Solar powered watches

Joe13 · Feb 6, 2020

Tarawa86 said:
It's been a bit of an tough decision for sure after reading the suggestions in this thread. I decided to go with the Casio Pro Trek PRW2500T, but those Citizen Eco-Drive models made the choice pretty hard. The nice thing is I can pretty much get the watch for free if I have a bit of patience and use my Amazon Rewards credit card for my reimbursable travel spend for work and build up points. In the meantime I've revived 3 of my old watches that I let the batteries die out on and haven't worn in awhile. I'd forgotten how much I liked wearing the G-Shock and Bulova Marine Star. I'm surprised my old Suunto Vector from like 2001 still works after sitting in a drawer for years.

View attachment 655668

Sounds like you already have a plan but thought I'd add this:

This is my everyday wear, nothing super fancy and was given to me by my dad. Its a Citizen eco drive and works great.

However it isn't a 'dress' watch after being a daily wear so this thread got me perusing solar watches and I saw a Seiko SSC139 and I was really drawn to it. I have a weakness for Gunmetal and stainless so I really wanted it but couldn't quite justify the $350ish +.

Purely on a whim I did a quick CL search for solar watches and 2 showed up. A g-shock (which I really like and have a cheap one for when I'm in the boonies) and an 'as new, never worn' Seiko ssc139 for less then half of a new ones price.

So I couldn't pass it up....

Verified it was in mint condition and had it resized for free at Fred Myers.

I'm a very happy camper now

.

I know that's a rare case, I did see a couple other watches on CL after getting mine. Just something to possibly look at.

RicInOR · Feb 6, 2020

Joe13 said:
I'm a very happy camper now .

Very pretty. I normally don't like metal bracelets, that is a good looking one.

Medic! · Feb 6, 2020

Beautiful watch Joe.

Heywood · Feb 6, 2020

Im gonna go ahead and be that jackass that disregards what you want and tell you to get a high quality automatic before i read all the replies.

Tarawa86 · Feb 6, 2020

Joe13 said:
Sounds like you already have a plan but thought I'd add this:

This is my everyday wear, nothing super fancy and was given to me by my dad. Its a Citizen eco drive and works great.

View attachment 657409

However it isn't a 'dress' watch after being a daily wear so this thread got me perusing solar watches and I saw a Seiko SSC139 and I was really drawn to it. I have a weakness for Gunmetal and stainless so I really wanted it but couldn't quite justify the $350ish +.

Purely on a whim I did a quick CL search for solar watches and 2 showed up. A g-shock (which I really like and have a cheap one for when I'm in the boonies) and an 'as new, never worn' Seiko ssc139 for less then half of a new ones price.

So I couldn't pass it up....

Verified it was in mint condition and had it resized for free at Fred Myers.

I'm a very happy camper now .

View attachment 657407
View attachment 657408

I know that's a rare case, I did see a couple other watches on CL after getting mine. Just something to possibly look at.

That's a nice find.

I really do like those Citizen Eco Drive models, and I might pick up one after I get the Casio Pro Trek. Between using my Amazon card for work travel spend, and having my son use it for college related expenses I've been building up points pretty fast.

Grumpa · Feb 6, 2020

Tarawa86 said:
I've been wanting to get a solar-powered watch, and have been looking at the Casio Pro Trek line (specifically the Pro Trek PRW2500T Tough Solar Digital Sport Watch). It seems well reviewed, and I like the fact that it has a built in tide graph, since I like to crab.

Anybody here have any experience with the Pro Trek line?

View attachment 649612

Yep. I've one of those a Range Man, and the older Gw6900. All are Solar/Atomic watches. I've also a Citizen Eco Drive Solar as well. Those are fantastic watches for the money. My Wife got me this one a few xmases ago.

ilikegunspdx · Feb 6, 2020

crossbow5 said:
Citizen Eco-Drive. Been going strong for over 15 years.

Same experience here. Have had mine 12 years no battery replacement.

Grumpa · Feb 7, 2020

ilikegunspdx said:
Same experience here. Have had mine 12 years no battery replacement.
View attachment 657553

Now that I think of it, I've had mine for about 23 years now with nary a problem.

Martini_Up · Feb 7, 2020

I've had my Casio Pathfinder for over 10 years and haven't ever needed to change the battery. An excellent outdoorsmans watch with compass, temp, barometer, altitude, multiple alarms, stop watch (w/laps)... in fact I can't really see much difference between your Pro Trek and my Pathfinder. That said I would recommend the Pro Trek

Tarawa86 · Feb 7, 2020

Martini_Up said:
I've had my Casio Pathfinder for over 10 years and haven't ever needed to change the battery. An excellent outdoorsmans watch with compass, temp, barometer, altitude, multiple alarms, stop watch (w/laps)... in fact I can't really see much difference between your Pro Trek and my Pathfinder. That said I would recommend the Pro Trek

The Pathfinder models are nice watches for sure. The main differences I note are that the Pro Trek line has:

Multi-Band Atomic Timekeeping
Moon data and tide graphs, which I really like for my use case, plus that's pretty cool
200M of water resistance vs 100m for the Pathfinder (neither depths of which I'm planning to hit)
The digital compass appears to be much better spec wise.
1. Pro Trek: Digital Compass Measures and displays direction as one of 16 points Measuring range: 0 to 359 degrees Measuring unit: 1 degree 20 seconds continuous measurement Graphic direction pointer Bidirectional calibration and northerly calibration function Magnetic declination correction Bearing memory
2. Pathfinder: Digital Compass Measures and displays direction as one of 16 points Measuring range: 0 to 359 degrees Measuring unit: 1 degree
One month less battery life for the Pro Trek in absence of exposure to light. I'm assuming it's due to the atomic timekeeping.
Pro Trek is about $60-70 dollars more expensive

Martini_Up · Feb 7, 2020

Tarawa86 said:
The Pathfinder models are nice watches for sure. The main differences I note are that the Pro Trek line has:

Multi-Band Atomic Timekeeping

Moon data and tide graphs, which I really like for my use case, plus that's pretty cool

200M of water resistance vs 100m for the Pathfinder (neither depths of which I'm planning to hit)

The digital compass appears to be much better spec wise.

Pro Trek: Digital Compass Measures and displays direction as one of 16 points Measuring range: 0 to 359 degrees Measuring unit: 1 degree 20 seconds continuous measurement Graphic direction pointer Bidirectional calibration and northerly calibration function Magnetic declination correction Bearing memory

Pathfinder: Digital Compass Measures and displays direction as one of 16 points Measuring range: 0 to 359 degrees Measuring unit: 1 degree

One month less battery life for the Pro Trek in absence of exposure to light. I'm assuming it's due to the atomic timekeeping.

Pro Trek is about $60-70 dollars more expensive

Wow, thanks for posting!
I do like the tides / moon feature (reminds me when the red tide is coming

)

Grumpa · Feb 8, 2020

Man, that's a really nice looking watch you got there Joe! Seiko does make some fine looking and functioning watches, that's for sure.

Tarawa86 · Feb 21, 2020

Just got the Casio Pro Trek watch in today, and it seems pretty nice; especially the tide graph feature. It's not as big as I thought it would be, it has a smaller screen than my old Suunto ABC watch on the left. Shopping for an EDC watch is surprisingly agonizing, even if one is staying within a particular manufacturer line like Casio. I found that there are other, also very cool, G Shocks that have tide graphing combined with things like low-temp resistant LCD's. Unfortunately, since my main criteria was solar that eliminated a lot of very functional models. Hopefully it will hold up repeated salt-water exposure.