Casio Women's LWS200H-1ACF Solar Runners 120-Lap Black Digital Sport Watch

This watch was purchased as a gift for my wife. She absolutely loves it: the weight, style, features, ruggedness, and freedom from maintenance (battery changes, etc.) Despite the recommendation that this watch be left in sunlight or available light for recharging, we have found that it seems to keep on ticking' (silently) with NO attention to where it is left. This reflects my experience with my Casio solar watch that I have had for 5 years--ZERO problems or maintenance, and I store it in a drawer when I am not wearing it.With this watch, my wife now has time for me.

I'm pretty happy with this watch. I bought it three years ago, and after accidentally hiding it from the sun for the past five months here in Chiberia, the battery finally died. I'm actually online to buy another one because I'm happy with its performance. I think I got about 800 running miles out of it and never had a problem with it recording. Plus, I think it's hard to beat for everything it can do at only $20.I used this watch for aeration and half marathon training and it does everything I need it to do. However, the watch is not particularly intuitive. I recommend either keeping the instruction booklet or bookmarking the manual on Casio's webpage. That being said, the functions you use every day will become second nature. For example, I never used the alarm feature and would need the book to figure it out. But when it comes to keeping track of my laps, I don't even have to look at the watch. I know exactly what to press to pause it while I'm stuck at a cross walk and what to press when I want to mark each mile (or whatever distance you choose to track). It even beeps to let you know that the button has been pressed, which is somehow loud enough to hear over my music and passing cars. I love it.It's not the sexiest watch, but I'm not looking for fashion when running. I'm looking for durable, reliable, and water proof because the skies sometimes open up when I'm out for a long run. It is particularly handy when it's raining too much to bring my Iphone because I can use the watch to keep perfect time of my runs versus my not always accurate running app. In fact, over time, I just stopped using my running app because he watch was easier and more accurate. Then, after my run, I just out it in the distance and time info, including my laps because the watch keeps track. Overall, I'm very happy with the performance of the watch, even in the rain.

After replacing batteries almost yearly in three of my other four watches (and having the crystal of one of them broken during its last battery replacement), I was MORE THAN READY to try a SOLAR watch! (Yes, I know that solar batteries also fail, eventually...but bought this Casio watch hoping that this will be a rare, as opposed to yearly, event). My new Casio watch arrived with its battery completely discharged. I immediately placed it in direct sunlight (checking often, to ensure that it was not becoming excessively hot) for several hours, after which its battery had charged sufficiently to enable re-setting time/date functions. It will require several days in full sunlight to reach full charge (so as to enable my use of all functions), according to my understanding of its manual. That is OK with me, since it will take me some time to read the entire manual/understand use of the lap-timing and other functions. I am happy that the new watch seems sturdy in construction, with non-metallic band and sufficiently water-resistant that I will not need to protect it from sudden rainstorms. (My other pace watch has developed spots of corrosion, forcing me to coat portions with clear nail polish to prevent nickel allergic reaction; without water-resistance, I cannot use it in rainy weather. Therefore, I can now appreciate the Casio--although I had not considered these features in making my buying decision).

We all have phones attached to us like limpids. They all tell the time, and smartphones can give you timers, stop watches, time zones, moon phases, a compass, and so on. Haven't watches seen their demise and shouldn't they give up their grip on this world and just let go? Well, I managed with a phone only for a while, but for the last few years I have worn this wrist watch and hope to continue doing so for years to come.Yes, I am gentlemen and this is a ladies watch, but it works. The LSW200 is not super skinny, looks gender-agnostic, is nicely sized, and very light. It weighs close to half that of the closest and most similar 'mens' watch. A heavy watch is a sweaty, bulky, pain; but this watch floats on my wrist like a ring of spring flowers.Upfront, here is my minor critique: a couple of the functions act a bit funny / aren't too useful. The alarm, or rather the apparent five of them are ok but I've struggled to get them to be audible. The stopwatch is fine and has a one hundred lap memory, but I've never used this. Finally, it has a daylight saving time setting but it's either super smart or super dumb: either way I found it too unpredictable to rely upon.Here are some more reasons to love this watch:- It is amazingly good value;its diminutive size and largely classic and simple Casio design make it innocuous (it won't win beauty contests, but neither will it get booed off stage)- It has solid not-too-fancy construction;- I expect to never, ever, ever have to change the battery, thanks to the solar powered nature of the watch (the battery will apparently last 11 months without light, and it also uses a clever technique where the screen switches off after time when not exposed to light. It can be turned on again at the press of any button);- You can wear it just about anywhere: it's waterproof enough for showers, swimming, the ocean (it says to 50m but I've been told that's baloney);- It's easy to clean, thanks to the wonders of plastic;- It has the usual digital functions. My favorites ones are: the world time, so I can easily switch to a second time zone when traveling; and the countdown timer, which has dual timers that cycle up to ten times. For example, it can countdown five minutes, then one minute, then back to five minutes. I use this for helping my intervals for running, and have used it before for Pomodoro timing. It would be great if it had more than one timer, so I could use it for running, and Pomodoro, and Tabata training. Oh well;- FINALLY AND PERHAPS BEST OF ALL, it has just enough but not too much. There's no moon phase calendar, no compass that doesn't really work, no altimeter, no astrology predictor, and no heart rate monitor. It tells the time, in several different ways, and should tell the time for decades to come. It hits the sweet spot between form, function and price