Updated on December 7, 2013

Pros:
-- Never needs batteries
-- Durable
-- Automatically synchronizes to atomic clock in the United States
-- Very comfortable and light (although see below)
-- Moderately easy to switch time zones while traveling
-- Keeps excellent time
-- Water resistance has withstood numerous tests

Cons:
-- Second hand does't match up to hash marks well
-- Materials feel light and cheap
-- Mineral crystal watch face feels plasticky (but it's withstood scratches)
-- Lots of functions, but the user interface is awkward
-- Light doesn't illuminate the digital display brightly

During my initial review of this watch more than two years ago, I gave it three stars. At the time, I criticized the use of plastic and the watch face, expressing concern that it would be prone to scratching. My review, I think, reflected some disappointment after opening the box from Amazon and finding a very lightweight watch. In the time since I wrote that review, I have put the watch through monumental abuse, and it has never faltered. It's earned another star.

The watch has survived a year in Kosovo, a year in Afghanistan, several hundred showers, tens of thousands of miles of travel, swimming in salt water, sand, dust, shocks, bangs, drops, and sweat. It keeps on ticking, and it looks pretty good. Sure, there are a few nicks and scratches, and the band shows some signs of wear, but the crystal remains clean and clear. I expect this watch to survive another ten years without difficulty.

I think I underestimated at the time of my purchase how nice it is not to worry about changing batteries or winding the watch. The large solar face keeps a steady charge, and the battery has always indicated a full charge throughout my time with it.

I move a lot, and I travel a lot. I love that the watch allows you to cycle through a list of city-abbreviations to set the time zone when you're on the fly. It's a great convenience. However, even after more than two years of daily use, I find the user interface balky, and I often have to cycle through several of the buttons before I can get to the function for switching among time zones.

It's similarly difficult to "hand-set" the watch or to synchronize the sweep second hand with the seconds counter on the digital face. You can do it, but there's going to be a lot of trial and error unless you have the instruction manual at hand (and I lost the instruction manual a long, long time ago). I find frustrating, by the way, that the sweep second hand doesn't really match up with the hash marks on the watch face.

I've read that Casio has a watch that allows for automatic "atomic" synchronization with several broadcasting clocks around the world, including America, Asia, and Europe. This watch only synchronizes in the United States, and I have had no problems getting a signal on the East Coast. It'll sometimes miss synchronization if I wear it through the night (it usually synchronizes around 3am), but if it's on the nightstand, it always catches a signal. When I was overseas, it couldn't receive a synchronization signal, but it never lost more than a few seconds and would reset easily when I returned home for a visit.

The light on the watch is tepid and nowhere near as illuminating as the indiglo light on Timex watches.

The watch is large, but it wears very comfortably. Its light weight, while sometimes giving the impression of an absence of quality, makes it very easy to wear throughout a long day. The watch band has a nub on the strap that prevents the loose end from working its way out from under the fastener. It's a modest feature, but it's tremendously useful.

The watch isn't perfect, but it is durable and useful, and I've developed a very strong affection for it. No, it's not a heavy, fine piece of Swiss craftsmanship that you'll pass on to your children, but it is a well-designed, inexpensive time piece that you can wear with confidence in the most grueling conditions, and it looks pretty good.