Sunday, November 29, 2009

My stupid GR-500A Casio G-shock watch.

I bought a watch for myself on Father's day this year. How ever long ago that was, it didn't take too long for me to break the thing. This is a rather expensive watch, the CASIO G-SHOCK GW-200A. It's used by some militaries. You never have to buy a new battery (HAH!) because it features a rechargeable solar battery that can (quoting from the manual) "Charge in sun or artificial light to a full charge and the battery will work for11 months even if the watch is placed in a drawer."

Liars! Two weeks ago, when winter kinda started and I started to wear a coat, the watch spent some time under a sleeve and the battery quickly died. I charged it under a light all night but it would only come up to a half charge, and it died again a few days later. What a piece of crap watch! I did some research and this happens in a few cases, and it's the battery that has just gone bad, the CTL1616. So I call up "The Source" and they tell me they have it so I make a trip out to replace it.
Turns out they didn't have it. They had a CR1616, just a regular lithium battery. What the hell, it should work. The girl behind the counter insisted on replacing it and I let her. It seemed to work!

That night I went home, froze my butt off at the Orleans Parade of lights and took a warm bath afterwards - and my nice watch filled up with water. The salesperson at "The Source" didn't put the waterproof seal in right. I saw it sticking out when I inspected the watch closer. It's sitting under the hairdryer now but I don't have high hopes..

I've killed SUUNTRO outdoor watches as well. I am going to re-think my whole outlook on watches. I'm going to buy cheap $20 watches and jut throw them away when I bust them.

I think "The Source" has some of those.....

2 comments:

Kenmore said...

that what you did to your GPS? They don't work well either once you remove the waterproof seal.

Evolving Squid said...

In 1987 my parents gave me a gold watch when I graduated university. In 1988, some asshole stole it from my desk at work (in Ottawa, at DND - really, I thought that in a room full of military officers and civil servants with security clearances that I wouldn't *HAVE* to worry about a watch on my desk for a few minutes) when I was out for 5 minutes to wash my hands after rooting around in some gunk under a suspended floor.

I've never worn a watch since. We're surrounded by clocks - computers, cell phones, GPS, cars, telephone displays... It's easy to find out whta time it is.

I have two pocket watches, and I carry one sometimes if I'm in a suit for some event.