Yay! It's watch review time!
Today we are looking at another Casio, the G-Shock Gravitymaster GWR-B1000-1A1.
Information about CASIO's watches & clocks.
www.casio-intl.com
This started out as an $850 watch then casio dropped it to $650 I think. Hooray for the eBay gray market, I was able to get mine brand new for $374.
I've had it for a few weeks now and I'm digging it. It's a big fella but thanks to all carbon it is only 72 grams, so very light.
Speaking of carbon, Casio introduced the "Carbon Core" line of watches last year. Basically it means that the movement in a carbon core instead of the usual stainless or resin. It's supposed to be tougher that way.
This one has a carbon core which is kinda matte then a carbon bezel that has been polished to look nice.
It also has a carbon fiber insert strap.
This is my third watch with the carbon insert strap and they must be doing something different because it is the most comfortable.
Another really cool part of this one is that it's one of the few Casios that is top loaded. Much like the Seiko Marinemaster, you can only access the internals through the top. Good thing it's also solar because that will def take a professional to access so I won't have to worry about it for at least 10-15 years.
It has an AR coated, domed sapphire crystal. This is my first Casio with AR coating and my first watch all together with a domed crystal so that's fun.
The lume is shockingly great and not just by normal crappy Casio lume standards. All the indicies are lumed along with the hands.
And the light is crazy bright. So bright that in a dark room it can act as a weak flashlight.
Most Casio solar analog watches I have use the whole watchface for the solar panel but this one only uses the three subdials as the panels.
Some of the features include a 24 stopwatch and countdown timer (this is my first chronograph) along with an alarm and dual timezone. It manages to get the 24 hour stopwatch and countdown because the third subdial is a tiny am/pm indicator. The countdown timer is really cool, when activated the second hand ticks backwards and it's fun to watch.
It also had bluetooth features. All the main functions can be adjusted using the crown or through the app. It has both multiband 6 and bluetooth to make sure it keeps the perfect time. Another thing it does well that drives me crazy with some quartz watches is that the second hand hits all the markers perfectly.
There are a few things I dislike and I start with the most annoying one...the band keeper. It's stainless and way too big. It won't stay in place. It was so annoying that I took it off and replaced it with a resen one I had on a different watch.
It also has this extra little piece at the top of both ends of the strap than aren't the best. The underside is great because they help the watch fit snugly on the wrist but part that says "triple G resist" in the pic I posted doesn't need to be there. And I don't think that part has the carbon insert.
Two features it's lacking are the chime on the hour which I miss and also it doesn't have a button press to shift the hands out of the way of the subdials. All my ana-digi Casios have that so it's another thing I miss.
Usually I like when the date indicator matches the color of the dial but in this case I like it in white cause it pops even as the deepest layer in the case that has many layers of depth.
So overall after a few weeks I am still enjoying this watch quite a bit and happy with the purchase.
