Casio Men's WS220-1A Solar Runner Tough Solar Multi-Function Runner Watch

Updated: I'm right at two years with mine. I purchased it with a specific use in mind. I swim regularly. Based on the feedback of other swimmers, waterproofness of digital watches is hit or miss with most staying water-tight. That is, until the battery has been replaced. After that, it's often a "miss". So, I bought a watch that shouldn't need a battery replacement during its expected lifetime - the WS-220-1A.I love the watch. As someone else said, it resembles a G-Shock. Love the looks, the accuracy (it gains 3-4 seconds per month), the features and the improbability of ever having to replace the rechargeable battery. I initially topped off the battery by leaving it on my windowsill in direct sunlight for a day and it's never indicated less than fully charged since.It's become my daily wear casual watch. 5 stars.Addendum: My family own's six Casio solar watches. We love them but we understand them.1. A solar watch uses the energy of ultraviolet light to charge a a lithium based rechargeable battery. Many who don't know that solar watches charge using the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum often try to use light sources that won't work (desk lamps for example) and are disappointed. Direct sunlight has copious amounts of ultraviolet; fluorescent based light has a little; incandescent light has effectively none.Q: Why didn't Casio design mine to use visible light so I can use my desk lamp?A: You don't want to know. (It has to do with usable voltage and the physics of photon capture using doped semiconductors.)2. The capacity of a typical solar cell watch battery is huge compared to the watch circuit's daily power requirement. Most should give his/her solar watch a big charge once or twice a year then not worry about what it gets daily. We set ours in direct sunlight for most of a day several times a year then treat them like any other watch the other 363 days. If your watch gets little charge boosts from daily wear, great. If not, it's no big deal. According to Casio, a FULLY charged battery in this watch will run it for about 11 months with ZERO exposure to ultraviolet. But a FULL charge takes time. For a nearly exhausted battery, that's 31 hours of direct sunlight, 155 hours of direct through a window, ... (see manual). But your battery should never be nearly exhausted. Ours all arrived with what I'd estimate to be 70 or 80 percent charge and needed a day, in one case two days, on a sunlit windowsill to reach full charge. I repeat, after the initial charge, every one of our solar Casios has remained in the highest charge state with NO special treatment save two days a year on a sunlit windowsill.3. The most common loss of water tightness in watches is a result of battery replacement. Because the battery in a solar watch should last twelve to fifteen years, you are significantly less likely to suffer water intrusion problems with a solar than with other watches near it's price.addendum:4. The bezel is significantly raised at the top, bottom and both sides which provides quite a bit of protection to the acrylic crystal. Many of the lower priced watches sold on Amazon are falsely listed as having mineral crystals. (Mineral crystal is much more scratch resistant than is acrylic.) Don't believe such claims for watches that sell below $60 or so; with a couple of exceptions, all have acrylic crystals. At just past the two year mark, my crystal has one extremely small scratch.

Casio has taken over as my favorite watch maker for work watches. They are tough and forgiving of what happens to them. I gave my last one away to some who needed it for that shift. (give never loan because you usually end up with the same results).The person loves it even though it has 5 well worn years on it and the front printed scripted is worn off. My Casio tough watch is even better than the old battery operated one (okay this one has one too but it is recharged via solar power). This new on is not only solar powered but has a large font to read buy to help my aging eyesight. The night light is stronger. AND the interface is easier to navigate.Well worth the purchase price any way you slice it.

The watch came charged up. On the first day I ran it down to 'M'. The following Saturday I let it charge in full direct sun for 8+ hours. Since, even with moderate/heavy daily use, the watch has never went below 'H'. One day a week I place it in the window (often on overcast days) to charge... that's it, so the solar seems to work great. I do keep the energy saver on and the light on '1 sec' however.Most people think it's a G-Shock from the appearance.Initially I was attracted to this watch because of the dual countdown timers. I was disappointed you cannot have them run simultaneously, only alternating. This is great at the gym, though. I didn't think much of the large stopwatch memory, but now I love it! Each sequence uses mutiple memory slots (a date/time slot, and another for each lap) but with 120 available it doesn't matter. I wish it were possible to turn off the 'best' lap feature because sometimes I consider the longest time 'best'. The manual is thick thick but the watch is pretty easy to use and all the alarms are easy to set/change.The backlight is weak, not the blue vibrant electro-luminescent of casio or timex indiglo. There is a tiny yellow diode in the bottom left near the 'T' in the word SELECT. It gets the job done. It doesn't really bother me except I may have gotten the 'gold' model WS220-9AV instead had I paid closer attention.The watch beeps nicely. I can navigate to any mode by listening to the sound of the beeps. Press until high pitched beep (standard time mode) +3 regular beeps = countdown timer, for example.The alarm is not super loud. The sound would be lost driving on the highway, but not around town streets.The band is good, does not pull hair. I trimmed 4mm off and it still looks great. Some would prefer a metal buckle. I would not.At times I wear heavy gloves at work. I can press all 5 buttons fine.Several times I have forgotten to take it off before showering/swimming. No issues with underwater button presses in my experience. I trust the seals so far.My biggest gripe is the "crystal". It's just acrylic. Nowhere near sapphire or even hardlex. If an eyelash drops on it a light feature line will appear. Collect'em, buff'em out, collect some more. The letters 'tough solar' and 'illuminator' will probably wear off at some point.Lost ~4 seconds over 3 months.If the watch is pointed beyond the bill of my hat I see 88:88. 30 degrees?The current time is viewable in all modes besides REC (recall memory).The "running man" icon is animated.I will never enjoy this watch as much as my mechanicals, but for the $36 price tag as a daily driver it is very enjoyable. I expect 10+ years of service easily, unless we run out of sun.If you enjoy watches that "do many things" this piece will probably satisfy.4/5 but probably closer to 5 if you consider value.