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TrailFit Review: Casio Pathfinder PAW1300 Series

Posted November 28, 2007 at 11:34 AM by Paul Peterson

Section: Gear & Apparel

It is essential to track and monitor your body’s performance and response, as well as the surrounding elements to which you are exposed, whenever you are participating in outdoor activities such as trail running, hiking, backpacking and fastpacking. GPS technology provides information such as speed, altitude, and bearing, but often requires athletes to carry yet another device and is generally incapable of providing weather-related information.

Casio has introduced the Pathfinder Series as a way to disseminate vital information to trekkers using the low-profile and convenient platform of a wristwatch. I recently had the pleasure of exploring the 3V model of Casio’s Pathfinder PAW1300 Series and tested it on several types of training runs and within various environments.

Many of the PAW1300’s features and attributes were very appealing.  The following list is comprised of the features that I found most beneficial:

• Atomic Timekeeping. With this watch you will always have the correct time, thanks to direct radio communication from the atomic transmitter in Fort Collins, Colorado.


• Solar Battery. The solar cell is charged frequently from both direct sunlight and artificial indoor light. Not only is this environmentally friendly, both you’ll never have to worry about your watch going dead in the middle of an adventure.


• Digital Compass. Know your bearing at all times. The embedded compass displays the angle value, direction indicator, and four graphic direction pointers. The watch also allows the user to store and recall compass readings.


• Barometer. The Pathfinder stores barometric readings every two hours, and graphs pressure for the last 26 hours. This allows users to predict weather patterns on the fly.


• Altimeter. Using air pressure readings, the watch estimates, stores, and graphs current elevation and elevation changes. It even can alert you when nearing a target elevation.


• Thermometer. A built-in sensor can display temperature in degrees F or C. It also works underwater, and be used to take stream or lake readings.


• Auto Backlight. At night, just tilt the watch toward your face, and the LEDs automatically light up.


• Tough Band. This watch can truly take a pounding without breaking.

As seen above, the feature list of this watch is truly impressive. I remember being impressed by calculator watches when I was kid, but these Pathfinders truly raise the bar of features that can be assimilated into a normal-sized wristwatch.

This bevy of features leads to the only real downside of the watch: its tremendous complexity. This is demonstrated by its hefty 153-page user’s guide, which I had to wade through several times before I became adept enough to calibrate and operate the Pathfinder’s sensors. Plan on investing some serious time into properly learning this piece of equipment.

Once the watch sensors were properly calibrated and I had conquered the learning curve, I found the various measurements to be fairly accurate. I particularly had good experiences with the altimeter, and determined its readings to be quite close to known benchmarks along some of my favorite hikes. And the elevation profile is a nice feature as well.

The Casio Pathfinder PAW1300-3V (Pictured, above right) retails for $300. With this hefty price-tag, the Pathfinder is certainly not for everyone, but should find a strong niche among outdoor enthusiasts and athletes (both recreational and competitive).  If you are a trailrunner, adventure racer or even a dedicated back-country trekker, I would recommend adding one of the Pathfinder models to your running arsenal as it’s features will be specifically appealing and advantageous for your purposes.

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Tags: altimeter, atomic-timekeeping, barometer, casio, casio-pathfinder, casio-pathfinder-paw-1300, digital-compass, outdoor-enthusiast, outdoors, pathfinder, product-review, running-gear, solar, sports-watch, thermometer, trail-running, trailrunning, watch

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