Today I am writing about the marvel of technology that I wear on my wrist. It's my Casio Atomic Solar G-shock watch. It is my third G-shock watch. This watch contains two major features not found in most watches, atomic timekeeping, and a solar cell.

The atomic timekeeping means that the watch will attempt to set itself every day. There is a radio transmitter in the middle of the US, that is constantly broadcasting time signals that are synchronized with an atomic clock. Every day, in the wee hours of the morning, the watch will listen to these signals 3 times, an hour apart. If it can get a good enough signal, it will set itself to the time carried in the signal. The manual says to leave the watch so it can "see" out a window when it tries to set itself. I never do that, so it usually sets itself every few days. Even so, it is always within a second of the correct time. A graph on the dislay indicates the last signal level receiced, and pressing the receive button shows when the last synchronization took place.

My watch also charges itself in sunlight, so I don't need to worry about changing the battery (the manual says that it may need a new battery in 5 years, however). There is a charge level indicator with high, med, and low. When I bought the watch, it was at medium. It has been at high ever since, except when I was using the auto backlight. The auto backlight turns the backlight on when you turn your wrist at an angle that makes it think you are looking at it. Perhaps it should disable auto backlight if the solar cell indicates you are in bright light.

My watch also has a world time mode, which I never use, and a mode that takes recording of times. I never use that either. It also has 4 alarms, a snooze alarm, and a stopwatch. It doesn't have a countdown timer, like my previous g-shock had, which I miss. I liked to use the countdown timer when I was cooking stuff.

My watch is model GW300A-1V, which carries a suggested retail price of $99.00. I got it for $60 at Costco. I am very happy with it, and I can't wait to see what new things Casio will add to their watches next.

http://gshock.com/