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by: dr_dolphin On: 2007-04-26
After going through many, inexpensive watches, that quickly died for no apparent reason, I decided to go with a more expensive, and hopefully better, more durable watch.
My choice: I ended up choosing a Pulsar Sport PUA002 watch. It is water-resistant to 100 meters (yeah, like Ill ever test that!), and is called a Titanium which likely has more to do with its appearance and a sales image than actual materials used in manufacture, although theres probably some titanium in it somewhere.
It is made in Japan, or it was eight years ago. I did not buy it because it is a "sport" watch, and Im not sure what makes it one. I bought it because it had three things I liked:
1. A real solid, sturdy appearance, with a silver-colored case and band, with gold-tint highlights around the face. Its kind of big, but I dont mind that. To me, it just looks solid, sturdy. Oops, I already said those words. I shall refrain from using them again. Thats a soli . . er, solemn promise.
2. Im a quadriplegic, with fingers that do not function much at all. I therefore needed a band that was workable for me, as I want to do as much for myself as I can. This band has a fold-over snapping clasp that I can easily manage.
3. As I said, I like the unusual, and this watch was unusual eight years ago. It still is. It has a lithium battery in it, but the battery is constantly being recharged by light. Where is the solar cell, the receptor? The black face can be seen, upon close inspection, to actually be a black mesh, and the solar cell lies just beneath, with light able to seep through. I have never had to replace the battery.
Lets face it: The round face has the black mesh background mentioned above. There are no numerals, but there are phosphorescent hashmarks at the five-minute marks, with most being rectangles, the thirty-minute and forty-five-minute marks being inward-pointing triangles, and the hour-mark being an inward-pointing diamond. Where the fifteen-minute mark should be, there is a window, with the day of the month, dark numbers on white background. For those who do need numerals, I lied; they are there. Around the very edge, just outside everything else, there is a little white line for each miniute-mark, and numerals for each five-minute interval.
Is the watch dated? The calendar feature, showing the day of the month, is a weak spot. It assumes that every month has thirty-one days, meaning that it is wrong five times per year. And, it is no fun to set. I have to dig out the instruction book, and do the tedious complex maneuver with the stem, back-and-forth. Actually, I dont have to do that, as I have calendars in plenty of places, and I just ignore what date my watch says it is.
A timely remark: I am very impressed by the accuracy of this watch. As with any quartz movement, the typical guarantee of being within three minutes per year is made. My specific watch outdoes that, and re-setting it for daylight savings time takes care of that. By the way, setting the time is somewhat easier than setting the day of the month. Thats easy for me to say, as I am physically unable to do it, and someone else does it for me, but those who help me have confirmed this fact.
Its time to stop now: In conclusion, other than the difficulty in changing the date, I am very happy with every aspect of this watch. Of course, the very act of writing this glowing review will probably tempt Fate into killing my watch sometime while I sleep tonight. But, I gambled on buying it, and that paid off. So, I will gamble on telling you about the watch.
Strengths: Appearance, durability, accuracy, durability, low maintenance, durability.
Weakness: Somewhat hard to set, especially for the day of the month.
Conclusion: I gambled on a more expensive watch, and this gamble paid off big, with over eight years of reliable performance and easy use and comfort.
Recommended: Of course.
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