Casio PRO TREK PRG340B-3: in review

A lightweight watch ready for the great outdoors

When springtime and summer are drawing near, my mind turns to thinking about camping. It’s been a 3-season (never really in winter) pastime that I’ve enjoyed since I was a kid, and am happy to be passing along with my own family. While time is a little less important when you’re off in the woods, it can be handy to know when you need to get back to camp to start making a meal. Well, the Casio PRO TREK PRG340B-3can tell you that, and a whole lot of other things.

What makes it good for the outdoors?

That’s a valid question, since we want our gear to be able to do the job it’s assigned. For those unaware, the whole of the PRO TREK lineup is about the outdoors. This is accomplished by them implementing an A-B-C sensor (in Casio parlance, that’s the Triple Sensor). What this means is that you can track how high you’ve gone (altimeter), keep an eye on the weather (barometer; this also gives you the air temperature), and figure out what direction you’re heading (a compass). All super helpful things to know in the field.

What’s great is that this is all on the watch itself, and it doesn’t require (or even have the capability) a connection to your watch. It’s self-contained, and it’s just there working. How’s that? Well, the watch is also solar-powered. So, odds are, if you’re using this outside, it’s probably topping off it’s cells. Even indoors, it can likely get some charge from the lights.

Is it still good for day-to-day use?

Another fair question - if you’ve got something so oriented to the outdoors, will it work in your regular life as well? The short answer is yes. Context matters, though. Just like you wouldn’t wear your trusty hiking boots to a formal occasion, this is a watch that is more at home when things are a bit more casual. That’s just the aesthetics, though.

In terms of regular functionality, it’s another solid offering, just like you’d expect from Casio. Along with the time, day, and date, you’ve got a whole host of functionality. You can see all the details down below, but you can easily keep track of a second time zone, run a stopwatch or a timer, and even set alarms on the watch. Another interesting thing you can do is check the sunrise and sunset times, which nice to have (and not need to rely on your phone signal to get the info).

What about the materials?

As we’ve seen in other Casio watches, they are really making use of bio-resins, and the Casio PRO TREK PRG340B-3 is no exception. What this means is that you still have a plastic-based material for the case, so it’s light and tough. The bio portion comes from the inclusion of castor bean products in the mix, reducing the environmental impact.

Even the strap gets in on the eco-friendly push. It’s still a heavy-duty nylon strap, but it is completely plant-derived, again from castor. Now, as anyone who’s worn a synthetic near a campfire, you know you can easily get melted holes, right? Well, Casio addresses this by also putting a flame-retardant treatment on the strap, so you shouldn’t have to worry about the errant spark melting things down.

Wearing and using the watch

Fortunately, the Casio PRO TREK PRG340B-3 arrived just before we had a camping trip with some friends, so I knew what watch was going to be making that trek out into the woods. On my 7.25” wrist, I felt that the watch was very comfortable. That said, it is a large watch (54.7mm x 51.7mm) and thick (15.1mm) so it could overwhelm a smaller wrist. That said, it does come in at just 55g, so it is very light on the wrist.

That larger size is due to packing the sensors in, as well as the buttons that trigger all of the functions. What’s great here is that each function has it’s own dedicated button, so you’re not having to remember what sequence of button-presses are required to get things to where you want them. I put them all to use on the camping trip, and they all worked as advertised. Just one word of caution if you’ve not used a watch like this before. For the temperature reading, the watch needs to be off of your wrist to get an accurate air temp. If it’s on your wrist, your own body heat will throw things off. This is not an issue with this watch, it’s just how they all work.

Wrapping things up

Basically, I found the watch to be a solid camping companion. In the time since that trip, I’ve been putting the watch to regular day use as well, whether it be heading to the office, hanging around the house, or even when I needed to get out there and do some yard work. Solid all-arounder that just gets the job done, without weighing you down.

As you can see from the photos, our review unit of the Casio PRO TREK PRG340B-3 came in with the all-green color scheme, but there are six other color combos you can go for, depending on your preferences. As reviewed, this helpful outdoor companion will run you $260, which feels like a solid price for all of the outdoors-oriented tech you’re getting. Check it out (and the variants), and order yours, directly over at casio.com

Casio Pro Trek PRG340B-3 Tech Specs

• Case size (L× W× H): 54.7 × 51.7 × 15.1 mm

• Weight: 55 g

• Case and bezel material: Resin / Bio-based resin

• Water resistance: 100-meter water resistance

• Environmental resistance: Low-temperature resistant (-10℃/14℉)

• Power supply and battery life: Solar powered

• Glass: Mineral Glass

• Bezel feature: Direction Bezel

• Compatible band size: 145 to 215 mm

• Sensor feature

  • Altimeter

    • Measuring range: -700 to 10,000 m (-2,300 to 32,800 ft.)

    • Measuring unit: 1 m (5 ft.)

    • Manual memory measurements (up to 30 records, each including altitude, date, time)

    • Auto log data (High/low altitudes, auto cumulative ascent and descent)

    • Trek log data (up to 14 records of high/low altitudes, auto cumulative ascent and descent of particular treks)

    • Others: Relative altitude readings (-3,000 to 3,000 m), Selectable measurement interval: 5 seconds or 2 minutes;*1 second for first 3 minutes only;*Changeover between meters (m) and feet (ft)

  • Barometer

    • Display range: 260 to 1,100 hPa (7.65 to 32.45 inHg)

    • Display unit: 1 hPa (0.05 inHg)

    • Atmospheric pressure tendency graph (Past 42 hours of readings)

    • Atmospheric pressure differential graphic

    • Barometric pressure tendency information alarm (beep and arrow indicate significant changes in pressure)

    • *Changeover between hPa and inHg

  • Digital compass

    • Measures and displays direction as one of 16 points

    • Measuring range: 0 to 359°

    • Measuring unit: 1°

    • 60 seconds continuous measurement

    • Graphic direction pointer

    • Bidirectional calibration

    • Magnetic declination correction

    • Bearing memory

  • Thermometer

    • Display range: -10 to 60℃ (14 to 140℉)

    • Display unit: 0.1℃ (0.2℉)

    • *Changeover between Celsius (℃) and Fahrenheit (℉)

• Other Features

  • World time: 31 time zones (48 cities + coordinated universal time), daylight saving on/off

  • Sunrise/sunset display: Sunrise time and sunset time for specific date

  • Stopwatch

    • 1/10-second stopwatch

    • Measuring capacity: 999:59'59.9''

    • Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time, 1st-2nd place times

  • Timer

    • Countdown timer&

    • Measuring unit: 1 second

    • Countdown range: 24 hours

    • Countdown start time setting range: 1 minute to 24 hours (1-minute increments and 1-hour increments)

  • Alarm/hourly time signal

    • 5 daily alarms (with 1 snooze alarm)

    • Hourly time signal

  • Light

    • LED backlight (Super Illuminator)

    • Full auto LED light, selectable illumination duration (1.5 seconds or 3 seconds), afterglow

  • Light color: LED:White

  • Calendar: Full auto-calendar (to year 2099)

  • Mute feature: Button operation tone on/off

  • Energy saving feature: Power Saving (display goes blank to save power when the watch is left in the dark)

  • Battery display/alert: Battery level indicator

  • Run time

    • Approx. battery operating time:

      • 7 months on rechargeable battery (operation period with normal use without exposure to light after charge)

      • 27 months on rechargeable battery (operation period when stored in total darkness with the power save function on after full charge)

  • Accuracy: ±15 seconds per month

  • Other features

    • 12/24-hour format

    • Regular timekeeping:Hour, minute, second, pm, month, date, day

    • Duplex LC display