On April 1 2009, Casio will start selling the newest Protrek model: the PRX-2000T. It's an evolution of the ABC watch (Altimeter/Barometer/Compass) reduced in size and upgraded in terms of build materials. Here are the specs from the translated press release:
- List price is 99,750 JPY, or about $1,030 US as of Feb 2009. Yes, it's expensive.
- "World's thinnest" ABC watch at 11.3mm by 47.7mm by 57mm.
- Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating - excellent, I have been looking forward to this.
- Titanium case and band, carbide hardened.
- Waterproof to 100m (330ft).
- Low-temperature resistant down to -10C (14F).
- Six-band atomic set up to six times per day.
- 24-hour stopwatch.
- 24-hour countdown timer.
- Dual-layer LCD: one layer for compass and another for the rest. LCD segments are fixed in shape, so this makes sense.
- Five alarms.
- World time with 31 time zones and 48 cities. Not clear if this includes fractional hour offsets.
- Automatic EL backlight.
- Tough solar power, 23 month power reserve.
- The compass claims "16 azimuth angle of orientation" and "orientation correction function," which I would guess means it's more accurate when not held perfectly level.
- Lots and lots of measurements and modes for the altimeter/barometer, graphing and so on.
- Basic temperature measurement, but unless they've invented something new it mostly measures the temperature of your wrist and is therefore almost useless while worn. (This is a problem with all ABC watches.)
Overall, it looks like a really nice watch. The reduced size, streamlined case and improved materials are something I look forward to reviewing. I do wonder why they priced it so high, though: The Ultimate Pathfinder has a similar feature list, and is only $400USD. It's not clear to me why this one is worth over twice as much.
By Paul Hubbard
