First, so you'll know whereof I speak, a little about me.
I'm 54, male, a professional pilot, flight test background, physically active, bought my first Casio in 1996ish, a DW-6630B-9 yellow G-Shock. I loved it so much I sold my GMT Rolex which was a [expletive deleted by moderator] and gave the money to charity. (Rolex's can't keep good time and cost too much to maintain given their lack of accuracy in my opinion.) I loved that G-Shock to put it mildly. Casio hit a home run as far as I was concerned. Best dang watch I ever owned. Period.
I wore that yellow dude virtually every day until 5 weeks ago. I run every other day, schedule permitting, and use the watch to time myself. Anyway, I decided to replace old reliable with something new. The GD-350-1B won due to the vibe alarm and gold digits (easier for my getting-older-eyes to see). Now, 5 weeks and 17 runs later plus 9 flights where I attempted to time various activities in-flight, I'm going to tell anyone who will listen, DO NOT BUY THIS WATCH unless you want to keep it in a glass case for the girls to stare at.
To point, and in comparison to the DW-6630;
1. The GD-350's large buttons are VERY difficult to discern from the case when running or if one must start a timer/SW with very little forewarning. All 3 large rectangular and single round buttons lateral edge spacing from the case is not sufficient for a tactile discernment between the button and case, in short, it's h#ll to tell whether your pushing the case or the button when one is under duress.
2. The tactile resistance, or 'push-back' of the button provides insufficient feed-back to allow one to detect that the button has been properly depressed to start/stop or change a function (in noisy environments or when running with an iPod one may not hear the tone).
3. Each buttons 'resistance to engagement' (push-back) is insufficient to prevent accidentally depressing a second button when intentionally depressing another. For instance, when running, if I use the split timer, my thumb will almost always also depress the mode button, which seems to have priority, and the watch will leave the stop-watch function altogether. It requires breaking stride to look down and focus on the watch, which is a huge no-no for an old guy running cross country!!
4. The current style of band causes the watch to constantly rotate outboard on my wrist.
For 13 years +/-, I NEVER had these problems with 'ol yeller. This new [expletive deleted by moderator] as well as Casio, really ... me off.
Cliffs: Buttons - SUCK, Button feel - SUCKS, Button arrangement - SUCKS, Band - SUCKS
Lastly, I really do hate knocking a product that good people worked hard to produce. But how is a company to fix something if someone doesn't stop to give the product a thorough going over and then report. Come on Casio, your better than this.
I'm 54, male, a professional pilot, flight test background, physically active, bought my first Casio in 1996ish, a DW-6630B-9 yellow G-Shock. I loved it so much I sold my GMT Rolex which was a [expletive deleted by moderator] and gave the money to charity. (Rolex's can't keep good time and cost too much to maintain given their lack of accuracy in my opinion.) I loved that G-Shock to put it mildly. Casio hit a home run as far as I was concerned. Best dang watch I ever owned. Period.
I wore that yellow dude virtually every day until 5 weeks ago. I run every other day, schedule permitting, and use the watch to time myself. Anyway, I decided to replace old reliable with something new. The GD-350-1B won due to the vibe alarm and gold digits (easier for my getting-older-eyes to see). Now, 5 weeks and 17 runs later plus 9 flights where I attempted to time various activities in-flight, I'm going to tell anyone who will listen, DO NOT BUY THIS WATCH unless you want to keep it in a glass case for the girls to stare at.
To point, and in comparison to the DW-6630;
1. The GD-350's large buttons are VERY difficult to discern from the case when running or if one must start a timer/SW with very little forewarning. All 3 large rectangular and single round buttons lateral edge spacing from the case is not sufficient for a tactile discernment between the button and case, in short, it's h#ll to tell whether your pushing the case or the button when one is under duress.
2. The tactile resistance, or 'push-back' of the button provides insufficient feed-back to allow one to detect that the button has been properly depressed to start/stop or change a function (in noisy environments or when running with an iPod one may not hear the tone).
3. Each buttons 'resistance to engagement' (push-back) is insufficient to prevent accidentally depressing a second button when intentionally depressing another. For instance, when running, if I use the split timer, my thumb will almost always also depress the mode button, which seems to have priority, and the watch will leave the stop-watch function altogether. It requires breaking stride to look down and focus on the watch, which is a huge no-no for an old guy running cross country!!
4. The current style of band causes the watch to constantly rotate outboard on my wrist.
For 13 years +/-, I NEVER had these problems with 'ol yeller. This new [expletive deleted by moderator] as well as Casio, really ... me off.
Cliffs: Buttons - SUCK, Button feel - SUCKS, Button arrangement - SUCKS, Band - SUCKS
Lastly, I really do hate knocking a product that good people worked hard to produce. But how is a company to fix something if someone doesn't stop to give the product a thorough going over and then report. Come on Casio, your better than this.
