Something about black or silver watches that make you seem just one of the crowd. It’s for this reason watch makers are always trying to find ways to really set their products apart from one another – Casio have just released the GA1000-4A into Australia and it does a pretty good job at that.

Casio GA-1000-4A

Casio GA-1000-4A

With a bright orange band and orange text accents around the watch and on the watch-face, this is one watch that you’re friends wont be able to not notice.

Onboard are two sensors, one for temperature so you can get a quick check on the current temp, and the other is a compass.

Press the large button on the side around the 9 o’clock mark and the second hand quickly becomes your compass North point. You can take continual readings for 20 seconds and while the second hand spins to keep North a small digital display gives you a written direction (NW/SE etc) and down the bottom another digital display gives you the direction in degrees.

It’s water-resistant to 200 meters and Shock resistant as you’d hope with it being a “G-Shock” and all.  Plus, my favourite feature is a bit nerdy – but world time-zones.  You click a button, cycle through 31 time zone’s by 3 letter code (SYD, TYO etc) and choose where you are on the planet – when you leave the settings mode the hour hand rotates around and around to adjust to your new timezone.  Brilliant.

Countdown timer, 5 alarms, fully automated calendar for dates and accuracy within 15 seconds per month this is a cracking little package from Casio.

Priced at $499, and available through Wallace Bishop jewellers

[schema type=”review” rev_name=”Casio G-Shock GA1000-4A” rev_body=”Bright orange colours, waterproof to 200m, compass and temperature sensors on board this is a cracker.” author=”Trevor Long” pubdate=”2013-09-11″ user_review=”4.3″ min_review=”0″ max_review=”5″ ]