Casio - History, Models and Owners' Reviews

This Casio MTP-1302PD-2AV embodies pragmatism in its purest form. Bought new for €45, it perfectly fulfills its specifications. Its sunray dial adds the touch of depth it needs. Dated at 3 o'clock and dotted with a fine minute track on the indexes, the dial is equipped with a quartz caliber. Its fluted bezel is reminiscent of the Datejust, its bracelet being rather inspired by Oyster (brushed/polished). Its sporty design makes it my favorite watch in summer, unlike leather bracelets. Down with quartz snobbery!

I hadn't worn a Casio for a long time, but this G-shock with its hexagonal metal bezel caught my attention. It's not a consensual G-shock, not at all, but it has undeniable assets. First of all, it's extremely readable, the negative screen is quite large, you can vary the amount of information displayed to have the time more or less large. And above all, the contrast is very high, there is always an angle under which even in low light, the additional light is useless even if you just have to press the front button to trigger it. The time is really very readable. Then, it's the color of the prominent bracelet that fascinates me, I can't define it, it's a mixture of light blue and gray, something at the same time joyful, wild, cold and energetic. It intrigues me and I still don't know why I like it. This color reminds me of a painting by Pierre Bonnard, an impression of a comfortable atmosphere, a bright house open to nature, the passage from interior intimacy to the wild immensity of the sea under the blinding light of the sun. It is a watch from the G-shock Glide series designed for board sports and as such it displays lunar and solar information, sunrise and sunset, tide time and height. Above all, the screen displays a graph that allows you to see exactly where you are on the tide profile. That's really good because in practice I always lose my tide calendar and a graph is always faster to read than low and high sea times and a tide coefficient. Afterwards, the other features, including the stopwatch, seem very poorly designed with this stupid screen that displays "activity data? -continue - save -delete" then the interminable "please wait". Even in the twentieth century, watches didn't have such annoying menus for their users and "please wait" screens that take ages. It's surreal. Also, the Bluetooth connection is not the most practical, nor very useful (at least for me). But it doesn't bother me too much, there is a lot of information on the basic screens and it's not really necessary to use the stopwatch and all the advanced functions. The soundtrack to accompany such a watch would in my opinion be the L.A. band Weezer with "Surf Wax America", the energy and youth seem to go perfectly with this surfer's watch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9CjNEjBuQ ) or a band from the French West Coast like "La Femme" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3rMJ6BOMRA ). Adjective: energetic, sporty, readable, oceanic, aquatic, cosmic, solar, maritime, slow, hexagonal

The GW-5000U is designed in the spirit of the first G-Shocks - that's how I like them - but it has modern features like solar charging or multi-band. A more high-end version than the 5600s, it is made in Japan; it benefits from a high-quality resin and a very appreciable screwed back. The famous "shock resist" logo underlined in red gives it that little retro side of the first G-Shocks. Comfort is there but you will need nails or sharp fingers to manipulate the pushers. The contrast is excellent (even with polarized glasses) and the LED lighting is very effective. It is a purist's G-Shock that will accompany me everywhere that the other watches in my collection cannot accompany me without fear.