I bought this watch about 23 years ago. It has 24 time zones.
It measures temperature (either in 'on wrist' mode or in 'off
wrist mode'). It stores the temperature every hour for the last 24 hours.
It is reasonably accurate, and very handy to get an idea how cold it
got when in the outdoors. My backlight bulb failed after 5 or 6 years.
The waterproofing also went. Now if it gets wet, the battery
needs to be replaced and the watch guts need to be dried out. I
think the newer model doesn't have a lightbulb but an
electroluminescent backlight.
I have owned at least 2 Casio watches that measure altitude.
Since I teach navigation, altitude is a handy feature. The first
one also had a water depth gauge which I found a novel toy. As
for the altimeter, last time I checked it was very temperature
sensitive. According to the Casio manuals the displayed altitude varies
100 meters with a 10 degree C change. This makes it unsuitable for any
kind of serious navigation.
I think the watch was model
PRT700NT-7AV. The Casio watch has many features. It measures
altitude, barometric pressure, and temperature. Here are some
specs:
The Barometer (range 13.55inHg to 32.45 inHg, display unit
0.05 inHg) takes barometric pressure readings every 2 hours and
stores up to 10 sets of readings with the altitude and
temperature in memory. The Thermometer (range 14F to 140F,
display unit 0.2) checks the temperature once every 5 minutes.
The Altimeter (range -2300 ft to 19,680 ft., 20 ft. increments)
takes altitude readings every 2 minutes, displays them and stores
them in memory. With the Auto Light Switch on, simply tilting
your wrist 40 degrees toward you from the horizontal position
illuminates the EL backlight for about 2 seconds. Analog and
digital timekeeping. 12/24 hour formats. 1/100 second stopwatch.
Hourly time signal. Daily alarm. Countdown timer. 100M water
resistant.
Sounds pretty groovy, right? Well, there is some titanium. The
back of the watch case is stainless steel. Much of the front of
the watch is black plastic. Worse, the interface between the
watch and the band is black plastic. There is the conventional
pin between the watch and the plastic thingy, then another pin
connecting the plastic thingy to the titanium band. The clasp of
the band is conventional, with a secondary clasp to hold the
clasp shut.
Now for the problems. There are two models, one of which has a
backlight for the entire watch face, and another with a backlight
only for the two small LCD displays. I got the second one, not
realizing there were two different models, which is pretty
useless. I am used to the Timex backlight, and found the Casio
one very dim.
What is worse, is that under normal use, I had the primary
clasp of the band open. The band didn't come off, but it might
have. Also under normal use, the pin between the watch and the
cheapo plastic thingy connecting to the band opened. This made
the watch fall off. This is completely unacceptable, as a watch
that falls off is pretty useless for outdoor use.
Also unclear until I bought the watch is that the 10 readings
the watch stores must be taken manually, not automatically. The
readings every 5 minutes for temperature are not stored anywhere.
Check the owners manual before buying a Casio watch.
This watch is pretty rare. Mine is not
actually a Gulfman, but rather called the I.C.E.R.C. All-As-One
Dolphin & Whale. It is from the 8th International Dolphin
& Whale Conference, 1999. It is module DW-9700K, which is the same
as the Gulfman. I bought it on the web from
www.2000watches.com, a company in Malaysia. If you are
looking for one, be sure it is a DW-9700, as there is another
Dolphin & Whale watch. Casio also made a similar watch for
the 1999 USLA National Lifeguard Championships (DW-9700UL-9T). It
is really bright yellow and black. Mine is a much more subdued
transcluscent grey, which I greatly prefer. The Lifeguard watch
can likely be found on ebay, just search for Gulfman.
There is very little info on the web about this watch. Casio's
web page sucks, but if you enter the 'module number' of 2017, you
can get the owners manual. I was a bit leery of this watch, due
to the serious problems I have had with other Casio watches,
especially the Casio Titanium Pathfinder
Watch. All my worries were groundless. I now believe that
Casio knows how to make really good watches, even if they don't
usually do so.
The Gulfman is a pretty complex watch, no doubt giving rise to
the Casio description All-As-One. It is a G-Shock watch, which
means it is 200 meter water resistant as well as very shock
resistant. It is one of the early solar powered Casio watches.
The new 2002 Casio solar watches are more sophisticated, since
the solar panel is behind the display, rather than the Gulfman
way, on the face of the watch where the display isn't. I have
decided that solar power is pretty important for me, because all
other Casio watches end up not being very waterproof after
changing the battery. Solar power = not having to change the
battery = really waterproof. I called Casio tech support, and
they told me they had a really sophisticated way to seal Casio
watches, which is how it is done when the watch is new, and that
you can send back a watch and they will do it for you for around
$10 - $12.
The Gulfman has a mineral crystal face. This is much more
scratch resistant than a plastic face. The worst plastic face
watch I know of is my Suunto Altimeter
Watch , which is the watches worst feature. I think all
serious watches need a mineral crystal or synthetic sapphire
face. All the metal in the Gulfman is titanium. I have always
lusted after a titanium watch, and now I have one. By 'all the
metal', I really mean all. The watch case, the watch back, the
watch back screws, the strap screws, the band buckle, the band
retaining thingy, everything. You can see the details in the two
pictures below.
The Gulfman displays the phase of the moon, and the tide. It
can also display moon rise and setting times as well as sun rise
and setting times. It can do this for 8 different locations,
specified by latitude and longitude in one degree increments. The
manual lists many locations, though the tide information for most
isn't in the manual, though it can be found in other Casio
manuals, i.e. module 2532. The Gulfman also has the usual stuff
like 5 alarms, date, day of week, stopwatch, and the like.
One bad features are the nightlight has a picture of a whale
or dolphin, which makes it hard to read. Another bad feature is
the really tiny display of some data. You almost need a
magnifying glass to read some of it. The owners manual is also
quite unclear on a bunch of details.
Overall, I am pretty happy with the watch. The battery is
almost certainly a rechargeable lithium ion, and should last for
around 20 years. The watch is next to indestructible. It has all
the features I really need. Perhaps one day Casio will sell a
updated version of this watch, with a bigger, more readable
display.
I ended up selling mine, as the display was too hard to read for my
tastes.
The Avocet watch was the first reasonably accurate altimeter. It
sure is bulky and ugly though. A bad feature is it is rated to
about 10 feet of water resistance. Probably ok in the rain, but
that is about it. It has an anti-hysteresis feature which makes
it very accurate when accumulating altitude gained while hiking.
The battery life isn't great, and Avocet wants to change
batteries and recalibrate the watch. When I bought the watch, it
cost $5 to send the watch to Avocet. Then they raised it to $10,
and last time I checked, it was $20, which is unreasonable. There
is a circuit layout bug in the first generation watch which makes
the displayed temperature read high when it is very cold. I put
mine in a calibrated -40F, and it read -16F.
What is worse, is the band design. There is a elastic 'ski'
band, which is useless for me. There is a nylon webbing one, and
a rubber strap one. I used to have the nylon webbing one, but
when I was in Fairbanks Alaska, the plastic clasp that held the
nylon webbing shattered in the cold temperatures of around -25F.
The good news is that I called Avocet on their toll free number,
and there was a new rubber strap waiting for me when I got home.
I sent them the shattered plastic clasp...
My watch is now for sale. If anyone wants it, it is in good
condition, it just needs a battery.
This is a great altimeter. It is also reasonably waterproof and
has an easy to change battery. Just be sure to use a nickel on
the battery compartment lid, or you will cause it serious harm. I
have the one with the plastic face with the leveling bubble. The
bubble is cute, but the plastic scratches very easily. It sure is
a large watch. I recommend the glass faced versions.
Like most outdoors companies, Suunto has excellent customer
service. When I broke the band they sent me a new one. When I
stripped the battery compartment lid they sent me a new one (use
a nickel to open it). They didn't want any money for either
problem, which were my fault. I still haven't figured out what to
do with the rotating bezel for the compass... This is probably
the best altimeter watch available (though I am unfamiliar with
the Avocet II).
I bought this watch when I wanted
to go white water rafting and all my waterproof watches were too
expensive to risk in the river. It stores around 50 names and
phone numbers. It also does laps and the usual watch things. It
is reasonably inexpensive, had a very good light, has a excellent
reflective LCD that is easy to read during a full moon, and has
very high contrast during the day. It is also reasonably
waterproof. The worst feature is it is only programmable with
windows 95 or 98. It doesn't work with windows NT or 2000 (unless
you get a silly serial port led toy which costs about as much as
the watch.) I contacted Timex, and they claim that their software
simply cannot be made to work with windows NT or 2000. They have
some newer Datalink watches which do work with NT and 2000, so I
think the folks I spoke to were clueless or misinformed.
The new datalink has an USB connection. In addition to being a
watch, it acts as a personal organizer. It can hold hundreds of
phone numbers, appointments, notes, and the like. If my
ironman-datalink ever fails (unlikely) I will get this one.
I read about the Decision Maker on
slashdot.org in someone's list of essential electronic gear.
Having a soft spot for digital watches, I was intrigued by it. I
bought it from TokyoFlash, sellers of unusual
watches.
Even though the picture of the watch I found was white, the
actual watch was a turquoise blue. What was not clear from the
description or the picture, was the watch was designed for a very
small wrist, like a child's. The strap attached at an angle to
the watch itself, so on my wrist, the watch stood out a ways from
my wrist. Also the strap was very small. I recall it fit on the
last one or two holes in the strap.
It did work as advertised, which was very amusing. Sometimes
you had to shake it to get it to not shake the display. It
beeped. It flashed lights. It is made by Takara Corp who made
that weird electronic pet toy that was very popular in Japan. If
it wasn't for the band, I would have likely kept it. It also wore
out its battery in about 5 months. Fortunately, there is
ebay. Someone in Italy saw it, and I shipped it to them.
Since it isn't generally available anymore, I will include a
description:
Ever had a hard time deciding which direction to go, or should
I, or shouldn't I? Well this watch will do the deciding for you.
It is equipped with several functions that can point you in the
right direction or make decisions for you. 3 LED lights flash on
the side when functions are selected and all kinds of beeps and
screen savers are displayed. I have personally played with this
watch for almost 2 hours and there are still new displays coming
up. Push both buttons at the same time when in time mode and the
time display goes all wacky in un-countless ways. The numbers
blur, shake across the screen, go up and down like waves. It has
a virus scan, ram, CPU, memory screen displays. I think I will
stop here and let you find out the rest for yourself. The sound
can be turned off too, so you won't irritate everyone around
you.
English Instructions
Water resistant
Time Date
Alarm
Decision maker YES/NO and Direction Decider
The Decision Maker Watch by OVO "boots" up and pretends to be
a full featured PC, scans for viri, RAM, etc.. but it's actually
a watch that just helps you make decisions.
Why we like it: Not only will it answer your deepest most
important YES/NO questions with a spin of the dial and flashing
LEDs, it will also tell you which direction to go if you're
lost.
I bought the original Decision
Maker watch. It was too small for me, but otherwise very
cute. I was looking at TokyoFlash and saw the OVO Ana
Digi watch. I asked them if they had a copy of the owners manual
they could send me (which they didn't). I asked them if it was
for larger wrists than the Decision Maker (which they didn't
know). It looked like an interesting watch (and they sent me a
discount coupon) so I decided to buy it.
It is much more sedate looking than the Decision Maker. It
actually fits my wrist quite well. It would be nice if the band
was a bit bigger, but I can secure the strap. The strap is black
rubber and integrated into the watch, so it cannot be replaced.
The watch doesn't have any flashing LED's, nor does it make a
bunch of silly sounds. It doesn't even have shake sensors, or
weird screens (anti-virus, memory scan, etc.) like the Decision
Maker does.
It does have a decent backlight, which the Decision Maker
lacked. It has analog hands as well as a digital display (which
can be turned off). It has a timer, 2 alarms, a chronograph,
world time and a decision maker function. I am not sure how many
cities are listed with world time, but I would guess more than
20. I don't even recognize the name of some of the cities. The
decision maker function is much more sedate than the Decision
Maker watch, and just gives advice. You can even set the time to
24 hour mode (which I like).
The watch does use two batteries, one for the analog watch and
one for the digital watch. Hopefully the batteries will last a
reasonably long time. For me, this one is a keeper.
I think the watch was model
PRT700NT-7AV. The Casio watch has many features. It measures
altitude, barometric pressure, and temperature. Here are some
specs:
This watch is pretty rare. Mine is not
actually a Gulfman, but rather called the I.C.E.R.C. All-As-One
Dolphin & Whale. It is from the 8th International Dolphin
& Whale Conference, 1999. It is module DW-9700K, which is the same
as the Gulfman. I bought it on the web from 
The Avocet watch was the first reasonably accurate altimeter. It
sure is bulky and ugly though. A bad feature is it is rated to
about 10 feet of water resistance. Probably ok in the rain, but
that is about it. It has an anti-hysteresis feature which makes
it very accurate when accumulating altitude gained while hiking.
The battery life isn't great, and Avocet wants to change
batteries and recalibrate the watch. When I bought the watch, it
cost $5 to send the watch to Avocet. Then they raised it to $10,
and last time I checked, it was $20, which is unreasonable. There
is a circuit layout bug in the first generation watch which makes
the displayed temperature read high when it is very cold. I put
mine in a calibrated -40F, and it read -16F.
This is a great altimeter. It is also reasonably waterproof and
has an easy to change battery. Just be sure to use a nickel on
the battery compartment lid, or you will cause it serious harm. I
have the one with the plastic face with the leveling bubble. The
bubble is cute, but the plastic scratches very easily. It sure is
a large watch. I recommend the glass faced versions.
I bought this watch when I wanted
to go white water rafting and all my waterproof watches were too
expensive to risk in the river. It stores around 50 names and
phone numbers. It also does laps and the usual watch things. It
is reasonably inexpensive, had a very good light, has a excellent
reflective LCD that is easy to read during a full moon, and has
very high contrast during the day. It is also reasonably
waterproof. The worst feature is it is only programmable with
windows 95 or 98. It doesn't work with windows NT or 2000 (unless
you get a silly serial port led toy which costs about as much as
the watch.) I contacted Timex, and they claim that their software
simply cannot be made to work with windows NT or 2000. They have
some newer Datalink watches which do work with NT and 2000, so I
think the folks I spoke to were clueless or misinformed.
I read about the Decision Maker on
slashdot.org in someone's list of essential electronic gear.
Having a soft spot for digital watches, I was intrigued by it. I
bought it from 
I bought the original