Casio G-Shock Solar Powered Watch Review

Back in April, I was having a run of bad luck with watch batteries dying on me. To make matters worse, as my readers would know, I was leaving on 2 back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean. Knowing what the time is can be particularly important on a cruise. You've got to be back to the ship by a certain time otherwise the ship might leave without you and, you'll have the hassle of trying to catch up with the ship and your stuff.

Initially, I planned on buying another one of Royal Caribbean's cheap electric pocket watches. They cost around $25 I think and make a nice souvenir of the ship as they have the ship's name on them as well as metallic drawing of a ship on the outside cover of the watch. However, I couldn't find one of those though later to my annoyance, the staff found some and put them out. Grrrrrr!!!!!!!

So, I checked out the fancy watch shop each ship has. In my Platinum discount booklet, I had a coupon for 10% off which I figured would help some though the watches in the watch shop tended to be pricey - $400 and up!!!!!! I know about Citizens automatic watches which sounded nice as you never have to replace batteries with them. With the battery problem I'd had, I decided to look for 1 of those. I found those all right but wasn't wowed by them though their prices got my attention. The saleslady mentioned some solar powered watches. I didn't know they made such things. I looked them over really well and settled on a Casio GW-7900B model.

The watch has a number of features. It gives a tide time table which to be honest I didn't need and don't know anyone who would need it. It has a night light function, stopwatch function, alarm function, a second time function, a moon phase display (I don't need to worry about the moon either) as well as a way to be updated from various Atomic clocks around the world. The biggest plus about the watch is that you won't have to mess with batteries though in time, you will have to replace the solar cell on it. Another plus in my opinion is the watch is cheaper than automatic watches. The watch retails for $150 though I was able to get 10% off on the ship. I bought the one with a black wristband and, I've been using it continuously since. Lastly, the watch is water resistant to 20 BAR (whatever that is). So, you don't have to worry about water hurting the thing though I don't think you can take it scuba diving.

I've been very pleased with the thing barring having to place it on my room's window ledge at night so, it can pick up the atomic clock signal so, it can stay accurate. The watch has a indicator that tells you if it has picked up the signal or not. The small booklet that comes with the watch tells where the various places are that the watch can get its time recalibrated from.

I don't have any idea how long the watch's solar cell will work though I suspect by the time it starts to wear out, I'll be ready for a new watch. One thing you do have to make sure is the watch gets enough sunlight to stay charged. The watch has an indicator that tells you if it has a low - medium or high charge. Supposedly, the watch will run for 9 months without any sunlight off 1 full charge. I make it a point that it is exposed to as much sunlight during the day as I can. If the watch runs down, supposedly it'll stop operating certain functions until it gets more fully charged (so said the booklet that came with it).

I would definitely recommend this watch if you don't watch to mess with replacing watch batteries or just want a cool watch. I've been very pleased with mine.