When it comes to outdoors-oriented watches, one of the first brands that comes to mind is the Casio ProTrek. With their triple- and quad-sensor setups, they tend to look very much like a watch for the outdoors, oversized with bumps and bulges for all of the buttons and sensors. What if you wanted something that wouldn’t give away all its outdoor capabilities at first glance? That’s what you get with the Casio ProTrek PRW6900YL-5.
Most obviously, the Casio ProTrek PRW6900YL-5 has a squared-off case, reminiscent of those from B&R and Hager, eschewing the rounded case we more commonly see on their sensor watches. For all of that, it still maintains callbacks to things of the outdoors, with a dial texture that is similar to that of a cast iron dutch oven, and pops of orange that show up on your tent or in your campfire.
Given the squared shape – and all of the tech that has to be built in (see those details down below) – it should not surprise you that the Casio ProTrek PRW6900YL-5 is a 49.6 x 44.8mm watch. That’s a big watch, no to ways to go about it. In an everyday sort of watch, that may be a bit much for the wrist (though, it should be relatively light with the biomass plastic caseback and quartz movement). For something intended for the outdoors and outdoors adventures, the sizing is perfect.
It will be easy to read at a glance, either at the orange-lined hands, or on the digital display. In my experience, for a tool like the Casio ProTrek PRW6900YL-5, the bigger the better tends to work out quite well. It also allows that digital display to be a generous size, which is good. A fully-analog watch of this sort can be a bit tricky to use, requiring a cheat sheet to remember all of the functions and how to use them. With the digital display, that simplifies the usage (in my experience) a great deal.
Another thing that I really enjoy about the Casio ProTrek PRW6900YL-5 is the fact that it’s both solar-powered (and the Casio Tough Solar is no joke, it works amazingly well) and syncs with radio signals to maintain the time. This makes it the ultimate “no worry” watch, as it’ll just always be running (well, until the rechargeable cell degrades) and always be accurate.
All in all, there is an awful lot to like about the Casio ProTrek PRW6900YL-5, including the new look to the ProTrek line that we’ve not seen before. It’s also a bit of a move into a more upscale territory for the line, but it’s still rather affordable. Coming in at $500, this is a design to make your favorite hiker or camper a, well, a happy camper. Check it out over at casio.com
Tech Specs from Casio
- Case size (L× W× H): 49.6 × 44.8 × 14.7 mm
- Weight: 63 g
- Case / bezel material: Resin / Stainless steel
- Band: Leather Band
- Crystal: mineral
- Water resistance: 100-meter water resistance
- Environmental resistance: Low-temperature resistant (-10?/14?)
- Power supply and battery life: Tough Solar (Solar powered)
- Sensor feature
- Digital compass
- Measures and displays direction as one of 16 points
- Measuring range: 0 to 359°
- Measuring unit: 1° 60 seconds continuous measurement
- Hand indication of north
- Bidirectional calibration
- Magnetic declination correction
- Altimeter
- Measuring range: -700 to 10,000 m ( -2,300 to 32,800 ft.)
- Measuring unit: 1 m (5 ft.)
- Hand indication of altitude differential
- Manual memory measurements (up to 30 records, each including altitude, date, time)
- Auto log data (High/low altitudes, cumulative ascent and descent)
- Others: Relative altitude readings (±100m /±1000m), 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)
- Hand indication of pressure differential
- Atmospheric pressure tendency graph
- Barometric pressure tendency information alarm (beep and arrow indicates significant changes in pressure)
- *Changeover between hPa and inHg
- Thermometer
- Display range: -10 to 60? (14 to 140?)
- Display unit: 0.1? (0.2?)
- *Changeover between Celsius (?) and Fahrenheit (?)
- Digital compass
