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Here for your perusal is my review of the Casio Pathfinder PAW1300T. I approach this review with some amount of trepidation because this is a watch so rich with pertinent features that the possibility of neglecting some important aspect seems high. Ultimately I hope to cover all the important points and in doing so reveal to you what a fantastic watch the PAW1300T is. If I miss something please don't be afraid to embarrass me and point it out---I can take it.
I ordered this watch from
XcelWatches, a fine retailer with great prices. Funny thing about XcelWatches is that they are apparently located in Sugar Land, Texas---that always reminds me of that Spielberg movie "Sugarland Express." Anyways when you purchase the watch here, in the next picture, is what you get.

It's a pretty decent presentation box and certainly nicer than the plain black boxes you get with most US market G-Shocks.
Moving on to the watch's construction one will first note that the PAW1300T features a well crafted titanium bracelet with fold over clasp and push button lock. Rather cleverly the fold over clasp covers the push buttons when locked down and serves to protect the buttons from being inadvertently pushed and possibly damaged. The end links are a solid combination of resin and titanium---a nice touch on a watch of this price.
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In regards to sizing the bracelet, the PAW1300T uses a pin and collar system similar to what is used on SEIKOs. Fortunately, Casio drilled the holes in the links in such a way that one side is large enough for the collar to slip in yet the other side is slightly smaller so as to hold the collar in place---making this adjustment system much less aggravating than SEIKO's. Further sizing refinement can be achieved with the three micro-adjustment holes on the clasp.
The case itself is composed of a mineral crystal and a plastic module which is sandwiched between the titanium bezel and titanium case back. Water resistance is marked on the watch face as 100 meters and on the case back as 10 bar. Overall the composition of titanium and gunmetal colored plastic creates a really pleasing aesthetic---surprisingly thin too (more on that later). But you can look at the pictures and judge that for yourself.
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Finally now I get to the daunting challenge of covering all the technological features packed into the PAW1300T's 3070 (B) module.
Let's start with the main time keeping mode. In main time keeping mode one can press the adjust button to cycle through displays so that one can see the day, date and barometric graph without ever leaving the main screen. Furthermore one can see an indicator for the power reserve, as this watch has Tough Solar; and an indicator for the Wave Ceptor showing whether or not the watch successfully connected to an atomic tower that day as this watch is also Multi Band 5. One other neat feature of the main time keeping mode is the presence of both numerical seconds in the bottom third of the screen as well as a digital second hand that sweeps around the outer edge of the watch face.
By pressing the mode button one can cycle through the more mundane features of the watch which are world time, stopwatch, 60 minute countdown timer, 5 alarms, receive mode (in which one can see the date and time the watch last connected to an atomic tower as well as attempt to manually connect), and data recall mode which displays saved altitude measurements. Note that current time is displayed in all these modes save for data recall mode and receive mode.
The three most exciting modes of the PAW1300T are the altimeter, barometer and compass modes, each of which has its own exclusive button for immediate access while in the main time keeping mode. Current time is displayed in both compass and altimeter modes.
Compass mode shows the current direction one is facing in both angle value and the cardinal direction. The direction is updated every second and stops after twenty seconds to conserve power. This gets me back to the physical thinness of the watch as the PAW1500 and 1200 are considerably thicker than this watch and this appears to be because the two former watches feature two stacked LCDs which create a nice graphical compass display. The PAW1300T has only one LCD resulting in a simpler compass display and a thinner watch. It's also important to mention that the watch will point one towards magnetic north and not true north. Which may cause incorrect readings depending on one's geographic location but this can be rectified by inputting a magnetic declination angle (correction between true north and magnetic north).
Barometer mode displays the barometric pressure in either inches of mercury or Hectopascals---both of which are meaningless to a simple minded person like me. Fortunately the measurements, which occur at intervals that you can select, are compiled into a graph that even I can understand and make reasonably accurate weather predictions from. Also displayed in barometer mode is the temperature of your wrist in either Fahrenheit or Celsius, presuming that you are wearing the watch. Otherwise you can take the watch off for a bit and measure the ambient temperature.
The final mode to be discussed is the altimeter mode. Current elevation is shown in either feet or meters. When I received my watch I found it to be radically incorrect but it is easy to calibrate the watch using known elevation from a topography map. Changes in elevation can then be saved and viewed later in the data recall mode.
Wow. I'm f-ing exhausted! That's quite a bit of information and I hope it wasn't too boring. But I suppose if you are interested in purchasing this watch than it was all very informative. So I will end with a few subjective statements. The PAW1300T is a very large watch on my 7in wrist. Alternatively it is a very light and comfortable watch due to its plastic and titanium construction. The PAW1300T is one of the most feature rich digital watches one can buy and I firmly believe that the inclusion of atomic time keeping and solar power give it a leg up on competitive offerings from Suunto. Here are the requisite wrist shots and definitely read the manual on this one as you will be lost otherwise. Take care.
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