I love watches. They are my man bling. When it comes to digital watches, it must be easy to read, have a long battery life, rugged, water resistant, and attractive even after years of use.
I bought my G-Shock after I gave my trusty Timex Iron Man away. I didn’t buy another Iron Man because I got tired of constantly replacing the strap. I chose the G-Shocks instead because it had the toughest looking wristband. It was a toss up between G-Shock’s standard battery model and their solar model. Despite being more expensive and having a dimmer display, I chose the solar type thinking I’d never have to buy it batteries again. It’s now been 11 months and this is what I think about it.
The watch has an olive green strap and chassis made of rubberized plastic. The labels on it are embossed which is great because it won’t be scratched or erased over time as was the case with my Iron Man where they were just painted on. Appearance wise, it’s the sort of thing that GI Joe would wear which is cool. On the underside are 2 curved plastic flaps that allows the wristband to drape properly on thin girly wrists like mine.
When I first used it, I found this unexpected feature: when I turn my wrist to read the watch, the back light automatically turns ON for about 3 seconds. This means I no longer have to push a button while reading time in the dark. So far so good.
Problems started appearing about 3 months after I purchased it. After being stored in a drawer for a month, the watch lost power. I left it out in the sun and a few hours afterwards, I noticed that it was ON again. It seems as if it always needs to be near a light source if it’s to be working all the time. This wouldn’t be such an issue if it recharged in a matter of minutes, but it took about an hour to do so and I was left with a useless time piece during this period.
Another issue I wasn’t expecting has to do with its colour where dust becomes very visible against it. I wouldn’t mind so much if it was just a matter of wiping it off before wearing it, but because the façade has a lot of nooks and crannies, the dust managed to worm its way into it, requiring a fine cotton swap in order to get it out. This is not something I expected with a watch that was intended to be low maintenance. On the plus side, I use it often while swimming in the ocean so at least it is indeed water resistant.
All in all, the watch is rugged, waterproof, and attractive. Unfortunately, the situation with it taking so long to recharge combined with the dust issue makes me give it a thumbs down. In retrospect, I should have gotten the battery based model. Maybe next time.