Casio Men's VA106HA-1BV Ana-Digi Atomic Watch Review

In general, I'm very happy with this watch. I've been wearing digital wristwatches for almost 30 years, since I was 10 years old, and I'm a fanatic about keeping accurate time, so when it came time to replace my latest Casio databank, I was happy to see the large selection of atomic watches available from Casio. I've been wearing Casio databank watches for almost 20 years, but they're absolutely hideous watches due to the keypad on them. Now that I carry a cell phone with me, my favorite features in the databank watch are now unnecessary, so I decided to get something that looks nice with an analog face, but doesn't sacrifice digital accuracy and features.

One of the concerns I had with buying this watch was regarding the case size, because I have a small wrist (6.5 inch circumference) and big watches can look strange on it. The watch case is 0.44 inches thick and 1.75 inches wide measured tip-to-tip at the widest point.) After adjusting the band and putting it on though, I have to say that although it's a little big and bulky, I'm still happy with how it looks.

I wish it had a true countdown timer though. I used to use the countdown timer on my previous watch all the time. I usually kept it set for 30 minutes, and could engage it easily with a few button pushes. Instead of a true countdown timer, this watch has a "target" alarm, which is one of the 5 different alarms on this watch. Instead of setting it to countdown from 30 minutes (or 20 minutes or 15 or whatever), you need to do some math in your head first. For example, if you want the watch to countdown 15 minutes, and the current time is 4:23, you need to set the target alarm for 4:38, and then the display will countdown 15 minutes until the alarm goes off. After you tell the target alarm to stop beeping, the target alarm remains set as a daily alarm, so it starts counting down 24 hours until the next time it will sound, unless you tell it to stop counting.

This watch does have a stopwatch though, with all the standard stopwatch features you find on digital watches. In some instances, I can use the stopwatch in lieu of a countdown timer it I periodically monitor the time on the stopwatch.

It also has 3 other "normal" daily alarms you can set, and a "snooze" alarm that will sound every 5 minutes until you tell it you're done snoozing. (A nice feature, I guess, but I haven't had an occasion to use it yet.)

Another nice feature is the "Date Alert". You can set 5 independent date alerts, for dates when you need to remember to do something (pay property taxes, go to dentist, wife's birthday, etc), and the date display will blink for 24 hours to remind you that you've reached that date. It doesn't have a memo to remind you specifically WHY that date is important, but at least it's enough to remind you to check your calendar.

Another interesting feature is something they call a "Time Recorder". If you want to make a note of the current date and time, you can push a couple buttons and it will store the current date and time in the watch's memory. You can record 30 independent sets of date and time. Then it starts to push out the old recordings (first in, first out) after you start recording more. You could optionally clear the whole memory too if you want. This watch is still new to me, so I haven't quite figured out a practical application for the time recorder feature. I guess it's nice to have if you have a reason to jot down a bunch of dates and times. That's not something I do a lot of though.

The radio-controlled atomic timekeeping works like a charm. I live in the Silicon Valley in California, which is at least 1000 miles from Fort Collins, and the watch has no trouble automatically synchronizing at night. They recommend sitting the watch on the windowsill if you live too far from Fort Collins, but I just rest in on my desk against the far wall from the window, and it works just fine. When it first arrived in the mail, the system information indicated that it synchronized the night before while it was in transit too, so although it was set for the wrong time zone, the time was accurate to the second. The first thing I did was set the watch to the correct time zone. It's pretty cool watching the analog hands whirl around to the correct time after pressing the set button on the time zone. I'm looking forward to daylight savings time in March to see the hands adjust themselves automatically again. (Yes, I'm a big nerd.)

The digital window embedded in the face of the watch has 2 lines of digital data. It can be set to 1 of 3 optional displays when in timekeeping mode:

1) Month - Date
Day of Week

2) Hour : Minutes
Seconds

3) Month - Date
Seconds

The analog hands stay synchronized with the digital display at all times. The minute hand visibly moves by 1/3 of minute every 20 seconds when the seconds display indicates 00, 20, or 40. During certain times of the day (like 5:30) the digital display can be difficult to read though, because the analog hands are directly over the digital display.

The electroluminescent (EM) backlight is very effective at lighting up the entire back of the watch, so you can read both the analog hands as well as the digital display. I've seen some documentation stating that it illuminates the display for 2 seconds. Mine seems to illuminate for a little more than a second.

The watchband on mine is an interesting color. It's not quite gold, but it's not quite silver either. I like it. It looks good with the blue face. Unless you have a jeweler's tool for adjusting the watchband, the watchband is not adjustable. You'll need to take it a watch repair shop or a jeweler and drop another eight bucks to adjust it. Once it's adjusted it's easy to get it on and off though.

It also has a World Time mode where it will display the local time for another time zone in the digital display. This is fairly standard for digital watches. Since I occasionally travel for short periods of time for work, it's a nice feature to have. It's also nice if you frequently need to phone someone in a distant time zone, so you can easily lookup their local time before making the call. One thing to note is that it does not include the time zone for GMT - 3.5 hours, so the radio controlled timekeeping for Newfoundland, Canada won't work. It does support all other worldwide time zones though.

There's also a mode for setting the time manually, instead of the automatic atomic timekeeping. I guess that's useful if you have trouble receiving the signal out of Fort Collins. I don't personally expect to ever set the time manually though.

The Casio module number for my watch is 2735. The accompanying instruction manual indicates that the feature set is the same for modules 3747, 4772 and 2735. The only difference is the size and shape of the digital display. Module 2735 has the biggest digital display. Module 4772 has the smallest.

The end.

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Product Description:
Sleekly modern in design, this analog/digital Casio Waveceptor men's atomic watch (WVA106HA-1BV) combines powerful style with technologically advanced timepiece features. A great choice for your active lifestyle, this watch includes a 1/100 second stopwatch and a comfortable, durable black resin band. This radio-controlled watch receives time calibration signals transmitted from Fort Collins, Colorado, and signal reception is possible within a radius of about 2,000 miles from the Fort Collins transmitter. You can choose to automatically receive this signal four times a day, or manually update the Waveceptor to the atomic clock.
The round stainless steel watch case and bezel frames a black dial face with Arabic numerals at the quarter hours, luminous dial markers and silver hands, and a digital display in the lower half of the dial. The stopwatch measures up to 60 minutes and offers elapsed time, split/lap time, and 1st-2nd place modes. The stopwatch measures up to 100 minutes and offers elapsed time, split/lap time, and 1st-2nd place modes. It also has four daily alarms (with one snooze alarm), world time for 29 time zones/30 cities, 12/24-hour time, and auto-calendar programmed to 2039. The AfterGlow LED electro luminescent backlight provides easy readability in low-light conditions. Other features include water resistance to 50 meters (99 feet) and a battery life of approximately 2 years.

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