The Casio Rangeman GPR-B1000. Upper-Class G-Shock, a watch for the hardest conditions – and guys? – and a very special mix of form and function, good ideas and questionable realization…

We should have a look at three aspects of it: looks, functions, and GPS.

We will get to a conclusion about the Rangeman that way; in this post I only want to address (most of) the first two aspects, the basics.

Full Disclosure: This watch was provided on loan by Casio Germany for a limited time.

First Impression / Unboxing

Looks

As a G-Shock, even a “Master of G”, the Casio Rangeman shows a mighty build, of course.

It is screwed together and equipped with seals and shock absorbers that make it water-, dust- and mud-resistant, protect it from impacts – and give it the typical ‘architectural’ looks of a G-Shock.

All that makes the Rangeman large, as well. Interestingly, its diameter is comparable to a Suunto 9, making it not all that extreme – or extreme, however you want to see that. It is an amazingly thick watch, though; the case is nearly twice as large in thickness as a Suunto 9.

Consequently, it is heavy as well. Thus, this is not a watch that carries easily; a runner of slender build like me gets a bit of strength training from wearing it. After all, it’s a full 142 grams.

How It Wears

As long as your wrist is thick enough – and preferably, if you also have muscles like a body builder or well-built fighter – the Rangeman is no worse than many a surfer’s watch or other large timepiece.

One certainly does not have to worry about scratching or destroying it. Chances are good, the Rangeman would be able to withstand rather more than its wearer.

The watch can easily be worn over a jacket, e.g. when that is a good option for winter use; the watch band is long (and wide) enough for that. For reinforcement, it contains a strand of carbon fibers, so there is no worry about breaking it, either.

Wearability in Everyday Situations

Shirt and blazer and a Casio Rangeman? As long as you don’t mind wearing the watch outside of your shirt’s sleeve, just covered by the blazer sleeve, it actually works.

The look will definitely be one of adventure-ready ruggedness; it certainly isn’t a watch that would go unnoticed or show a gentlemanly sense of style.

The functions, meanwhile, make it usable just like any other outdoor watch.

Functions

Functions and/in Menu Walkthrough

Time, Day, Date

The current time cannot only be set manually, it can also be synced with a time server via the Casio Connected app on the smartphone or from GPS.

In addition to local time, the Rangeman can also show UTC or world time (for 39 cities / time zones); it also offers automatic (or manual) daylight savings time setting.

By way of the app, more than 300 cities and automatic adjustment of time are supported.

Of course, date and day can also be shown; 12- and 24-hour time displays are available.

Stopwatch

For time elapsed, in steps of 1 second, with split time, for up to 999 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

Countdown Timer

For a maximum of 24 hours, counting down in 1 second steps

Alarm(s)

Up to four daily alarms can be set up, with snooze function.

Outdoor Functions

Digital Compass

Measures with 1 degree accuracy, shows the direction as one of 16 points with a graphic representation of the cardinal points and compensates horizontally.

Magnetic declination can be corrected, of course.

After its activation, the compass runs for one minute before entering standby.

Barometer

Measures from 260 to 1,100 hPA in 1 hPa steps, with graphic representation of the air pressure trend of the last 48 hours and storm warning. (inHg are also available as unit.)

Altimeter

Altitude can be measured from -700 to 10,000 m in steps of 1 meter; relative altitude differences can be measured between -3000 and 3000 m of difference. And altitude changes are shown in a graphical profile as well.

Thermometer

Measured between -10 and 60 degrees Celsius, in steps of 0.1 degrees.

Watch Faces / Display

The above everyday and outdoor functions can be activated as individual modes but also, for the most part, as something like watchfaces.

The Casio Rangeman is not a smartwatch, nor even trying to work akin to one, so there are no true watchfaces to pick in the app or anything like that. The different displays / watch faces for these functions/modes do exist, however.

Sun, Moon, and Tides

Sunrise and sunset times can also be shown as one of those watch faces; moon phases and tides are only available after a fashion:

Modes/Functions in Use with the Casio App

In conjunction with the Casio app, one can also have the Rangeman shows tides and moon phases, in addition to the above basic functions.

This link also offers a “Find my phone”-function. However, I have only seen this work spottily. (After all, in normal use, the watch only connects to the smartphone when one activates that link manually in order to use it.)

The app also allows for control of some of the navigation functions, but that feature is the topic of the next post.

Some Tidbits

An indicator for the battery charge exists, of course. It only shows the estimated charge, represented by bars, however. Unfortunately, there is no more-exact display of the battery charge in percent.

Backlight for the LCD display (which is rated as working down to -20C, by the way) is provided; it can be activated via button press or to turn on automatically when turning one’s wrist; the light can be set up to turn on for either 1.5 or 3 seconds.

One main – and rather problematic – feature of the Casio Rangeman GPR-B1000 is the GPS (and) navigation. There, we are turning next…

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