Casio G-Shock Digital GBD-H1000-1ER

Product Information

On the plus side, it is rugged for sure and well-protected against the elements. The watch can withstand vibration and it is also watertight and rated to 200 metres so you can swim in it (it won't record heart rate underwater though). The screen is bright and has a good contrast so it's visible in broad daylight. There’s a steep learning curve for the watch’s proprietary OS, too. With six faces and seven mode screens to delve through, it takes time to understand the role of each button, which can change depending on the mode. After several weeks of testing, certain inputs still felt unintuitive – and it’s telling that the user manual requires a flow chart to illustrate how to navigate the interface.

The heart rate monitor experience is a lot like what we've experienced on other Casio smartwatches. As in, it's not great.The G-SQUAD PRO GSW-H1000 runs a hybrid operating system that combines Casio's own software with Wear OS. The result of this tinkering is not a seamless user experience, especially if you haven't used a similar watch before, which I assume will be the case for most people. That’s a relatively LOW resolution for a Wear OS watch but ‘better than normal’ when compared to some Garmin/Suunto outdoor watches eg Fenix 6X: 280 x 280px and Suunto 9 320x300px. Although it should be noted that Suunto’s outdoor Wear OS watch, the Suunto 7, comes in with a higher resolution of 454 x 454px. The resolution of the Casio should be enough to render a decent map and more than enough to deliver some quality to the somewhat quirky & distracting screens you can see in the image below.

A whole range of metrics are available on-screen during runs, including splits, pace and heart rate. The volume of data can sometimes feel overwhelming, but the layout can be rearranged through the companion app and it’s all useful once you know what’s where. After you finish, the results can be dissected on the watch itself – except for the route map, for which you’ll need the app. Battery life A 3-axis accelerometer measures step count. Step count display range: 0-99,999 steps; step count reset: auto-reset every night at midnight (0:00), step count accuracy: ±3% (from vibration testing machine)The maps are nicely detailed and you can pinch and zoom into areas. When you do that, there's a little bit of a delay as it readjusts the level of information but you're essentially getting a nice Google Maps experience on a watch here.