Casio G-Shock GW-9400 RANGEMAN Review

Rangeman GW-9400 1ER Part 1: Finally arrived & Review

Hey Guys,

I went home after work today and there was message from my watch store nearby and they said "the rangeman arrived" so I picked it up immediately. I am so thrilled, this watch is the best watch I ever had. I will try to make a short review about it, my first one...hope it will be ok....

STRAP:
I just start with the strap (I just have the resin one) but it is awsome, it is stable, light and very flexible. I comparison to the Riseman it is much better in my opinion. It has a really nice pattern and on the outside there is also a little structured (same as the buttons) "lid" which stops the strap to open up. Don´t know yet if I prefer the metal strap holder over the resin ones but it sure looks nice

DISPLAY:
So, the display looks pretty good to me, in comparison to the rising dragon, it is more sharp and much brighter in daylight and while using the backlight. I liked the display construction of the Riseman and so I am very pleased with the Rangeman. I find it much easier to read the time from different angles, I had really big troubles with that on my PRW 2500 but on the rangeman it is perfect. I think the little bezel inside, is not easy to read but I guess after using it for a while, you get used to it.

BUTTONS:
The buttons feel very solid and have a very good pressure point, also using them with gloves is not a problem. The pattern feels amazing and this is by far a quality update to the Riseman

BACK:The back looks nice, there is no rubber over it just the metall plate with the jungle cat wearing a compass, but I like that they fitted it perfectly over the roundings from the buttons. BTW whats that litte "m" on the outer ring over the middle button? (Guess that´s an ingraving of my jeweller!)

ON THE WRIST:
Wearing it on the wrist feels really good, it is heavy and it is huge but I think it one of the more comfortable watches on the market.

Here some wristshots....

FUNCTIONS:
I compared the temperature to my small weatherstation at home, so I took the watch off my wrist for half an hour and then I measured the temperature, it was perfectly the same as shown in my weather station.

Compass: At first I thought it is not a good idea to put a compass in the small bezel. But as mentioned before I think you will get used to it afte a while. It works quite accurate and fast. I really like that the time is also shown in compass mode. Sometimes when I use the PRW2500 I cannot see the time so sharp and especially with this duplex display sometimes information gets covered. That´s not a problem for the Jungle cat

Altimeter: I didn´t calibrate it and went up a hill where the altitude is marked, the reading was 2 meters off. So that´s really good, I really like the fact that due to the v3 sensor it shows 1m steps, I always was a bit angry about the 5m steps with the Riseman.

World time: as usual, works really good and shows the whole city name.

Alarms: Works all fine and very well, it is just as loud as on the Riseman.

Stop watch/timer: I don´t know if this is new but when you are at youre homescreen and press "start/stop" it immediately starts the stop watch, I like that, the normal stop watch mode is showing the hours in the upper display, and in the middle the current time.

Sunset/sunrise: Sunset and sunrise time are both displayed at the same time and in the little bezel you see a 24hour circle showing current time, sunset and sunrise time as well, for me again quite hard to read...

Overall:
I really like the looks of this watch, it seems very durable and it is a G-Shock with ABC...it is really comfortable and well made...I love it

even my dog approved (normally she isn´t so easy to convince)

I hope you enjoyed it,

cheers

Toby

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Rangeman GW-9400 1ER Part 2: Outdoor review

Hey everybody ,

I recently did my first ever review over the Rangeman GW-9400 and I thought after using it outdoors for a few days, I let you guys know what I think of it.

So this will be an outdoor functionality review:

Barometer:Firstly, I think with every ABC watch you have to make adjustments to its accuracy of measurement. In my opinion it is not a precision instrument according ABC functions. But to be honest I am very surprised of the quality of the new v3 sensor, it works fast and quite accurate. For using the barometer to predict weather, I use it on a certain altitude for a while and then it delivers good results. What I really like about the rangeman is that you can see a barometric trendchart in your main screen, with time and date (as seen below) quite useful while outdoors

I was nearly at the same altitude for 42 hours and the result is a good and clear falling barometric pressure curve --> and yes the weather got worse and it startet to rain. I am used to the riseman, which works really well for me, the rangeman is just faster and the chart is displayed bigger. Also this Barometric alarm is quite ok...it works well but I don´t use it outdoors, I much more prefer to see the 42 hours measurement displayed instead of the 21. Here a more detailed shot:

Compass:As I mentioned in my Part 1 review, I was wondering about the readability of the little bezel which displays the compass arrows. And to be honest I am still not sure what to think of it. I guess it is good but not great. Especially when the indicating NORTH arrow is exactly on one of the bezels quarter lines (I hope you know what I mean, need to improve my english I guess).

What I really like is that the watch displayes quarters, eighths and sixteenth parts of the cardinal direction; not every ABC watch does that.

Altimeter:Works really well, as I mentioned about the barometer before. I calibrated it at my hometown where I know the exact altitude and after a few days it still is quite accurate. I went for a hike and did a 400m change in altitude and still it was spot on...(Rangeman: 803 m and the place was marked at 801,5 m)

I don´t use the altitude trendchart so often when I am outdoors but the altitude differential value is quite useful for me. When you don´t have an orientation point you can use it to have at least an approximate value of your contour line and if you know the altitude of your target location you can just reach this altitude and walk left or right (50/50 chance you get it right) That happened to me in India, without GPS and map, but I had my Riseman --> worked perfectly. This method is also mentioned in the manual, I really like that fact, too.

Sunset/Sunrise:This function is a real asset, I calibrated it first because I don´t live at sea level. But after calibrating it works perfect...spot on...

I think this is very useful outdoors, especially for hunters and photo enthusiasts. In the little bezel there is the current time, sunset time and sunrise time displayed .

Display visibility (day and night):
As I stated in my review part 1, the display is awsome. Even under hard light conditions it is very easy to read. I don´t know how that is working with the negative display. Even in darker conditions the display is easy to read without using the light. Much better in comparison to the riseman. If you need to use the light you can change between 1 and 3 seconds of light duration, this is very practical, if your navigating by night or need to see all of the information the display is offering. one second felt always a bit too short!

In the next picture I try to show you guys the awsome display in shadow and direct sunlight. I think this is a very important point of an ABC watch and in comparison to the PRW 2500 it is much better in direct sun light, perhaps this duplex display of the Protrek reflects more.

Overall:I think this is an really good outdoor ABC watch, the new v3 sensor works good and shows more preciseness. Stability should not be an issue for this "tank" and the display is perfect. The only negative thing I could spot is the small bezel inside and its readability outdoors. My wrist is a bit over 8 inches and the watch feels very comfortable but you feel the weight if you are used to a riseman for example. I really like the Rangeman...

Last but not least ,during my first review my dog was really enthusiastic and curious about the rangeman, I guess she accepted the Rangeman, now!

all the best,

Toby