuring out these kinds of things. How about you??
I'm keeping the watch because the positives outweigh the negatives.

Overall Good, But Atomic Timekeeping a Bit Quirky
I've owned a Rolex Submariner for 11 years, but needed a second watch that was more durable, less likely to be stolen, and kept better time with more time keeping functionality. I also own several Seikos, but these are all sitting in a drawer with dead batteries as I do not wear these often. I liked the idea of a solar powered watch with no winding and no batteries to replace. I also liked the idea of atomic timesetting as I've owned a couple of self-setting atomic clocks that have worked well for me. After researching various brands, I decided on Casio. After researching the various models here on Amazon and on the Casio site, I decided on the Casio Men's G-Shock Waveceptor Multi-Band Atomic Solar Watch #AWG101-1A. Here is my review of the watch.

Construction: This is my first Casio, so it is my first G-Shock series watch as well. The construction is rugged. I'm well aware of the benefits of the sapphire crystal on my Rolex having owned it for 11 years without a break or scratch. This watch has a "mineral" crystal that is tougher than glass and it looks like it will resist scratches as well. The crystal is recessed in the watch face, protected by a ring of rubber (resin) and steel. The watch case, including its buttons, is further protected by rubber. The watch band is also made of rubber and seems durable. My only complaint about the construction is that the watch will not lay day flat, such as next to a computer for easy reading while working. Note that this watch is waterproof, but is not suitable for scuba diving at depth.

Usability: All of this protection means the watch face is relatively small as compared to the total watch case size. This along with the overall "busy-ness" of the watch face makes the analog time not the easiest to read. The small digital readouts are impossible to read at night and difficult to read indoors. This watch IS NOT backlit. It has an LED light that lights up the case allowing you to read the analog time at night. Also, the digital readouts are obscured at times by the watch hands. The buttons are large and easy to press. A half hour with the manual will allow you to work the timekeeping, stopwatch, world time, and countdown timer functionality. While not intuitive at first, it is not difficult to learn.

Solar Power: The watch has a rechargeable battery that is charged by a solar cell on the face of the watch that is not visible. It can be charged quickly with direct sunlight or slowly by ambient room light. I read someplace that a charge will last the watch 7 months, assuming the light and other functions are not accessed. This would be great if it needs to be stored for a while when not being worn. The rechargeable battery can only be replaced by a Seiko dealer, the expense of which is not known by me. The real test will be to see if the rechargeable battery can far outlast a regular watch battery. Perhaps I'll update this review in 10 years.

Atomic Timekeeping: The watch attempts to update itself several times during the night or can be updated manually from one of 5 radio sources (hence "Multi-Band") across the world. If you're in the continental U.S. this radio source is located in Colorado and has an effective range of 2000 miles. The other radio sources would only be needed if you were traveling far from home, say Europe or Asia. The watch needs to be placed where it can receive a strong signal at night in order for it to be updated with the correct time. This can be problematic as it has difficulty receiving a signal from within buildings, automobiles, etc. I live in Atlanta in a high-rise, so updating the time proved to be somewhat of a challenge.

The watch can show you the date and time that it was last able to successfully get the time from the radio source. When I first purchased the watch, it had been over 3 months since it received the time, which makes sense assuming the watch had been in inventory storage, transit, etc. and unable to receive a radio signal. A comparison of the watch's time via another atomic source showed that it was running about 15 seconds slow. My numerous attempts to manually update the time were unsuccessful. It was also unable to update itself from the top of my dresser the first two nights. A special insert in the manual listing suggestions told me that I wasn't the only one experiencing problems. Finally, after leaving the watch on my balcony overnight, the watch set itself and was now completely accurate with my other atomic time sources. As long as I can update it once a month or so, this difficulty in getting the time will not be an issue for me.

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. While not cheap at $100, I don't worry about this watch like I do my Rolex ($7,000). It's timekeeping is accurate and I do not have any concerns over the durability of the watch. I won't be using the timekeeping functions enough to worry about the small size of the readouts, but this would be a showstopper for me if I wanted a stopwatch for running etc. Perhaps the other color (I have the black face with white-on-black digital readouts) is easier to read.