CasioRangeman GW-9400

I bought this watch when it first released in 2013. I sold it to buy another watch. I immediately regretted it. The GW9400 Rangeman is tough as nails. It's a big watch, but I still wear it comfortably on a 6.75" wrist. The features are superb, including the ABC functions, solar charging and atomic time keeping. It is a great stand-alone watch with no need to connect to an app. I won't let it go again. The price is lower now than it was 12 years ago. We'll worth it. This is a great watch.

When I was a kid and G-shocks were new, I wanted one from the time I first saw one. After I got my first one, there was never a time when I didn’t have one on my wrist all through my school years, my construction years after school, then onto boot camp and nine years in the army. After the military I went on to law enforcement and the G-shock stayed with me. Unbelievably tough, the only excuse I ever had for buying a new one was just because I wanted a new model. They never failed.As I got into my late 40’s early fifties, I discovered auto movements and different styles of watches and as I developed an affinity for them and started wearing them all the time right up until the present. Thing is they weren’t nearly as rugged and found myself breaking quite a few. I’m now 61 and again found myself missing the ruggedness, looks, and features of the G-shock for everyday use. I’ll still wear an auto on occasion when I want to dress up, but I’m back for good I think.The GW-9400 is a beast. Thanks to the NM sun, it never needs winding. And thanks to the atomic time clock in Colorado I never have to set it either. It’s got a bunch of cool features like a compass, an altimeter, a barometer, etc, and they do actually work pretty well. But the greatest thing about it is its ruggedness. I’m pretty tough on my gear and I’ve broken several lesser watches in the past while camping, riding my motorcycle, or just putting around doing what I do, but in my entire life, I’ve never managed to break a G-shock, which ultimately is what really brought me back to them.Good looking, great product I can’t recommend enough. And at even its current price, it is an incredible value. If you’re on the fence, don’t even think about it. You’ll quickly find it’s a no brainer.

TEN YEAR REVIEW: This watch has withstood the test of time while never missing a second accurately. I have primarily worked construction during these past ten years and have always worked with this watch on my wrist. It has been banged, dropped, bumped and scratched against everything imaginable and is still cosmetically sound. The screen is every bit as bright and readable as when it came out of the box and has adorned my wardrobe as a high value tool. It has been in the ocean, sauna, extreme desert heat, tundra, jungle and suburbia. From extreme endurance events to scuba dives it has lasted and blasted the competition especially for the price. All while delivering in a comfortable package. This watch is tougher than the conditions I have put it through and is still ticking with solar and atomic time. It’s tougher than me and it’s tougher than you. G-Shock for life.

After owning the watch a month or so, I think I'm ready to give it a long-winded review:A Triple Sensor G-Shock is pretty much exactly what myself and a lot of other G-Shock fanatics have wanted for many years now. The Rangeman is a great first model, especially with the new Version 3 sensor. The biggest benefit of the new sensor is the speed at which these sensors pick up their settings - altitude readings, compass bearings, and barometric pressure (and temperature). My older Casio Pathfinders would often take a few seconds to pickup a compass bearing or barometric reading - the Rangeman does so noticeably quicker. I didn't think this would be that big of a deal, but the increased speed of the sensors make feel more like it's a tool as compared to a toy. And speaking of the triple function sensors, here's a bit of a review on each:Compass: Definitely a lot less "travel" in the compass. On the Casio Pathfinder watches that I've had in the past, I could leave them still on my wrist and they'd still change readings by up to 10 degrees or so. The new sensor in this watch fixes that and the travel now is only a degree or two. The compass stays on for a minute now as opposed to only a few seconds for previous Triple Sensor models which is nice. Be sure to set magnetic declination in your area for more accurate readings. Large chunks of metal will throw the sensor off however. When in my vehicle, I'm assuming the engine block is throwing things off as my readings are 100% unreliable. While outdoors or in my apartment however, readings are pretty much spot on.Barometric Pressure: Probably the most accurate sensor. The absolute pressure on this watch has been spot on compared to the National Weather Services reading for my location. One thing that confused me with when I first got this watch....the watch comes from the factory calibrated to read the ABSOLUTE pressure (NOT the adjusted Sea-Level pressure readings that you see on websites/newscasts). As such, my readings in Fort Collins, CO (around 5000 ft. altitude) provided a pressure reading of around 25.00 inHg. Not knowing this was absolute pressure, I quickly adjusted my watch to match the 29.90 inHg listed on my location's weather report. This worked fine until I visited my parents in Nebraska (around 2200 ft. altitude). Since I had set my pressure to adjusted Sea-Level Pressure in Fort Collins (compounded by the fact that traveling downhill means an increase in pressure reading), when I got to my parents place in Nebraska, my watch mysteriously read "ERR" when taking barometric pressure readings. This is because with my altitude drop (and my manually adjusting the barometric pressure) the watch was unable to take a reading because the new pressure value at my parents place registered off the scale. Long story short, keep the pressure settings to the absolute pressure!Altitude: By far the least reliable sensor. It's not the fault of the watch necessarily, it's just that it gets the readings from the barometric pressure. If you're sitting still and the pressure changes, your altitude will change on the watch (rising pressure = altitude drop, decreasing pressure = altitude gain). There's no way around this (my Suunto Core did it too as do other watches) other than perhaps getting a watch with a GPS built in. It's fun to use as a general guide when I'm driving in the mountains as it always tends to be within +- 200 ft. of my actual altitude. Just don't expect accuracy unless you're out hiking and you know that the barometric pressure isn't going to change.Temperature: For me, it's pretty much always 10 degrees warmer than what it really is. It picks up on my body heat, no big deal. For my purposes I never need to know the exact temp anyways, an estimate is just fine.World Time, Stopwatch, Timer, and Alarm are all pretty standard compared to my other Casio watches. I do like that I can start the stopwatch from the main menu.Sunset/Sunrise: Haven't had this feature before. Not mind-blowing, but I appreciate having it. You're able to program in Latitude/Longitude areas which make for very accurate Sunset/Sunrise times, accurate to the minute compared to websites where I can look up the info.Recall Mode: Again, haven't used this feature before, but like having it. Basically you can time-stamp any setting that you'd like (time, pressure reading, altitude, etc) and it keeps track of it. Also keeps track of the total altitude that you've ascended or descended, along with minimum and maximum altitude readings.Atomic Time: I'm about 10 miles away from the Atomic Clock here in Fort Collins. As such, I have no issues (nor should I)!Watch Strap: Casio has watch adapters (search Google) that will fit these watches, so I wear it with a Zulu 24mm nylon strap as I do most of my watches. Nothing specifically wrong with the factory strap, just my preference.Watch Style: Some people love Casio's look, some people hate it. I'm somewhere in the middle bordering on liking it. I work in IT, so wearing this to work is no problem and adds to that geek factor all of us IT people are looking for ;) I have a fairly skinny 6.5 inch wrist and while the watch looks big on my wrist, that's kind of the style these days.Final Thoughts: Really, I love all things tech and wanted to purchase something on my wrist loaded with features. However being in Colorado, I wanted something that was reliable when out on a hike where I wouldn't have to worry about battery life, durability, etc. Looking around at the latest Suunto and Garmin offerings, they sure do look cool, but each have their own quirks as well as very short battery life (this is the price you pay for having GPS enable watches). In the end, I'll give the technology another couple years to figure itself out before looking at watches again. As it stands right now, I have a watch that never needs a battery and is always EXACTLY the right time.