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Smaller ProTrek

2K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  cal..45 
#1 ·
I'd been doing tons of watch research since a week now between Suunto X9i and PRG-1200 and some other watches with compass. Just few days ago I arrived at choice PRG-1200 (sold as PAW1200 in USA). However I still feel PRG-1200 is too big to wear in casual office style environment and so I'm looking for smaller ProTrek/Pathfinder. Unfortunetely none of my local stores carries them and so I can only imagine through dimentions printed on Casio Europe website (surprising Casio haven't put dimentions in their US website).

I most definitely want solar powered feature along with triple sensors but I can let go atomic sync and world time. That broght me to choices of PRG-50, 60, 70 and 80. After looking at their published dimentions I'm thinking PRG-70 is possibly the smallest in size. If anyone owns 70 and 1200 may be they can attest.

As I'm unable to see them side by side physically I'm still very much confused which one to go for O| . I definitely don't want to go for less feature full 70 if size is smaller but indistiguishbly smaller. At the same time I don't want to end up with 1200 which is so large I rather not wear it all the time! I don't mind the price as long as it's below $350.

If anyone have seem them togather or know better choice than PRG-70 with above features, please do advise!

Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
The PRG-70 is a great watch and a good choice. But it does not fit very well under long-sleeved shirts. I'm delighted with the performance of mine -- and it's seriously accurate too! -- but I just can't wear it at work. Damned uncomfortable under shirt cuffs.
 
#3 · (Edited)
i guess if u want a casio protrek watch with smaller dimensions then prg 70 is the best option ,i have both prg 70 and 90 watch(same as paw 1200 minus atomic time but exact same size and body). and prg70 is noticeably smaller and slimmer then paw 1200 no doubt ! also as for my personal experience prg 70 is a pretty comfortable watch to wear with good features and a nice compass and timer .
but if your wrist is a bit broad then prg 90 or paw 1200 are not bad options too ,as they are loaded with features and great watches to own.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I found a pic here that nicely demos the comparison and also finally found JC Penny to actually try PAW1200 out. Man, this is a big watch! It looked cool for a while but then started getting awkward. I can imagine going out on hiking and kayaking with this watch but it felt out of place to me if I was going for a movie or doing a presentation at work or even strolling on the beach. Of course, your preference might very. Above site also has comparison pic of X9i and PAW1200.

JC Penny didn't had ProTrek PRG70 but from all the watches I tried there I guess for my wrist (which I would consider average adult male sized) the watches with 44mm diameter looks perfectly fitted so ProTrek PRG-70 with its 48mm would be stretching about 10% more but I'm going to buy it anyway because solar power and compass arrows are just way too cool. I'll post the pics with comparison to other objects after I get it! To anyone buying one of these watches I'd strongly suggest to try them out or equally sized watches in stores nearby. These watches looks very pretty in pictures all by themselves but they are BIG.

Casio has unbelievebly crappy website for their watches eventhough I would guess its their multi-million $$ business. An undergrad student would have done much better job for $6/hr. I spent my days painfully hopping their International, Europian and Asian sites to find info I needed. Few things that I would sacrify when choosing PRG-70 over PAW1200 are:

1. No world time
2. No finer graph of altitude and pressure changes
3. No differential altitude and pressure
4. 50m water restistance instead of 100m
6. No atomic sync
7. Barometric data is recorded at 3 hr interval instead of 2 hr interval
8. Auto calender only until 2039 instead of 2099 (ok, this one I just put it for illusive completeness!)

I don't care about #1 and #6 because timezone changes is not frequent to me and defiinitely not as inconvinient as wearing bigger watches all the time on your hand. And I can most definitely survive inaccuracy of 15sec/month in present state of the world. The #2, #3 and #7 is however not all that compromizable but I convinced myself that I would have my handhald Garmin GPSMAP 60csx anyway with my outings which would show these info anyway probably with much better accuracy when I need it and which I can download on my computer. The #4 is redundant because if watch sinc below 50m even an experienced diver can't retrieve it for you ;). So overall, if you usually carry GPS in your backpack in your outings then PRG-70 is very good choice against rather bulkier PAW1200 and even more bulkier X9i (the GPS in X9i has VERY limited practicle use, if any, because there are no maps and it would drain the battery in 4-5 hr making it unreliable for most trackbacks because once battery dies, you loose its compass and time too!).

There is a "secret" all-black model PRG70-1BVDR which looked the best all around to me in all ProTreks (may be because I'm huge fan of all black sport watches; they look superb on my t-shirts as well as formals!). Some sellers mentions it as PRG70-1BV but they told me its same as PRG70-1BVDR. Of course, Casio website has no clue about this model and they don't have any explanation of how they number their watches (I have seen several model numbers like xxx-1AV or xxxYT-3VDR and so on which has no reference on any of the Casio sites whatsoever). One of the seller told me xxx-1AV is same as xxx-1V which is hard to believe because 'A' seem to stand for analog on some watches. Also my guess for "DR" in xxx-1VDR is Digital, Rubber band. But that's just a guess.
 
#5 ·
sytelus said:
Casio has unbelievebly crappy website for their watches eventhough I would guess its their multi-million $$ business.
You're exactly right, but this is typical of many watch websites. Have a look at Rolex's! They sell a million high-priced watches a year and this is what they offer? But there is a reason: they want to get you to do the comparisons in the store. Inconvenient, yeah; especially for those of us who buy off the 'Net. But, an effective sales tactic I'm sure you'll agree!

FWIW (and sorry to hijack your thread a little), one of the best sites I've seen is the Breitling one. Browse on over and check out the detailed info they give you on each model. Also some interesting 'video' clips about various watch component manufacture in the Made by Breitling tab. And they have the best PC timezone clock for free download, too (the link's under 'Worldtime Calculator' on their Home page).
 
#10 ·
Manufacturers have grown increasingly conservative when describing what you can do with a watch of a certain depth rating. Product liability, and all that.

I would be happy to take a depth rating at face value (assuming the watch was in good condition).
 
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