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G Shock GW-7900-1ER watch review
Jason Tsay
When one think of the term “gadget,” the first things that come to mind are most likely going to be smartphones, tablets, and other portable connected devices of the sort. However, for most people, watches were really the first gadgets they owned. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the G Shock GW7900-1ER watch from the Tic Watches store. While the G Shock moniker has become more of a fashion item since the original Casio watches used in the military, the GW7900 retains many of the features that make a G Shock, well, a G Shock. Full review after the break!
Features
- Digital display with back light
- Black resin case and strap
- World Time Zones
- Radio Receiver Watch (Time Calibration)
- Moon phase graph
- Water resistant up to 20 ATM (200 metres)
- Casio G-Shock display packaging
- 2 year manufacturers movement warranty
Our Impressions
Inside the cardboard box come some manuals and a large G Shock watch tin, which packs the watch in foam and plastic.
The GW7000-1ER is a very bulky watch. If you have particularly small wrists you might as well stop reading right now because this watch is not for you. Of course, the size of the watch contributes to the impression of “toughness” that it gives. The entire watch is made of a sort of silicone/resin material sporting a matte black finish. Four large pentalobe screws in a gunmetal shade are found in the four corners of the watch face. Other standout G Shock signatures are the large G button in the bottom center and bold white lettering which correspond to a large and easy to press grey button mounted in each corner of the watch.
Next up, the buttons and what they do. As we mentioned earlier, there are four large grey buttons positioned on the sides of the watch. You’ll have to familiarize yourself with these buttons as you use the features of the watch. The top left corner is marked “ADJUST” which is rather self explanatory. On this watch, and other Waveceptor watches, the adjust feature can be used to select between different time zones rather than manually adjusting the time. The “MODE” button directly adjacent is used to switch between functions - timekeeping, tide/moon data, world time, alarm, stopwatch, and countdown timer (in that order). We found each of the modes to be pretty simple to use. The two buttons on the right side of the watch are “SPLIT•RESET” and “START•STOP”
So now that we know what all the buttons do, let’s talk about the watch display. The standard LCD is divided into 3 “sections.” The top bar shows a three letter abbreviation for the day of the week and the date in the format “2- 14.” The bar in the middle is divided into three areas - a red moon phase circle, a red tide graph, and a blue green second counting circle. The bottom displays an AM/PM indicator (“P”), time (10:58) and the second count (“09”). At the edge of the display are indicators for “power save” and battery levels “CHG, L, M, H.” If you look closely at the face of the GW7900, you’ll see that the bezel around the actual LCD is not completely black as you might expect. Instead, the solar panels are concealed in this area. For this reason, Casio recommends you take extra care to keep your watch out of your sleeve (the watch needs about 5 minutes of bright sunlight or 8 hours of indoor fluorescent lighting to recover from a single illumination. If the watch isn’t exposed to enough light, certain functions will slowly be disabled. Another cool power saving feature of the watch is that the display turns off at night when you set it on a table and only turns back on when you pick it up.
The GW7900 is one of Casio’s Waveceptor watches. This means that it is capable of syncing up to the atomic clock center in Colorado. Every night, the watch will make an attempt to receive the signal for the most accurate time. It’ll keep trying every hour until the signal is properly received (up to 6 times a day). Some tips to make this feature work as expected - place the watch facing a window at night and away from any cellular devices.
The watchband features 11 slots and a chrome metal latch. I don’t personally have abnormally large hands so I found the third or fourth slots to be comfortable. The GW7900 is water resistant up to 20 bar.
Overall
Overall, the GW7900-1ER is a pretty fantastic watch. It’s rugged and is packed with tons of useful functions. The only problem we think people will have with the watch is its size and particularly it’s thickness. Besides that hindrance, we would definitely recommend the GW7900 to anyone looking for a time keeping unit of the sort.
Pro’s
- rugged design
- solar powered
- atomic time calibration
Con’s
- very bulky (thick)
Where to buy
Tic Watches — MSRP: £120.00
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This review was done by Jason Tsay, who was provided the GW-7900-1ER by Tic Watches.
