The face of a watch, like a person, often tells you quite a bit about what they are. Sometimes they're subtle and restrained, and sometimes their place in the world is writ large for all to see. The Casio Pathfinder, model number PAW1500T-7V is one of those "this is who I am, got a problem with that?" sorts of watches. After wearing it for a few weeks, I think of it as the go-to watch for the outdoors, especially if things are going to be tough: river rafting, long hiking trips, extreme sports and the like. It's probably the most capable and versatile watch I've yet seen. About the only thing it doesn't have is GPS:

Features of the Casio Pathfinder PAW1500T-7V include:

Two years ago, I wrote an article called The Ultimate Casio Pathfinder in which I raved about the PAW1200 series. This was the first time Casio had combined their atomic and solar technologies with their famous Triple Sensor (digital compass, altimeter, barometer, and thermometer). A year later, I reviewed what I considered to be the new ultimate Casio Pathfinder — the PAW1300 — which is essentially the same watch in a significantly slimmer package. Today, I'm extremely pleased to introduce what even Casio is now referring to the Ultimate Pathfinder: the PAW1500 series.

In addition to being solar and multi-band atomic, having all the digital watch features you'd expect like multiple alarms, countdown timer, world time, and a stopwatch, and in addition to being a Triple Sensor, Casio has added three significant new features to the PAW1500 line:

1. Tide graph.
2. Moon phase indicator.
3. An additional 100 meters of water resistance for a total of 200 meters, or about 650 feet.

I really have to give Casio a lot of credit for adding precisely the right features to the Pathfinder line. It used to be that I had a hard time choosing a Pathfinder over a G-Shock day-to-day because I insist that all my Casio watches be solar and atomic. But then Casio made the Pathfinder line solar and atomic. I now wear my PAW1300 fairly often, but I still love the additional ruggedness of my G-Shocks. So naturally, Casio has made the new PAW1500 series more rugged by increasing the water resistance, and adding robust button guards.

There's one more feature that, in my opinion, really helps to make the PAW1500 the ultimate Casio Pathfinder. For the first time, the day, date, and month are all visible simultaneously. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but it means a lot to people like me who lead such hectic lives that it's sometimes hard to keep track of the day of the week, much less the month and date.

The new Ultimate Casio Pathfinder will be available in May in either black resin ($350), or resin with a titanium band ($400). You can bet we'll have a thorough review as soon as humanly possible.

View the Casio Pathfinder PAW1300-3V picture gallery.

When I reviewed the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 about a year ago, I referred to it as "one of the most advanced digital timepieces in the world". Of course, it is also one of the biggest. The new PAW1300 takes all the same features and technology of the PAW1200, and fits it into a significantly slimmer package.

How much smaller is the PAW1300 compared to the PAW1200? The PAW1200, weighing in at 83 grams, is 64mm long, 48.9mm wide, and 14.4mm thick. The PAW1300 is a comparatively diminutive 60 grams, and 56.9mm long, 47.4mm wide, and only 11.5mm thick. Yes, we're only talking millimeters here, but with respect to something as small as a watch, every millimeter counts. To have taken almost a full 3mm off the thickness is really very significant.

I don't want to spend a lot of time going over the features of the Pathfinder PAW1300 since I've gone over them in detail in the review of the PAW1200. Rather, I'd like to defer to Watch Report reader Sam Tannous who related his experiences with the new PAW1300 in this email:

Last March, I wrote about the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200, a very impressive watch which manages to pack multi-band atomic timekeeping, solar power, and three sensors (digital compass, altimeter/barometer, and thermometer) into a single package. The PAW1200 series was a landmark achievement for Casio since it finally brought together the convenience of both solar power and atomic timekeeping with the diverse functionality of the Pathfinder line.

But even though they got it all into a single package, the PAW1200 wasn't exactly the nicest package. I reviewed the PAW1200-3V, a big green resin model which engulfs my narrow wrist like a python. I'm ok with the size of the watch (all that technology has to go somewhere), but I felt like the material (plastic all around) left some room for improvement.

Enter the PRW-1100YTJ-1JF. The Protrek PRW-1100YTJ-1JF steps it up a notch by wrapping up all the features of the PAW1200 series in a very cool black titanium case with a synthetic sapphire crystal on top. Why is titanium good? Tough and light. Why is sapphire good? For all intents and purposes, it's scratch proof.

Admittedly, I have never owned a Casio titanium and sapphire watch, so I can't vouch for the level of quality. In other words, all titanium cases and bracelets, and all sapphire crystals, were not created equal. It's intriguing, however, to see Casio fitting their toughest watches with some very tough materials.

Of course, the news can't be all good. The PRW-1100YTJ-1JF is not available in the US (hence the "J" in the model name) since most Americans aren't interested in paying $450 for any type of watch, much less a Casio. But the true Casio aficionados have their sources. If anyone out there has a titanium Casio with a sapphire crystal, let me know what you think of the quality. Otherwise, I'll be forced to buy one myself in the name of product research.

Additional Resources:

• Review of the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200
• Review of the Casio Pathfinder PAW1300-3V
• The PRW-1100 home page

View the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 picture gallery.

I've been waiting for this watch for a while now, so it's a real pleasure to finally have the opportunity to review it. The Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 is what I've referred to several times as the ultimate Pathfinder, perhaps the ultimate Casio, and certainly one of the most advanced digital timepieces in the world.

What makes the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 series special is the fact that it brings so many features together into one watch. I'll get into plenty of detail on each individual feature shortly, but most notably, the PAW1200 series is the first to bring together the triple-sensor functionality of the Pathfinder line (compass, barometer, and thermometer), atomic time calibration, and solar power. I have several solar-powered watches, several atomic watches, and a few triple-sensor watches by various manufacturers, but the PAW1200 is the only watch that I know of with all of these features. And as if that isn't enough, the PAW1200 series is what Casio calls a multi-band atomic watch, which means it will calibrated with almost every atomic clock in the world (details below).

I was going to wait and write about the new Casio Pathfinder PAW1200T-7V once it was actually available, but I've been getting so much email about this watch that I figured I'd better go ahead and break radio silence. Last summer, I made a post entitled The Ultimate Casio Pro Trek (Almost) which described a watch I've been waiting for for a very long time: a solar atomic Casio Pro Trek (called Pathfinder here in the US). The "Almost" portion of the title referred to the unfortunate fact that it was only compatible with Japanese atomic clocks. Casio has finally come through for us Yanks, however, and according to this press release, the PAW1200 series will not only work with the US atomic time signal, but it will actually be sold here in the US, as well. Good for me, bad for my Japanese connection who won't make any money off me this time.

I haven't seen the final specifications on these watches yet, but I would expect the following features:

• Atomic timekeeping (obviously).
• Solar powered with at least a 20-month power reserve, maybe better.
• Thermometer which will actually convert the temperature into fahrenheit.
• Compass.
• Barometer.
• Barometric altimeter.
• World time with support for at least 30 cities pre-programmed.
• Stopwatch.
• Countdown timer.
• 5 daily alarms.

I've been waiting for this watch. I'm a big fan of the Casio Pro Trek line, especially since they went solar, and even more so now that they've gone atomic. That's right: an atomic solar Casio Pro Trek. That makes for quite a list of features:

• Atomic timekeeping. That means this watch is automatically calibrated through radio waves transmitted by an atomic clock.
• Solar powered. Solar cells around the face keep the watch's battery charged, and a sophisticated power-saving function will keep the watch going for up to 20 months with no light. (It seems every time I write an article about a solar Casio, that number gets higher.)
• Thermometer. The temperature range is from -10° to 60° Celsius.
• Compass. Direction is indicated by a second LCD that hovers above the main one. Very cool effect. The Casio Pro Trek supports magnetic declination correction for true north as opposed to just magnetic north. (See my review of the Tissot T-Touch for more information on magnetic declination.)
• Barometer. Atmospheric pressure can be measured in the range of 260 to 1100 hPa (hectoPascals). Barometric trends over the last 30 hours can be displayed as a graph.
• Altimeter. The altimeters on Casio Pro Treks are barometric altimeters which means they work, but you have to know how to use them. See my review of the Tissot T-Touch for more information.
• World time. Keep track of a second time zone (30 cities supported).
• Stopwatch with a resolution of 1/100th of a second.
• Auto-repeating countdown timer. After time and date, the most useful function a digital watch can have.
• 5 daily alarms, and an hourly time signal.
• Battery power indicator.
• Signal strength indicator (for the atomic function).
• Electroluminescent backlight.
• Available with a resin case and strap, or in all titanium.

A couple of weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a warning to the Transportation Security Administration stating that al-Qaida may attempt to use Casio watches with built-in altimeters to sabotage US airliners. The idea is that since Casios are readily available and very affordable, budget-conscious terrorists could modify a Casio ProTrek or Pathfinder so that it could detonate a bomb at a specified altitude (I suppose you wouldn't want to blow up a Suunto, Tissot, or a Hamilton). I received a lot of skeptical email regarding the warning, however whether it was justified or not, Casio's legal team has apparently responded. According to Robert Shapiro, Director of Legal Affairs, Casio is more than happy to work with the DHS to help limit any potential threats:

"We hope to have a meeting where we can help screeners with identifying the watch and understand how it's used, how it functions. If they feel it's an issue, we'll try to come out with a tool or public service announcement to help minimize any types of problems they may have. We see this as an opportunity to help them."

Casio is well known for combining digital watches with all kinds of gadgetry: calculators, remote controls, cameras, GPS devices, MP3 players, and now, according to the Department of Homeland Security, bomb detonators.

MSNBC is reporting that the DHS and the FBI issued a warning to the Transportation Security Administration today stating that al-Qaida may attempt to use watches with cigarette lighters or Casio watches with built-in altimeters to detonate bombs on board US airliners.

"Recent intelligence suggests al-Qaida has expressed interest in obtaining wristwatches with a hidden butane-lighter function and Casio watches with an altimeter function. Casio watches have been extensively used by al-Qaida and associated organizations as timers for improvised explosive devices. The Casio brand is likely chosen due to its worldwide availability and inexpensive price."

Watches with built-in cigarette lighters and Casio Pathfinders and ProTreks are not banned from planes, so they cannot be confiscated, however screeners have been told to watch for these suspicious watches so that the passengers attached to them can undergo additional screening. If you're a Casio fan, I therefore recommend going with a nice G-Shock or Edifice during your next flight.

What I can't figure out is how you could possibly use the altimeter built into a Casio watch as an accurate timing device. Casio Pathfinder and ProTrek altimeters are barometric altimeters which means they attempt to calculate your altitude based on atmospheric pressure. Airplane cabins are pressurized, so barometric altimeters cannot be used to measure a plane's altitude. Additionally, I have not found barometric altimeters built into watches to be particularly accurate. In fact, I've known them to be downright erratic upon occasion. It's one thing to use one to climb a hill, but it's something else entirely to attach a bomb to one.