Robust Technology: Protrek Watches
I’ve been wearing a PRW2500T-7 Casio ProTrek watch on-and-off for roughly seven years now. I wore it on my adventures in Boy Scouts, through my experimentation with university in New Zealand, and is now my most used watch being in the Marines. I have a lot of memories with it and I’m impressed with it still working with the abuse I put it through.
The two features I most enjoy in the watch is it being solar powered and that it has a small radio receiver that automatically calibrates the time. I’ve left the watch in a drawer for months at a time, put it in the sun for the few hours, and came back to it keeping perfect time. I can’t say the same thing about my other quartz watches that I find being dead or having time drift after being left in a drawer.
Other features on the watch that I enjoy include the tide graph and the UTC mode. The tide graph is useful when doing water sports when people leave their phone behind to avoid water damage. UTC time is useful for some of the work I do in the Marines.
The most advertised feature of this watch is its “triple sensors” of a mini altimeter/barometer, compass and thermometer built into the watch. For me, these features work fine for what I needed them to do but are not a replacement for dedicated instruments. They are good enough as backup instruments or for quickly “getting a feeling” of the surrounding environment.
Without constantly updating altitude the hPa number given by the barometer is not very accurate; this is fine for me as the barometer still keeps track of the change of pressure well enough to show when a storm is likely going to roll in. I’ve used the compass in the field to get my bearing but it’s not a replacement for a dedicated land navigation compass with degree markings. The thermometer on the watch works fine but it requires taking the watch off to get a proper reading.
I plan on using this watch until it breaks (which could be quite awhile). I’m not planning on using a smartwatch such as a Garmin watch as they are not allowed in certain areas where I work and I don’t like having to charge personal electronical devices in the field.