I've got a bit of a watch fetish but tend to be loyal to one watch that I wear into the ground over years. My beloved Seiko was ruined after two decades of dependable service by an inept repairman, so I've been looking for a new everyday companion. Requirements: rugged, reliable, feature-rich, yet good-looking enough for everything ranging from outdoors activities to formal business meetings. Illumination. Dual-time capability, ideally with city-code time-zone selection. And gadgets... I love gadgets in my watch.

After a lot of semi-obsessive research including lurking here, I found what I was looking for in the titanium PAW1300T-7V. Previously I'd been attracted by the features and technology of Casio Pathfinders, Suuntos, etc, but put off by their bulk, clunky plastic looks, and the difficulty of getting replacement bands as needed after a few years' wear. Plus, most service technicians won't warrant the water resistance of a watch after a battery replacement, so a solar-powered movement was attractive.

The PAW1300 series is considerably slimmer than previous ABC (Altimeter-Barometer-Compass) Pathfinders and others such as Suunto, with no loss of functionality, thanks to clever design, and the titanium model's solid metal band should last pretty much forever. The watch's compass display is a good example of how Casio has managed the downsizing trick: the dual, overlaid LCDs that provide a cool but bulky compass solution in other Pathfinders is replaced in the PAW1300s with a radial tick-mark in the main LCD. Same functionality, half the thickness.

Observations:

o In my West Coast house, the atomic time update works every night even though I tend to wear the watch to bed. The instruction manual's advice to leave the watch on a windowsill so the nightly shortwave radio update from WWVB can be received isn't necessary for my home's lath-and-plaster construction. It was, however, necessary in a recent hotel stay, with thick concrete walls and steel framing. No worries, though: the watch is highly accurate even if it must miss the nightly updates for some reason. It's a digital quartz watch, so you can depend on it in any circumstance. The atomic updates just provide millisecond-class icing on the cake for crazy accuracy-obsessed people like me.

o The world time feature is essential to road warriors like me. It's very nice to be able to display the local time (selected by scrolling through major city codes) as well as the time back home, simultaneously on the same screen.

o The barometer is fantastic. It's like having your own weather station on your wrist. Love the mode with the baro graph visible at all times-- great for at-a-glance weather trend estimations.

o The altimeter works well, typically accurate to 100 feet or so, but read the manual so you understand how it works, how to use it, and how ambient conditions can impact its accuracy. Since it's based on barometric pressure, changes in the weather will affect its readings. In a climb or hike where you care about accuracy, take the extra few seconds to calibrate it against known waypoint elevations every once in a while. It's a ten-second process. Incidentally, the altimeter is a nice tool to evaluate airlines with. The lower the effective altitude in the cabin at cruise, the more the airline values your comfort and health.

o A review I've seen elsewhere that complains about the band being unable to go over a wetsuit sleeve is rather annoying. First, it's not a diver's watch. It's not marketed or specified for diving, and frankly I'd be concerned for the safety of any diver (and his companions!) who is so clueless about an essential piece of equipment. 100m water resistance is fine for swimming and snorkeling, but to repeat: it's not a diver's watch. And diver's watches generally have widely-adjustable rubber straps rather than size-and-forget metal straps, so gripes about the band are prima facie evidence of folks to avoid diving with.

o The solar battery recharge works great. (The solar cell is cleverly configured as a decorative ring around the display that provides a contrast to the tick-markings and alphanumeric labels that rim the display.) I've yet to see anything but maximum charge despite habitual playing with the watch's features and frequent use of the backlight.

o The compass works great too, quick and accurate. (Be sure to hold the watch level, and read the manual for greatest satisfaction.)

o Stopwatch, alarm and similar timing features generally work as expected.

o The thermometer works accurately if you leave the watch off your wrist for twenty minutes or more-- for example, next to your sleeping bag when camping so you can check the temp when you wake up. Its purpose really isn't to measure ambient conditions but to compensate the calibration of the pressure sensor, a tiny piezoresistive silicon element about the size of a grain of salt if you were to dig into the triple-sensor assembly. Piezoresistive sensors measure strain, such as the strain on a diaphragm due to air-pressure. But they have a thermal dependence, so the thermometer is mostly intended to monitor the watch's temperature on your wrist rather than the ambient air, and having it available as a readout is a bonus. If ambient temperature is important to you, take the watch off for a while.

o The button-activated backlight's duration is a bit brief, but made up for by the ability to trigger the backlight automatically just by tilting your wrist. This feature is easily enabled and disabled, too. I do wish the illumination button had a little pip or something on it to make it easier to locate in the dark. And a two-second illumination option, as found on other Casios, would be nice to have... but I suspect this was omitted as an engineering choice favoring battery life. Shrug.

o The buttons are easy to work and sensibly laid out.

o Comfort: excellent. The construction and materials are top-notch, with a nice finishing touches. It's a really good-looking watch, and not comically huge like most in this class. It has no trouble sliding under a shirt cuff... but you'll want it out, both for best solar charging and maybe, let's face it, to show it off just a little. It's a head-turner.

o The band uses an uncommon pin arrangement; be sure whoever sizes it to your wrist knows what they're doing. I suspect folks posting an occasional review here or there who have complained about pins falling out are the victims of clueless technicians who are unfamiliar with this type of pin-and-sleeve arrangement, also used by Seiko on some of its models.

o There are other clever engineering tricks that presumably aim to maximize life of a thinned battery. The display, for example, will go blank in the dark, then automagically come back on instantly if the room lights come on (and of course if you press the illumination button). You have to be quick to catch it blanked!

All in all, I'd give the watch a 10 out of 10. Nice work, Casio. The PAW1300 series is a world-class accomplishment.

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UPDATE: After two-and-a-half years of 'round-the-clock wear, the watch is still going strong.  I still have yet to see the battery dip below the maximum-charge level on its meter, and all functions and buttons continue to work flawlessly.  The watch still looks good, with no scratches on the crystal and just a few little character-marks elsewhere.  The band remains comfortable and solid.  Happy customer here.

UPDATE: Going on five years now and still flawless. And still the battery-charge meter has yet to dip below "High"!