When you’re out and about, whether hiking or just exploring the great outdoors, there are quite a few essentials. Welcome to Jimmy B’s Guide to Casio, and today you’ll be learning about one such watch that not only has the basics covered, but is one of the go to watches for the pros. In case the title didn’t give it away, I’m talking about the Casio ProTrek PRW6000Y-1D.

The latest in the popular ProTrek series, this watch is tough, from the strap to the functions. It uses the next generation of Resin Bands and adds carbon fibres to it, so that it’s practically impossible to rip, no matter what conditions you’re in.

The display is protected by a mineral glass, which is hard to scratch and should keep it safe when you’re buffeted by winds or falling over due to obstacles (or inebriation, but I’m not here to judge).

Now, while this is technically considered an analogue/digital watch, this model is 90% analogue based, reserving the digital display for the many sensors. You can still use it for time keeping of course, but just thought you should know that’s not all the digital display is there for.

The Protrek technically has two compasses. There’s the one that uses your analogue arrows as the bearing, and then it also shows up on your digital display, which I personally think is great since it’s sometimes hard to tell whether you’re going north west, south east, or so many other directions. Plus it also has a bearing memory, which means it saves the last few directions you were going in, and you can tell whether you’re heading the right way.

If you’re climbing mountains, there are two major features you need. Firstly is the Altimeter. Again this is where the digital display shines. It will tell your altitude in meters and feet. Since it also comes with a barometer, it can help you cope with any drops in atmospheric pressure, so you can be ready for anything (which if you’re a mountain climber can save your life!)

The other important feature to have is a thermometer. If your trip takes a few days, you need to know how much to get rugged up and what to leave in your bag. The thermometer has a range of between

-10oc to 60o

Also vital to your success, and sometimes your survival when you’re climbing mountains, is to keep track of exactly how high and far you’ve gone. It’s also useful to know if you have to document it. Well the ProTrek doesn’t let you down in this regard either! Just like the compass remembers your bearings, the watch logs exactly how high you’ve climbed, your accumulated ascent and descent, as well as your highest and lowest altitudes. You can save up to 30 records, which will also include the date and time of each measurement.

The digital display, as you can probably tell, plays a very important role, so it can be annoying when the arrows keep getting in the way. That’s no longer an issue because the ProTrek comes with a feature which moves the hands out of the way for a small amount of time, letting you get your bearings before moving the hands back exactly where they were.

Because the watch is made for exploring, Casio didn’t want you to have to worry about battery power, so this watch is solar powered. Chances are you’ll have your watch exposed to the light at some point while running, biking, hiking or climbing!

Now, as you know it wouldn’t be a review without the negatives, and I’m happy to say there’s not many. One of the biggest issues though is with the thermometer. You see, to make sure it’s accurate you need to take it off your wrist (otherwise your body temperature interferes with it. Since the watch is mostly black, that means you need to at least put it somewhere that’s easy to find, or you might have a very hard time (I speak from experience, since I have a black mobile phone)!

Other than that, the only issue is that there are too many functions for newbies. It may get quite confusing the first week or so, but you’ll get the hang of it quite easily.

I hope this was informative.

 

Until Next Time!

 

Jimmy B.