UPDATE: It turns out my watch was just faulty. I’m leaving the review as is because I still feel the concept of a battery-less watch that still has a battery is somewhat flawed. However, I’ve had a few people comment that their watches work perfectly, so I just got a bad one. I’d recommend using all the functions in the shop before you buy, and don’t buy one that’s not showing full on the power meter.
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For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a multi-function sports watch with a thermometer on it. Not because I specifically need one, nor because they are particularly accurate, but because a friend of mine had one back in the late eighties. They cost far more than my paper round and pocket money would have ever stretched to, and I’ve never been a great saver. So, now that I finally have some spare cash, and in a fit of nostalgia, I went out yesterday and bought a Casio PRG50 solar powered watch.
These things are BIG and I will probably look like a complete cock sat at my desk wearing a watch so large it has it’s own gravitional field. Small moons in the distant reaches of the galaxy are being pulled out of their orbit by my enormous watch. It is so big because it has an altimeter, barometer (including thermometer) and a compass. Sweet. Everything I could ever need to navigate from the office back to home.
On a serious note, as a newly qualified motorcyclist, I am fed up with checking the weather forecast, which is woefully inaccurate. A personal barometer is much better – it’s accurate to my local area and it’s up to the minute. That’s the excuse I gave to my wife for spending £129 anyway.
So, how is it? I couldn’t tell you. This “amazing” solar technology is supposed to eliminate the need to change the battery and break the water resistant seal. (I’m not sure I care that much about that – I’m not a diver and I won’t ever be more than a metre or two under the surface. I think it will survive.) The idea of saving money on replacement batteries was nice. The way the shop assistant described it to me, all I need do is wear the watch in daylight and it would have plenty of power. What a pile of crap!
I put the watch in direct sunlight all yesterday afternoon and evening. I left it under a bright lamp all night and I moved it into direct sunlight this morning for several more hours. The watch still has no power to do anything other than tell the time. I couldn’t tell you how accurate the compass is, because the watch can’t summon up enough juice to run it. I’d love to describe tales of happy weather dodging thanks to the barometer, but I can’t, because the watch doesn’t have the power to run it. I’d like to be able to tell you my relative altitude here in Somerset, but alas, no power equals no altimeter. After my lengthy charging session, the compass almost worked, and then the battery drained.
What about the other features of this watch? Well, there’s an alarm. Oh, and a back light that comes on automatically when you look at the watch in low light. Well, the manual says it does anyway, I wouldn’t know because the watch can’t power the backlight. It doesn’t work when you push the light button, and it doesn’t work when I flick my wrist in the dark.
I spent fully one hour trying to find the stopwatch and countdown timer. I followed the instructions in the manual, but it wouldn’t work. A little bit of detective work on the interweb revealed that I had in fact been given the wrong manual, and this watch does not have a stopwatch at all. The watch supposedly had loads of money knocked off, but even if the retail value is only £129, you expect a frigging stopwatch and countdown timer on your sports activity watch. What a joke! The shop assistant was showing me this watch side-by-side with the PRG40 and she said the features were identical. I knew the PRG40 had a stopwatch, so I naturally assumed the PRG50 would too.
Casio, what’s gone wrong with you? You used to make great watches, but this thing is useless. Apart from the ridiculous lack of chronograph, I would need to be an outdoor worker in the Australian Outback to get any kind of use from the advanced features of this watch.
If you must buy one of these Casio Pro Trek watches, don’t buy a solar powered one. The not changing the battery thing is a lie anyway. All rechargeable batteries have a finite life of charge cycles (usually around 500 full charges from empty), so, assuming you could ever get any of the functions to work, you will be changing the battery at some point anyway. Probably within 3 years judging by what I’ve read on the forums. An ordinary battery should last 18 months – 3 years anyway, depending on how much you use the watch.
As for me, I’m going to get my money back.
UPDATE
Well I got my money back. The watch is faulty. Guess which part failed? The battery which “never needs replacing”, does in fact need to be replaced. The shop said they’d “never had a problem” with Casio watches before, so maybe they do work. Who knows? Who cares? Not me, because I’m not buying one.
I didn’t mention above that I had already purchased a PRG40 from another store which I had to take back – it had some debris stuck between the screen and the glass. They didn’t have a replacement, so I went elsewhere and was sold the PRG50 instead.
So, two watches from Casio, and both had problems. Am I super unlucky or have Casio let their quality control slip?
I’m going to check out the Suunto Core instead. It’s more money, but what the hey, at least it runs on a (user replaceable) battery.
I’m looking for a spare part for my 5 years old watch
It’s the black cover of the light green button
I lookedfor it in Tel Aviv official Cassio watch repair but he did not have it and couldn’t promiss to have it any time.
I’ll be gracefull for eny information of how to get this part.
Shlomi Kfir Manara 12165 Israel
i have mine since more than 4 years and it is working perfect. i use it a lot in the mountains for trekking and i also wear it when i am diving. i love this watch!
I reckon I just got a duff one. I’m going to edit the article slightly as it’s a little unfair to Casio.
PRG50 after 2 years no more charging, watch was bought in Europe but <i am in <far East now, no warranty claims, no repair possible, does not charge at all. 4 Ciitizen Eco Drives work without any problems (2 for me, 2 for my wife, each a sports model for everyday and a more formal one
)) my oldest is several years old, bought it just when they came out. So the technology is not the problem, casio quality is the culprit Bought the PRG50 for sailing as it is light weight and got so many features, my Citizen is the Stars&Stripes, nice but very heavy
henry
I have had my PRG50 since mid 2005 and it has worked well, with the exception of the past 6 months or so when it hasn’t been able to power the compass, light functions etc. needing to get the battery changed is disappointing, but then I guess its an acceptable price for 3 years of thrashing. it was bought to replace a robust g-shock which was way better for functionality (5 alarms, tides indicator, 200m waterproof and not a measley 10m, and yes a stop watch! and all the light functions etc), shame it got swiped. it was a good buy for what was on the market 3 years ago, but there is a better range out there today, i certainly wouldn’t retrict myself to casio in future.
also my PRG-50 doesn’t charge anymore.I don’t know yet if the battery can be replaced and how much cost, but I am very disappointed by casio!!!
I bought mine prg-50 full titanium in 2002. it has been 6 years. the battery is going strong and I am able to keep it fully charged at all time. Mine is made in Japan.
My PRG-50 batteries also failed within a few months of purchase. I’ve been using it daily at the time and taking care to give it a good charge everyday(even leaving it under sunlight through my window at times).
Fortunately the watch was still under store warranty and they replaced my batteries with no charge. The watch has been working fine(almost 2 years now) ever since.
Bought my pro tek prg 50 for at least 5 years ago (it might even be 7 years). It still functioned perfect. Although it lasts a while getting the battery filled in sunlight.
Now there isn’t enough power left to power the compass and back light.
I’ve enjoyed my watch very much and i will consider for changing the battery.
I think it’s worth it.
Had my watch about 4 yrs. Never taken off my wrist (ever), and never needed to put it out in the sun … It’s a good watch, BUT … First battery lasted about 2yrs. Second and current battery seems to be on its way out now. Both times, the battery has been trashed by using the auto-light feature (where it auto illuminates when you cock your wrist). Am I going to replace the battery this time? – NO. I’m going to buy an ordinary battery powered watch with all the toys! ;o)
I did an article on changing the battery on my Casio ProTrek and wrote it up at this URL http://gtouser.wordpress.com/2008/12…powered-watch/
I also gathered together various data on the battery and so on which is shown at the link .
I bought my PRG-50 (model 2471) in 2002 and it’s still a very good watch. My problem is the casing. Due to my work the case is totally worn and needs replacement but that very expensive. They told met it costs 125 euro and i bought the watch for 135 7 years ago. So i’m going to search for a new watch and i think it’s to one in the pathfinder series.
I bought my PRG-50 (model 2471) in 2002 and it’s still a very good watch. My problem is the casing. Due to my work the case is totally worn and needs replacement but that very expensive. They told me it costs 125 euro and i bought the watch for 135 euro 7 years ago. So i’m going to search for a new watch and i think it’s one in the pathfinder series.
I brought PRG-50 2471 in 2006. its a nice watch. but from last 2 years there is water wafer in side the dial. when in cold climate cant read the display. I’m worrying about it.
I bought my Pro-Trek in Prague 3 years ago for around 200 euro’s. Great for an urban discoverer like myself…but obviously not for professional use (all professionalt watches run on GPS and cost over €450,-
I have dropped it, been swimming with it, done DIY with it on and it never stopped working….until 5 weeks ago.
I have just , indeed, had to change the battery, which cost me approx: 60 euro’s as the watch had to be sent miles away and resealed (blabla)….
shame…
I have no idea – maybe someone else will know.
I had to replace the battery of my G-Shock “Tough Solar”. It was only two and a half years old and was showing the symptoms of recharging failure (entering RECOV mode as soon as the EL light was used, and finally, after a few weeks and despite numerous solar and intense artificial light recharging, the light did not work any more at all).
I wrote to Casio, and pointed out how their ads and documentation pretended that the battery would last for the full lifetime of the watch, then asking them for a free replacement. They refused, saying that the watch was no more under guarantee.
The price for the repair from Casio would be 30 Euros. 6 times the price of a lithium battery that lasts 3 to 10 years (depending on model) in non-solar G-Shocks !
I therefore bought a new battery from the “Small Battery Company”, in UK, and replaced the battery by myself, which cost me half the price Casio was asking for the repair.
My G-Shock is working fine again, but I expect the new battery to fail in 3 years or so. Why ?… Because the CTL1616 is actually a Lithium-Ion accumulator, and this kind of accumulator always fails after 3 years of service (I have seen this happening with numerous notebook computers and cell phones).
So Casio is actually LYING to their customers, since the battery of a “Tough Solar” will last less time than a standard, non-rechargeable battery, and costs 3 to 6 times the price of a standard battery !!!
I’m infuriated and will never buy again any product with the Casio brand !
I’m sorry, but I think that you must have bought a faulty casio. The one I own has been working real fine for more than 5 years now, without any problem whatsoever. Battery’s always full even though there’re times when I leave it in the dark for quite a while. Barometer and altitude work like a charm, and frankly I use them a lot since I do climbing and trekking in the alps for most winter and summertimes. Compass is handy instrument and fast to use in every weather conditions. I can say at last that I don’t fully agree with what Terrry says about this wonderful clock being a total failure. You definitely got a wrong and faulty one.
Zeno
Italy
me acaban de regalar un pro trek 50 porque el relojero no sabe como repararlo pero no trajo la bateria y necesito el diagrama para armarlo porque al parecer le botaron alguna pieza gracias por la ayuda que me llegue.
Glad to say I was lucky several times with my Casios so far.
I bought that PRG-50 in 2001 I think (+/- one year) and it worked totally flawless until last year the battery was empty. Loading didn’t help it … but I found it wasn’t more difficult to change the battery DIY than with other Casios before. The only specialty about it is to reset the watch … you’ll find “how to”s for every Casio on the net. There’s a marked “+”-contact which you have to contact with the + from the new battery. Pretty easy. Be careful when you close the casing with its sealing.
I’m so satisfied with the Casios i just upgraded to the PRG-2000T. I’m travelling a lot so I look forward to the radio controlled time setting.
Too bad the PRG-50 is not needed anymore since it still is in perfect shape. You can only see it from softened shapes of the rubber wristband. The case is like new, even though this tough friend helped through 9 years of travelling polar regions and some deserts in the US and in South Africa for business purpose.
Some colleagues like the Suuntos – but they often have to change the batteries. They never lasted longer than 2 years. The TISSOTs are pretty nice as well and work pretty flawless too.
Im selling my Casio PRG-50 which I purchased in 2006, never actually used it
Any takers? R500 ($72)