Casio Pathfinder

I really prefer mechanical watches (you can click the "watch" label at the bottom of this post to see some of my previous watch posts.) But I recently had to take my Omega in because it stopped. Mechanical watches are, relatively speaking, fragile. What makes them fascinating to me, the working of tiny gears and springs, is also their weak point when it comes to toughness.

So I decided to get a Casio Pathfinder. This is a digital multifunction watch. I'm replacing the Suunto Vector I've had for five or six years.

The Vector is a great watch, but it's beat up and it's huge. I can't wear it, I just hang it from my web gear. Casio came out with a couple of new models of its Pathfinder line that are smaller in size and more wearable. The reason these are so big is that they are combine time and an altimeter, barometer and compass, called an ABC watch.

With these watches you have to pick your priorities. If you want the best ABC functions, you go with a Suunto, a Highgear or, suprisingly, the Timex WS4. But for me the ABC functions are secondary.
My priorities are:
Chronograph (stopwatch) functions, for crossfit and running.
Multiple time zones, since I'm going to be far, far away.
Day of the week display. I can never keep track of the day of the week in the field.
Alarms, for wake ups, meetings, etc...

Now since I'm not a big fan of digital watches, I want to get as much bang for my buck as possible. That's why I like the ABC watches. They have all the functions mentioned, plus more!

The altimeter function isn't huge for me. These are not all that accurate, although some are really pretty good, based on the reviews I've gone through. More important to me is the barometer. This shows the trend of barometric pressure over a period of time. If the trend is rising, good weather is coming. If the trend is falling, bad weather is coming. I made a habit of checking my Vector before bed and again in the moring to have an idea of what weather to expect.

Then the compass. Why not? Useful to orient a map, decide which direction to angle a shade tarp (the south side.)

So which watch to choose? Only one choice really. The Casio Pathfinder (PAW 1300) has the right combination of features, in the right priority for me. The stopwatch is easy to use, it displays a second timezone with one button push, has 5 alarms, has the barometric pressure trend line, and the day of the week. It also is made to stand up to abuse.

To top it off, it's solar powered. More specifically, it has a battery that is charged by light. So no worries about changing batteries in Afghanistan. (Though to be fair, many of these watches have batteries that are easy to change. You open them up with a quarter.)

This Pathfinder also syncs with atomic clocks regularly, if you are in range. I don't expect to be in range, but I'm not too worried about the time getting out of sync.

Here's a pic.