Casio PRT-1400
Introduction
I strongly believe that at least one Casio belongs in every decently sized watch collection. Casio watches are generally very fun and inexpensive watches that are perfect to wear for a lot of outdoor activities.
When I was on the quest to add a Casio to my collection, unsurprisingly, as a vintage nut, I found myself scouring through Casio's past releases. What eventually caught my eye was the PRO TREK line and, among them, this reference PRT-1400 from 1999 with the gorgeous asymmetrical shape.
Three things I like
Case shape: As foreshadowed, I love the case shape of this watch. The asymmetrical shape adds a lot of style to the watch and makes it look very interesting on the wrist.
Ruggedness: I love how this watch was specifically designed as an outdoor tool. The inherent ruggedness that comes with that is very welcome.
Functions: This watch has a lot of functions - so many that I do not even know how to operate all of them. I am not sure when I will use, say, the altimeter function but it is definitely just nice to have.
Three things I dislike, or wish were different
Materials: A significant portion of the watch is made from plastic. It would have been nice if the watch had more metal (such as stainless steel or, preferably, titanium) instead.
Size: This watch is not awfully oversized at around 51mm across, 52mm from lug to lug and 14.5mm thick. This is especially true with the watch on the custom strap that I made for it, as the original fabric strap added a lot of bulk to the watch. However, it would have been nice if the watch was slightly more compact - say a 10% reduction in all dimensions, but without compromising the legibility of the screen.
Text colour: There is really not much else I wish to critique about this watch. However, to round out the three points, I will say that the purple 'BEARING' text makes the watch a little toy-like - I wish that text was white instead.
As always, I hope you have enjoyed this review.