Since the watch also contains the Casio tough solar sensor, this means that this is a watch that you practically never need to worry about charging for the rest of your life. You simply need to wear it every few months or so in a lighted place. The solar battery will recharge using home light. To achieve this amazing feat, Casio engineers added power saving features that allows the watch to shutdown automatically and only wake up when used, so storing the watch for weeks on should be no problem.

Another greatly improved feature is the auto-light which only operates when the ambient light is low (e.g., at night). You simply need to flick your wrist and the ProTrek dial illuminates for a few seconds in a white, very visible light.

In addition to giving you survival features like current temperature, current barometric pressure and its change over time, as well as the current altimeter reading of where you are, the watch also contains various features common in the Casio lineup. In particular, it is water resistant to 100m, it has information on sunrise and sunset, can show 31 timezones, has five alarms, has a countdown timer as well as a stopwatch accurate to the 1/10 seconds, and has a perpetual calendar until the year 2099.

Finally, to wrap the whole thing into the true survivor watch, like previous Casio Pro Trek and Pathfinders, this watch will automatically and periodically connect to one of the atomic clock signals around the world and adjusts itself. This adjustment takes time and is best done while in the environment best suited for this watch, the outdoors.

For me, I’ve usually seen it get the atomic clock update while on my mountain biking commute to work where I usually take a three mile trek that is mostly uphill, thus a slow steady affair with no interruptions to the Pro Trek sensors which are facing the sky for the 15 or so minutes that it takes me to complete this grueling climb.

The new design also means that this version is simply the most comfortable Casio I have owned. Part of the comfort comes from its super light weight and since I use it for mountain biking, it does not weigh me down or hurt my wrist. This is important since the various vibrations and shocks that one goes through while mountain biking can mean that anything that is not tight on you will hit you at some point. If it’s heavy then you will feel it, believe me. This has never been an issue for me so far, even though I have a watch mount on my mountain bike exactly to help avoid this issue.

The Casio Pro Trek PRW3000-1A has a few alternative versions to the one I show here. There are two models with an orange band and a yellow accent band (PRW3000-4 and PRW3000-2). There is also the all-titanium version which is reference PRW3000T and both the PRW3000-1A, PRW3000- 2, and PRW3000-4 versions come in all black “military-style” models where the LCD display is a negative one. You can purchase these models at just under $300 USD with the titanium going for around $400 USD.

For this price range, I cannot recommend the new Pro Trek enough, especially if you are the outdoor type like me or want to be one. Be it hiking, camping, mountain biking, or simply loving to be outside. Besides a sensitive GPS, this might be the most important tool for any mountaineering activity.  www.casio.com

Necessary Data
>Brand: CASIO
>Model: Pro Trek PRW3000-1A
>Price: $300 MSRP
>Size: 47mm x 12mm (57mm lug to lug)
>Weight: 64 grams
>Would reviewer personally wear it: Yes, every time I go hiking or MTBing
>Friend we’d recommend it to first: anyone who loves to hike or wants to get outdoor more
>Worst characteristic of watch: 1) should have the moon phase and tides which was part of previous model, and 2) the atomic clock sync is not easy to get on first try. Need to try many times and practically does not work when near buildings
>Best characteristic of watch: slim, light weight, great tools, and easy to wear