Casio G-Shock Watch (AWG-101-1AER)

Similar Products Owned

• Timex Boys Analogue
• Casio LCD Digital
• Tissot Self Winding Analogue
• Puslar Analogue
• Swatch (Black)
• Accurist Analogue
• Rolex Submariner (Hong Kong Fake, Seiko movement apparently)
• Casio Digital (Various)
• Tag Heur 1500

Reason For Purchase

In 1994 I bought a Tag Heur 1500 series watch, after a Royal Marine colleague explain why he had bought one and how pleased he was with it. As he had been through SAS selection I reckoned that he probably expected more from a watch than I ever would, so I parted with £450 cash. For about 10 years it has been outstanding, consistently gaining only a second a week, until it needed servicing about three years ago and has not been right since. This year I finally tired of it needing a service every 12 months and being away for 2 months, paying £125 - £140 for the privilege. I also lost patience when the strap needed repairing or replacing, but that is another story.

I bought a Seiko watch for my wife some time ago for around £100 and this has kept perfect time, whereas my Tag has started to lose anything from a few seconds to a few hours a day. I did some Googling to see what I could expect as far as accuracy was concerned, having heard from my brother that his Rolex dealer suggested that he should be happy with his Submariner being only accurate to +/- 10 seconds a day. This was because it was a precision instrument! I learnt a great deal from the Time Zone web site and have decided that I have been had. My new definition of a good watch is one that just works. Prestige brands simply mean that you can afford the problems they bring with them. Hardly a cachet worth paying for.

More Googling resulted in me considering two models; a Seiko Kinetic Diver’s Watch and a Casio Radio Controlled Solar G-Shock. They both met my requirements which were:

• Accurate
• Require Minimal Maintenance
• Robust
• Analogue
• Waterproof (Various water sports, snorkelling being the deepest)
• Fit under a suit shirt (double) cuff
• Visible at night
• Subtle

I found that H Samuels had the two models I wanted so I tried them on there, to find that as I suspected, the Seiko would not fit under my cuff (and was also a little bling for my liking) so the Casio won. I bought it for £99.99, encouraged by the sales assistant telling me that The Gadget Show had recently run a test where a G-Shock was used as an ice hockey puck an performed well. Click the Play button to watch it.


This sounded the sort of durability I was after. Previous Googling had revealed that whilst some sites listed my model for £84.99 they were not clear whether the model was actually in stock. I parted with the cash for an AWG-101-1AER and you can find the technical specification on the Casio UK web site here.

First Impressions

• Setup was as per the instructions, which I went through even though it was set to London, The Rugby transmitter and therefore the correct time.
• The Date shows 1.29 to show January 29th American style rather than 29.1 to show 29th January correctly.
• The moulded rubber strap, which it looks hard to change, can be either a little loose or a little tight.
• The time is second perfect.
• It looks quite subtle by comparison to many watches.
Summary I found this video of what G-Shocks can stand up to. There are lots more on YouTube. Very pleased so far but early days yet and I have my first game of squash in it tonight – though I will be using a ball.

Update

After 2 years of ownership here's what I think:

The Good

Time always spot on

Robust

Still looks good (IMHO)

The Bad

Changing the time is not intuitive - rememebr to take the manual on holiday to say Egypt!!

Hands obscure the left & right digital displays at times.

You can't read the digital displays in the dark

Overall I like it - everlasting battery free accuracy outweighs the visibility issues.

Reciprocal Links: http://www.reviewcentre.com/review317149.html