Vibrating alarm; just what I need!
Written: Jan 22 '08 (Updated Feb 05 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Vibrating alarms, sunrise/sunset times, recessed crystal, five year battery life.
Cons: none so far
The Bottom Line: A great watch for the hearing impaired like me who can't hear the chirp from audible alarms, and for hunters and fishermen interested in sunrise/sunset and best times.
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| cartan's Full Review: Casio Forester PAS400B-5V Wrist Watch |
For an old guy like me with some hearing loss at the high end, the frequency that most alarms on digital watches chirp at, this watch, with the option to vibrate rather than chirp, is a God-send. This is the best feature of the watch, as far as I am concerned. The rest of the features are icing on the cake.
I like the display that shows the hour, minutes and seconds, as well as the date and day of the week in an orderly fashion. The moon phase is an added bonus. When first setting up this watch, there is a bit more to do than just setting the time and date. The time differential between one's home location and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) must be entered. For my area near Washington DC, it is -5 during Standard Time and -4 during DST. Los Angeles would be -8 PST and -7 PDT. This also indicates that the watch does not automatically switch between Standard Time and Daylight Saving time. (With all the changes Congress makes to the date for switching from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time and back, what manufacturer could make a watch with that programmed in?) When changing from Standard Time to DST, one must change both the time and the time differential from GMT to keep the calculations of the moon phase and sunrise/sunset times accurate.
After making these adjustments, a thin ring around the edge of the display flashes, indicating that the watch is recalculating sunrise, sunset and moon phase based on the new input. This happens for a few seconds, and then the ring, which represents 24 hours, returns to its previous state, showing either the amount of daylight (no color) and nightime (dark) with a blinking time indicator, or showing the best fishing times, as selected by the user.
Once the watch has been set up, the first push of the MODE button shows the time of day for the four positions of the moon; 1 = upper transit, 2 = west transit, 3 = lower transit, 4 = east transit. While in this mode, the display cycles once every two seconds and repeats. A second push of the MODE button shows the sunrise and sunset times. This is a feature I am happy to have on the watch as often I want to know what time it will get dark. Add about a half hour to the sunset time.
There is a feature on this watch that took me a while to understand and determine its usefulness. They call it the "Time Memo". What happens is when one pushes and holds a certain button, the watch records the time (month, day, hour, minute, second, moon phase and fishing level). If it is the first event of the day, it is labeled #1. Push and hold the button again on the same day and the time info is saved and labeled #2. Push and hold the button on the next day, and that event is labeled #1. The other event from the previous day labeled #1 is still retained. If one wants to review these "events", push the MODE button three times and the last event is shown. Push other buttons and one can scroll through the previous events. The manual suggest that one can use the Time Memo to record how many fish one catches (and know the exact time, etc.). I could use it to record how many times I curse out the other driver so when I go to confession I can give the priest an accurate number. Or I could record how many times during the day I pee to let my doctor decide if I have kidney problems. In any case, I'm sure I will find that the Time Memo is a useful feature.
The fourth push of the MODE button brings one to the settings for five alarms and the hourly time signal. Any of the five alarms can be set to vibrate or chime daily or on a specific day. It should be noted that individual alarms cannot be set to either vibrate OR chime. The setting to either vibrate or chime affects ALL alarms, but it can be easily changed with the push and hold of one of the buttons. The vibrate/alarm can be a great feature for a hearing person who wants to get up early (to go fishing or hunting) without waking up the wife. Wear the watch to bed and set it to vibrate.
With a fifth push of the MODE button, one gets to the stopwatch. Not practical for an official at a swim meet but good enough for Mom and Dad to get an idea of Jr.'s time in the breast stroke, splits and all. I might use the stopwatch feature to see how long I'm on hold when calling customer service.
From the timekeeping screen, one is able to set or disable an alarm that chirps or beeps during the peak fishing (or hunting) times. This is a feature I can't see myself using, because at the peak times, I want to BE THERE with a line in the water or up in the treestand. It's nice to have the information on the watch ahead of time so that I can get out on the lake or up in the tree, but having an alarm go off at the peak time is foolish. Unless I'm already up in the treestand sleeping and the alarm wakes me up. Or sleeping in the boat.
One real nice feature of this watch is that the crystal is recessed. This will help keeping the crystal from getting scratched. So many watches I have seen are packed with features but have a crystal that is flush with the top of the watch and scratch easily. After a short time, they start to look ratty. I'll take a slightly fatter looking watch with a recessed crystal any day over any watch, thick or thin, with a non-recessed crystal.
I had tried hard to find a digital watch with a metal band that clips around the wrist. That had limited my choices tremendously. But with the need for a watch with a vibrating alarm, I had to settle for this Pathfinder with a leather and fabric strap. I must admit that it appears to be substantial and is easier than I had thought to put on and take off.
I wouldn't even consider using the automatic backlight feature that turns the light on at the flick of the wrist. What an unintentional battery drain that could be! How much trouble is it to push the button at 6 o'clock? Even Casio recognizes that this feature sucks up too much battery and automatically disables it after six hours. To use it continually, one would have to reset it every day.
I am very pleased with this watch and will wonder if the battery lives up to the claim of five years. (However, the task of replacing the CR2025 looks easy).
With all due respect for the previous reviewer, unless the modules were changed, the PAS400B-5V (module 2632) shows only fishes, while the PAS410B-5V (module 2805) is the hunting watch, which shows animal tracks. However, the "best times" that are calculated based on the moon phases are identical for both hunting and fishing. There is no requirement or capability of adding an altimeter setting into the watch, just the time differential from GMT at the user's location as well as longitude and latitude.
Update 2/5/08 Just a few notes after two weeks of use. No countdown timer, a typical complaint of many. This watch has gained less than two seconds in the two weeks when comparing the time to Internet time via NIST. On the timekeeping display, I like the Day of the Week on the top, the time with hours, minutes and seconds in the middle and the date on the bottom, but would prefer the date in the format mm/dd/yy rather than yy/mm/dd. No way to change that, a very minor annoyance. But I still would not change my overall high rating for this watch. No scratches on the crystal yet!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cartan
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Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 3 members
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