Great watch with a serious flaw
Written: Aug 26 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Accurate, easily kept accurate, long battery life, nice styling
Cons: Crystal scratches easily, buttons stiff, alarm chirp inaudible for those with high frequency hearing loss
The Bottom Line: Nice watch for those who insist on accuracy as long as they are aware of the potential for the crystal to get scratched. Perhaps a screen protector is necessary.
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| cartan's Full Review: Casio WV58 Wave Ceptor Atomic Watch |
The crystal on my Timex Ironman watch was scratched noticeably and I was looking for a nice, accurate,
digital watch with a metal wrist band. I didn't need a lot of extra functions since my cell phone has replaced the need for data storage that I had with my Ironman.
The Casio Waveceptor WV58DA-1AV caught my eye and at $38 (WalMart), it seemed to be a good buy. Since I was on vacation, I had plenty of time to play with this new toy, read the relatively thick instruction manual, and test out the calibration signal reception from Ft. Collins, Colorado.
My first challenge with the watch was adjusting the band to fit my wrist. There were no instructions in the
manual regarding the band, and I almost gave up trying to remove the three links that were necessary to allow the band to fit properly. On my Ironman, it was obvious that round pins had to be pushed out to remove the links. I finally discovered that flat, "L" (el) shaped pins kept the links together, and on the inside of the band, each pin had a dimple which kept it in place. The dimple was forced to the outside and then the flat pin could be grabbed by the bottom of the "L" and pulled out. Once that little trick was discovered, it was easy to remove the three links and reconnect the band cleanly.
The watch was already set to the proper time, date and time zone. Instructions were clear on making any changes. It was interesting to read that while the accuracy of this watch without time signal updates was
+/- 20 seconds per month, the time update feature could be turned off or left on if so desired. The estimated battery life was 2 years with the time calibration left on all the time and with one use of the alarm and backlight per day. While the instruction manual admonishes one to take the watch to an authorized Casio dealer for battery replacement, IMHO, one equipped with a jeweler's screwdriver and a clean place to work (in case of a dropped screw) could easily remove the four screws holding the back on, and replace the battery.
The buttons on the side of the watch seemed a bit insensitive, and had to be pressed firmly to perform their assigned functions. Since I rarely use the watch as an alarm, stopwatch or countdown timer, it wasn't important to me. As a matter of fact, I have a hearing loss at the frequency of the chirp of the alarm, and cannot hear it unless I put the watch right next to my ear. It is the same frequency that most watches have, and for that reason, the alarm and countdown timer are useless to me. Again, my cellphone serves the purpose as an alarm.
In the Eastern Time Zone, Ft. Collins generates a time signal at midnight, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 a.m. By placing
the watch near a window and away from metal, with the 12 pointing outward, the watch is set to be recalibrated if so enabled on the settings. Once the watch receives a calibration signal, it no longer attempts to be recalibrated that day. The day and time of the last calibration is stored in the watch. When I got the watch, the calibration was turned on, but the watch had not been calibrated for a month, most likely because it had been in the display case at WalMart, far from any time calibration signal. I set the watch near the window, surrounded by metal, inside a travel trailer at our campsite. Hardly ideal conditions to recalibrate the watch. However, in the morning, I found that the watch had been recalibrated
on the first attempt, at 12:04 a.m. On the second night, same placement of the watch, no calibration had occurred when I woke at 4:45 a.m. I put the watch outside and it was calibrated with the 5 a.m. signal.
The instruction manual states that when the watch receives a time signal, the accuracy is +/- 1 second due to the nature of the electronics. Close enough. And at +/- 20 seconds per month, the accuracy of the watch is better than +/- another second during the day giving the overall accuracy better than +/- 2 seconds if calibrated daily. I wondered how this compares with my Timex Ironman that can be calibrated to my home computer once the computer is calibrated to time.windows or NIST. Which is better; calibrating a watch on the home computer when I want to, or overnight by the window? Is two seconds really that critical?
The Casio Waveceptor suffers from the same design flaw that my Ironman has. The crystal scratches easily since there is no protective ring elevated above the crystal to protect it. No matter how careful I was in the first few days I had this watch, I managed to put some fine, annoying scratches across the face of the watch. They could not be seen while directly looking at the watch, but when the watch was held at an angle to incoming light, were very noticeable. And very disappointing. I consider this a serious design flaw in an otherwise nice looking, accurate watch.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
cartan
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Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 3 members
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