Casio’s made watches for decades for the outdoor adventurer, and the Casio WSD-F10 isn’t much different except for it runs Android Wear. The watch is a rugged outdoor watch perfect for trekking, cycling, fishing or anything in-between. The watch sports altitude, atmospheric pressure, and direction measurement sensors. Of course the watch military standard compliant and 50M water-resistant.
As I watched Casio take the press conference stage and outline their watch, I thought of the perfect pairing for this phone: Samsung Galaxy S6 Active. The S6 Active is meant to be a little more rugged so the outdoor adventure could take the phone with them on a fishing or hiking trip. Pair this rugged Android phone with an equally if not more rugged Android Wear watch the wearer would be set on their outdoor trek.
Features
The watch comes with six different Casio watch faces featuring barometric pressure and altitude readings at a glance, and of course with apps like Runkeeper, ViewRanger, or MyRader the watch could become your best friend. The watch is compatible with all the Android Wear apps, and beyond the Original Watch faces the operating system is skinned in any way.
The watch is said to get one day battery life if the watches smart features are turned on. The watch has a “time piece” function where the watch doesn’t communicate with the smart phone, and only displays the time of day and date. With the “time piece” function enabled users can expect one month of usage before the next charge is needed. This is perfect if users are out on extended hikes and only need to check the smart features when in cell range.
The watch also has its own app named the Casio Moment Setter +. The app helps the watch with tool, activity, and Moment Setter features on the app. The app will be on the Android app store, but absent from the iOS store. Oh did I mention the watch will be compatible on the iPhone, but with limited capabilities!
Hands On
After the press conference I demoed the Android Wear watch on Friday to see if the watch was something I’d recommend to my outdoorsy friends or if it was a bust. The watch is amazing, in part to Android Wear being one of the more robust watch operating systems. The watch felt premium, and the glass protected by a large bezel so you shouldn’t easily scratch it. The only thing that stood out, and the PR rep demoing the watch was noted was the large size. The watch is for a larger wrist, and if you’re a man or women with a smaller wrist you can forget about this device. I asked if Casio had plans for a smaller watch face or smaller design in general but they said they haven’t heard anything yet, but she said she’d been asked that hundreds of times.
I would recommend the watch to a lot of my friends who go mountain biking, fishing, and hiking often. The only thing I would warn is if you have a small wrist or have a problem with larger bulkier watches this isn’t going to work for you.
Tell us in the comments below what you think about this Android Wear watch from Casio!