My old g-shock has finally bitten the dust (bad battery replacement = water ingress = fecked) – so I need to get a new one. Are the Solar ones worth the extra? Do they still need replacement batteries?

ta!

i've had one for about 2 years and its been fine.

Wasn't convinced by them when I was looking for a new watch. Ended up getting an Ironman Triathlon instead. At £16, I can afford to get it broken and not really care, but it is obeying the "cheap watch" principal and steadfastly refusing to get damaged.

I'd prefer an analog display though – and my last G-shock lasted 18 years without failure.

Had mine for 3 years – battered it about as usual and it hasn't missed a beat. Can't fault it.

Just had a rather poor experience with casio UK's warranty department. I sent the watch back as the plastic bit which the strap attaches to had broken. £90 later (they had to replace the whole case apparently as they don't have the ability to repair it) they sent the watch back and about 4 months after that water got in and it died on me. They quoted me another £50 to fix it as it was outside of their 3 month warranty on repair work. I had to get quite arsey with they over the phone till they dropped it.

I got a Casio 'tough solar' as a slightly smarter alternative to a g-shock about 3 years ago. It has an annoying habit of running out of power at odd and inconvenient times and then randomly 'waking up' again regardless of its exposure to light.

When i come to replace it i'll be buying a watch that relies just on batteries – at least you know when the display fades/hands stop moving that it is actually time to replace the batteries, not just hope it'll spring back into life when you need it !

I've had a Casio G-Shock tough solar waveceptor watch for over a year now.

It is a tad ugly but has never missed a beat. Charge indicator has never gone below full, it has always picked up a time signal to set itself daily.

It goes kayaking, 3000+ cycling miles (commuting) in all weathers, the allotment and everywhere else – even coped with chemical splashes in the lab.

Can't see myself ever going back to batteries and manual time setting.

so some +'s and some -'s

I've noticed that you can get 10yr battery models so I may go for one of those – decisions!

Gshock waveceptor solar here too, 4 years old, never missed a beat. Digital and analogue.

Like what LabWormy said, I've had my tough solar G-Shock waveceptor (phew!) for a couple of years now I think, and it's yet to miss a beat after swimming, biking, whacking on rock faces and so on and so forth. Never had the battery indicator less than full and it's never failed to update.

The only con is that I can't use it as an excuse for being late. That and it's huge. But it does look like a Transformer.

I've had a G-Shock waveceptor for coming onto 5 years now. Can't fault it. I keep it by the window when I don't wear it to top-up the battery but other then that it hasn't put a foot wrong. I like the idea of synchronizing with the atomic clock in the small hours – so never needs adjusting.
It regularly goes swimming, running and mountain biking.

ooh more +ves! thanks

another waveceptor/tough solar here. GF bought it for me 3 years ago and calls it my 'lazy watch' because i never have to do anything to it – it just sorts itself out. jewellery it aint, but if you want a device for telling the time on, there's not much else out there to touch it IMHO.
have to keep taking the toothbrush to it at work though, to keep scraping off all the mud from riding. 😆

I should have a second hand VGC solar Waveceptor for sale soon, keep an eye on classifieds.

Kingtut, you're Bristol based too aren't you? I'm interested if it's an analog display model. cheers

Yep Bristol based, digi model though.

ok no worries!

I've got one as a dirty jobs/biking/etc. watch – basically to wear any time that my good watch might get a battering. It's been great. Occasionally it gets dumped in a drawer for a month or so and it always springs back into life telling the right time. For me there is no better watch than one that always tells the correct time and never needs to be fiddled with*.

* That said, it's beauty is definitely on the inside, ahem.

Casio Tough (manly) Solar (green) Waveceptor (techie) – how much better does it get? It's got analogue hands and a cool and groovy blue light that comes on when the watch detects the movement that says I'm looking at it. And day/date. And a countdown timer. And a stopwatch. And it's waterproof. And one night when reasonably pi55ed up, I smacked it off a marble bar top to prove it's indestructability. Took a lump out of the watch and some out of the bar, but still works fine.
A bit bling bling but apart fropm that, a damn fine watch

..one thing though, I leave it hooked on to a window lever at night to make sure it gets a bit of sunlight in the morning to keep it charged.

Yes!

They are the best watches out there!

Three years in Scotland killed my battery!
Had the battery replaced by Casio at a cost of about £20 I think and it's been fine for the past year at least – the charge has stayed on 'H' through general use. Hopefully this one will last ok as I probably won't bother replacing it again given the generally battered state of the watch now.

mine are odd in that the display reads full but the displays are fading…….still working tho' 🙂