This is certainly something for that special person in your life. It is a watch but that is rather like saying one of Turners masterpieces is a painting. A watch tells the time, so does this, however there is more ....
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When I removed it from it's case I was
somewhat surprised to find the time and date were exactly correct. The
dial is both analogue and digital. It has a conventional dial
with a sweep second hand and towards the base (space between 5 and 7)
is a 13x5mm digital display that by default shows the day and date, but can show a lot more.
The
watch itself although smart does not look flashy. The case is titanium
but it could be stainless steel. The linked strap could also be
stainless steel but again it is titanium, it was far to big for my
wrist so I suspect it will be big enough even for someone with massive
wrists. Up to six of the 12 links can be removed to get it to the
correct size.
There are four buttons beside the
hours of 2, 4, 8 and 10, there is no winder, it has a battery but it is
solar powered. If you place it in a darkened room or box for a
prolonged period the digital part will become blank after a set period
and after another longer period the hands stop going round. Bring it
back into light and it will set itself by default from the Rugby time
signal but if you prefer European time it can be set from Mainflingen.
In fact it can calibrate itself up to 1000kilometres from the signal.
The watch requires around five minutes of strong outdoor sunlight to
charge it for five months. A sunny window ledge (inside) around 24
minutes, while a cloudy day 48 minutes and exposure to a fluorescent
light for eight hours all charge it for those same five months. Here
the manual is confusing as in another place it says there is a series
of four stages, however even if the figures above need to be multiplied
by four they are still impressive.
You set your own home city (London by
default) but most of Europe is possible. It has a world time mode for
30 different cities. You can set up to three different alarms in a
single day. It has a stopwatch that can work up to 99 hours 59 minutes
and 59 seconds. It can measure elapsed time, split times and two finish
times, times can be shown precise up to one hundredth of a second.
The watch has a tiny 8x5cm manual with
small writing and hundreds of pages. The first seventy six cover
English. Everything I have described and a lot more are controlled from
the four buttons on the side of the watch so do not lose the manual.
As stated this is an expensive watch
however - and this may be a bonus - it does not look it. A lot of
people who have a good deal of money do not flash it about and if a
watch shouted 'I am expensive' then it could attract attention from
unwanted areas.
Do not get me wrong by no means does it
look cheap or tacky if someone wanted to give it to me I would be
perfectly happy to get it. Now the bit you all want to know the price,
the stated price is a penny under £250.
Link : http://www.casio.co.uk/timepiece/frames.asp?page=products&ShowProd=WVA-420TDU&brand=11&subsubcategory=
!!
Comment by Paul, 3 May 2009 16:30
The manual is a bit confusing but reading it carefully reveals the figures of 5 minutes in strong outdoor light etc is the time needed to charge it for one days normal operation. The next table shows the time it takes to fully charge the battery from one stage to the next.