Casio Pathfinder Triple Sensor Watch

[Paradox]

Has anyone purchased a Casio Pathfinder Triple Sensor Watch? How do you like it?

The dimensions of the watch seem huge to me and I am a relatively large person.

 

[halfmoon]

My wife bought me one of these watches last Christmas. I am a small guy, and the watch does not seem overly large to me. The altimeter on the watch is consistently accurate, but started to drift slightly for me over 13,000 feet, but overall I am very pleased with the altimeter. The barometer works well also for weather prediction on overnight trips. The compass also works very well for my needs, and I don't carry a old school compass anymore. You can also set five alarms, and set elevation alarms (pretty handy).

Overall, the watch has far exceeded my expectations of what I thought a watch could do. All of the instrumentation has been accurate on my particular unit, and has been independently verified by my hiking partner's much more expensive GPS.

 

[peakbagger]

I do not have the particular watch but have a similar unit and prior Casio models and have trashed a couple of others brands.

My observations

In general the size of these units is a PITA, it tends to hang off the wrist unless tightened to the point of loss of blood flow to the hands. Otherwise the case profile causes it to get caught on brush easily. I have managed to get them caught and have torn off a few wrist bands. I find the thermometers pretty useless as there is such a significant mass of the watch it takes quite awhile for it to reflect ambent temp rather than the wrist temp. I really dont think the compass is very handy compared to a purpose built device as its hard to consistently follow a bearing. I generally am shooting for 10 to 20 degrees of accuracy and the only way I can do that consistently is with a sighting compass.

I do like the altimeter function and always have found them pretty accurate. When Washburn was surveying the whites, my altimeter only watch would usually be within 20 feet at his benchmarks and pins on a day with stable air pressure.

I also have found generally that most of the watches especially casios generally fail due to failure of the buttons which inevitably get hard to operate before they cease to work at all. Usually at the point the crystal is scratched and there are other issues, so I just find another one on sale at campmor closeout (they frequently have them for 50% off in the close out area). I have found that the casios generally are a bit more gaudy than the competitors.

The other issue is batteries, they come equipped with batteries installed at the factory and who knows how long the watch has been running leading to lower than expected battery life. Very few folks return the watches to the factory for battery replacement and inevitably once a battery has been replaced the water resistance is impacted.

I expect that a lot of the issues that I experienced was related to the fact that I actually used similiar watches all the time in the outdoors hiking and bushwhacking mostly for the altimeter. I expect that if used in an office or social setting they would last a lot longer. Sort of the same use a Rolex usually gets. I do currently have a similiar 3 sensor watch that I am just using for hiking and will see how long it will last.

 

[Peakbagr]

"I don't carry a old school compass anymore"

My Silva Rangers don't stop when their batteries die or if they're dropped on a rock. ;>)

 

[halfmoon]

"I don't carry a old school compass anymore"

My Silva Rangers don't stop when their batteries die or if they're dropped on a rock. ;>)

True, true Mr. Peakbagr. I did say, however, the compass worked for my needs. My only off trail work is above tree line out west where a map will suffice. The compass works for me in those situations to confirm my reading of the map. But I getcha Peakbagr, no doubt about the trusty Silva.

 

[peakbagger]

Please note when flaming peakbagger or peakbgr please route your flame to the right one (nothing personal halfmoon!)

 

[Peakbagr]

Plan all of my whacks over a USGS map, draw in bearings, but use a GPS and compass in the field - maybe not as old school as the impression I may have given.

I consider the confusion with other peakbagr variations a compliment