I needed a cheap watch for hiking and backpacking. For this use I could care less about looks, I wanted some basic funtionality at a price that wouldn't bother me if it got banged up or broken. This watch definitely fits the bill.

I don't think we are supposed to mention price on here, so I won't, but let's put it this way: it was cheaper for me to purchase this watch than it would have been to replace the battery in my old hiking watch. No brainer.

This Casio has the main 4 features I needed: gives the time (duh), has a lighted dial, has an alarm, and is waterproof for recreational uses. Also wanted something lightweight and not too big and not a metal band. This watch certainly does all that.

The light, as others have mentioned, is not a backlight "glow" that illuminates the whole face evenly, it is a tiny yellowish lightbulb on the side of the face, shines across the face. Not as easy to see as the backlight would be, but it's functional. The light goes off automatically after 1.5 seconds, you can go into the menu and change that time to 3 seconds if you want it to stay on longer each time.

The alarm is not very loud and is a very high-pitched chirp. This is bad for me as I have hearing loss, particularly in high frequencies. But it is about all I would expect an alarm to sound like from a bottom-budget product. I can only hear the alarm in one ear, and that is only if my arm is close to my ear, but that is my hearing loss, others might hear this alarm just fine.

Other nice features are the chronograph/stopwatch, dual time mode, and 10-year battery (although the manual tells you those 10 years are drastically shortened by using the lighted dial).

The band is a plastic/polymer that feels a bit like rubber, it's lightweight.

One other thing I like about this watch that may be important to you is the size of the watch body and face. This watch is relatively small, which I like for hiking. There are many other digital watches out there that have much larger dials. The displays on these will be a bit larger, which may be better for you, I don't find the display on this Casio too small at all. Numbers for the main time display on this watch are about 1/4" high.