I was totally shocked by the size of this monster watch. 5/8 inch thick (.66 inch) and 2 1/8 in diameter (2.07 inches) by my calipers. That is why I am giving the watch one star off, good luck wearing it with a shirt that has a buttoned cuff.
The watch band is really thick and heavy duty, 7/8 inches wide with the usual metal buckle/slots. The watch band is SCREWED into place. Need 2 flat bladed screwdrivers to remove. Good luck finding a replacement band with Velcro or something.
The plastic face is recessed a bit by the movable compass ring. Looks like it is durable enough, no idea how easily it scratches. Will find out soon I am sure.
As for the watch functions. Wow. Amazing watch. It has a huge screen 1 1/4 inches wide and contains two layers of LCDs along with different colors, green for functions and blue for the compass. The time shows up in 1/4 inch numbers readable across the room (literally). Modes besides compass, barometer/temperature, altitude are Min/Max altitude and stop watch. Can have some amazingly small numbers and symbols for a watch this size. The P for PM is about the limit that my eyes can read. Lots of alarms. Easy to adjust pretty much anything on the watch, time, date, compass, temperature, etc. Luckily everything is changeable to degrees F and mm of mercury for us non-metric folks. Compass is a little jerky (1-2 second delay) and have not yet time to see how well the altitude setting works. Temperature seems to be sluggish in updating.
The background light is quite bright and everything can be read easily enough. Of course, with that much square footage of screen size, I can use it to find keyholes and such. Heh. There is a tip to light feature.
THERE ARE 4 BATTERIES SR927W. The back come off with just 8 phillips screws, no prying necessary. 4 screws on the back, 2 screws with half threaded on the buttons side, and 2 screws fully threaded on the sensor side. There are two bottoms, a rubbery plastic (which goes against your wrist) and a metal one with the serial number on it. No mention of battery types unfortunately. The metal back has the very thin water seal gasket that looks like a pain but is not really. Just put the seal in place,hold the bottom flat with the seal up, and place the watch on top, bending out the wrist band tabs so it will go on.
So, if you like BIG watches that look like it will go through hell and back (bring extra batteries) while telling you what the temperature is and how deep you are, this is your watch.
UPDATE! 12-10-09 Well, I returned the watch, one of the few things I have ever returned. A few very good reasons. One is the watch was just too big. I had to roll up my sleeve or unbutton the cuff just to wear the thing. The second is the very poor performance of the altimeter. I could set the altimeter to zero in my living room and have it read -20 or even -40 feet when I went UP the stairs. When driving over the Berkshires and using the GPS for accurate altitude readings, I never got within 60-100 feet of the true altitude even after multiple attempts and zeroing the damn thing out. For MT Everest, this is no deal breaker. For the NE US? Unacceptable. Third is the compass and temperature. The temperature gauge was totally useless as it took a good 45 MINUTES to settle on the temperature and then, like the altimeter, would be off by 5 to 10 degrees even when I tried compensating the setting multiple times. Finally the compass would work but it was jerky and them would just shut down in 15-20 seconds locked into the last reading. What good is that?
Well, it seemed to keep good time though!
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Casio Men's PAG40-7 Pathfinder Triple Sensor Multi-Functional Digital WatchProduct Description: Amazon Exclusive Pathfinder Watch# PAG40-7M by Casio Casio has done it yet again with this stylish yet incredibly useful outdoorsman's dream watch. This watch has all of the bells and whistles that you would expect from a Pathfinder, including Casio's "Triple Sensor" technology. This technology allows for the watch to give accurate barometer readings that are essential to warn of any upcoming storms, an Altimeter that measures -2300 ft up to 32,800 feet, thermometer to monitor any sudden changes in temperature as well as a digital compass which measure and displays one of 16 points. You can always find your way home with the PAG40-7 from Casio.
The PAG40-7 features an attractive tri-tone case of black, green, and white that will make this outdoor tool also a fashion accessory as well. Complete with button guards to protect against accidental operation of the sensors. The large duplex LCD display makes for reading the time, measurement and graphs easy. This "intelligent" watch also features an auto EL backlight that will illuminate automatically only when dark (to save battery power) with a simple twist of the wrist.
The PAG40-7 also features 100M water resistance, 5 daily alarms 1/100 second stopwatch, an auto calendar and 12/24 hour format. The measurements can be switched from standard measurements to metric with the push of a button. It is even low temperature resistant to accommodate the must rugged of weather conditions, Lightweight at only 2.6 ounces yet tough enough to withstand any journey you choose to tackle...what else would you expect from Casio.
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