Casio Men’s GW5600J-1 G-Shock Atomic Tough Solar Watch
- Quality Japanese-quartz movement
- Tough Solar Power; shock Resistant; auto EL backlight with Afterglow
- World Time – 29 times zones (30 cities), city code display, daylight saving on/off
- Rugged case and strap made of resin
- Water-resistant to 660 feet (200 M)
Amazon.com Product Description
This Casio G-Shock watch is a highly accurate and durable digital timepiece perfect for travelers, adventurers, or anyone looking for a multi-function, rough-and-ready watch. Featuring atomic timekeeping, the watch automatically sets using radio signals to ensure perfect time accuracy. Charged by solar power, the battery can last up to eight months on a full charge without further exposure to light. The screen indicates the battery level, and the watch comes with a power saving function. Ideal for world travelers or international calls, the watch can be set for 29 time zones (30 cities), with or without daylight savings, and comes with a city code display so you know where you are. The watch also features four daily alarms and one snooze alarm, a countdown timer, a 1/100 second stopwatch, hourly time signals, and an automatic calendar pre-programmed through 2099. The octagonal bezel of dark gray resin gives the watch a distinctive look, and the octagonal digital display window offers an automatic EL backlight with afterglow for easy night reading. The rugged band and case are also made of resin. The watch is designed for enhanced shock resistance, is water resistant up to 660 feet (200 meters).
Casio Men’s GW5600J-1 G-Shock Atomic Tough Solar Watch
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Tags: Atomic, Casio, GShock, GW5600J1, Men's, Solar, Tough, Watch
June 25th, 2010 at 3:46 am
Way back in 1982, I bought one of the first Casio 5000 models. It was incredibly accurate, easy to use, had a countdown timer (which I used a lot) and seemed set to last for ever. In 1988 I crashed my motorcycle, and smashed the crystal on my watch. I threw it in a drawer, bought a new cheap casio (with less functions) and carried on. 3 years later I found the smashed one in the back of the drawer. It was still working and only wrong by 15 seconds! I’ve had various other watches since then, (really missed the countdown timer), but the Casio G-shocks were all way too thick to suit me. I really fancied the new Solar Powered and Atomic Clock synced Casios, but they were still too thick (and didn’t have a countdown timer).
Then I found the GW5600J. Based on the old 5000 series, Atomic, Solar Powered, 5 alarms and a countdown timer, full backlight. And the same style and thickness as my old 5000! Not thin, but not ridiculous either.
I’ve had it a week now, I love it, I expect it to last the rest of my life (this sucker is tough), and neat, clear, easy to use and accurate!
If you like digital watches (as opposed to analog), this is the one.
Rating: 5 / 5
June 25th, 2010 at 5:45 am
Multi-Band (US and Japan), Solar, G-Shock, World Time, and great retro looks makes this a great watch.
I’ve been looking for an Atomic Solar watch for some time and it appears that everything in the market is just too fancy for me….many atomic solar watches are gigantic, others have compasses, barometers, thermometers etc and although those functionalities are great….
sometimes, most of the time, during weekends – when going hiking etc — many features needed in a great outdoors watch are unnecessary at the pool, mall, movies, bookstore etc.
The 5600 has all the right features:
1) solar (8month power reserve on one charge)
2) atomic (two zones US and Japan)
3) power saving mode
4) back light (the good backlight that makes the whole display glow)
5) world time (29 cities)
6) easy setup of two time zones
7) stopwatch
8) countdown timer
9) g-shock — very tough
10) waterproof to 200meters (good for scuba diving or the pool)
11) replaceable band
12) multiple alarms
13) Auto sync with atomic or manual sync
14) Manual time set (calenar to 2099–I’ll be dead by then so that works I think)
On the con side, this watch is a bit big but for some reason its not overpowering on the wrist even for midsize guys — it looks like it belongs there….big but not huge and definitely not small.
In its basic mode it tells:
1) time (hours minutes seconds)
2) day or month/date
3) pm (or 12/24 hour time zone and whether you’re in daylight savings time)
4) how much battery you have
5) whether it has signal from the atomic time sync
Overall, I feel comfortable wearing this watch and don’t feel like I’m wearing a supercomputer on my wrist. It certainly won’t impress anyone but it does what its supposed to to: tell time accurately without replacing batteries and without worry that it’ll get banged up against something.
This is a great watch. I owned one like it in the 80s and am very glad they updated it with modern technology while keeping the core aspects of it the same. I got from mytimepiece on Amazon (quick delivery and exactly as promised — great store).
Only hard thing was going through the extremely wide selection of great Casio watches to find this one. I’m sure I’ll get a Pathfinder at some point to go hiking etc and feel like I can survive in the wild with just it and a knife (and to keep up with the joneses) but for the mall, supermarket, pool, backyard, and for treks through Cambodia, Africa, Asia — this will be my go-to watch probably for the next 10 years.
Rating: 5 / 5
June 25th, 2010 at 7:58 am
This is a solid, well-built watch. Had I purchased it alone I would have loved it. The problem is that I had ordered two versions at the same time to decide which one I liked better. I got this one and the non-solar, non-atomic, 1987-tech DW-5600E at the same time to compare.
Features the J has that the E doesn’t have:
Solar power
Atomic time updates
Multiple alarms & snooze alarm
World time
Auto backlight on when raising your wrist in the dark
Features the E has that the J doesn’t have:
Day & date displayed simultaneously on main screen
Countdown timer adjustable to seconds (instead of minutes as on the J model)
Alarm can be set for a specific time, day or month, or any recurring combination of the two
Smaller footprint for both wrist area and height
Time is visible in all screens except alarm set
The bottom line here is that the DW5600-E does the basic task of a timepiece better: it tells you the time, day, and date more easily and with less hassle than the newer model. There is no selecting the home city, putting your watch at a certain position in the window at night, worrying about charging up the battery, and all the techno-tasks related to a supposedly maintenance-free watch.
The fidelity of setting seconds on the countdown timer is crucial for fitness use (a minute is forever when doing something physically challenging…), or photography (I still develop film and 15 seconds can mean overdevelopment…), or cooking, scientific experiments, etc.
The 5600-E is lighter, smaller, and more comfortable to wear. The size difference may not seem like a lot on the spec sheet but the difference is tangible in practice. I like a slim, low profile watch and the 5600-E wins in this area.
It’s also about half the price. The batteries on these things last ten years; if you spend the extra dough on the solar model it will take you the rest of your life to make up the cost difference. Also, the accuracy of these watches is great – you may get out of synch by about a minute per year, something you can adjust when you switch back & forth from DST. Neither solar nor atomic is a compelling reason to spend twice the money.
New in this case doesn’t mean better. Unless you’re a frequent traveler with world time being a prime consideration, or have a need for four daily alarms, the older 5600-E does the job of telling time easier and more affordably.
Rating: 3 / 5
June 25th, 2010 at 10:11 am
I really like this watch. It has all of the standard ‘toughness’ you expect from a Casio G-Shock: 200m Water Resistant, Shock Resist, tough plastic casing, quartz movement accuracy, stopwatch, alarm, backlight, etc. It is also a “Tough Solar” (solar powered watch- needs no battery changes), and a “WaveCepter” (syncs with atomic clocks for total accuracy). Please see the main watch page or other reviews for all of the watch features- they’ve already been listed here, so I’ll just elaborate on my favorite features with this watch.
Looks wise- It is another in the line of the classic G-Shock looking 5600 series (the two previous ones, the 5600C and 5600E are approved by NASA to fly on the Space Shuttle! This watch is probably too new for that rating yet.) In my opinion the 5600 series is the most subtle of all the G-Shocks. That is important for me since I wear this watch more than any other watch I own, and I want a tough watch that I won’t damage being my normal active me, but I also want it to slide under my shirtsleeve if I’m at work so I won’t look like ‘office Rambo’ with my superwatch!
In my opinion, what really makes this watch great is that you can strap it on your wrist, and just forget about anything having to do with the watch except for having it tell you the info you bought it for. That means: Don’t worry if you get caught in the rain or you want to go swimming- it’s waterproof enough to scuba dive with. Don’t worry if you have a very active or athletic lifestyle- it’s shock proof. Don’t worry about batteries- it’s solar recharged. Don’t worry about it being incorrect- it syncs itself to an atomic clock! It adjusts the month/day of year, Daylight Savings Time, you name it.
The Casio engineers get big kudos from me- they added the tough solar and waveceptor features to this watch without detracting functionality from it. The solar cell is completely unobtrusive- it doesn’t cut down the display size of the watch one bit, and is not really noticeable when looking at the watch unless you know it is a solar watch and you look for the solar panel, which is completely integrated into the display of the watch. The solar design includes a rechargable battery- so it’s not like the watch will shutdown if it doesn’t get any light- it can go for weeks if not months in powersave mode, which is initiated automatically. But as long as the watch gets exposure to light (sunlight is the best, but normal house lighting works too) the watch will keep trucking. As for the waveceptor feature- When I place my watch by a west or south facing window, it syncs every night. Even if the watch was unable to sync, it has a quartz movement, so it wouldn’t be off by more then a few seconds a month anyways. I had the opportunity to place two waveceptors next to each other, and then sync them both. After the sync, both watches were lock-step synchronized to the NIST standard time, down to the exact second!
In conclusion, I honestly think that for the price, this is possibly the best value for your money if you are looking for a reliable, accurate, go-anywhere kinda watch. I also think that it is great looking for the type of watch that it is.
Rating: 5 / 5
June 25th, 2010 at 11:01 am
This watch maintains modern digital functionality with a very retro look. All the features Casio built into this module are very useful and it is definately very tough. The atomic synchronization feature works like a charm so you know you always have the Exact time. Also, the ‘Tough Solar’ attributes make this watch a very smart buy because you never have to replace the rechargeable battery (supposedly). I’d recommend this watch for those of you that want something very durable and functional as their daily ‘beater’ watch or as an everyday timepiece with a retro look.
Rating: 5 / 5