Wristwatch Review: Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer Digital Watch

The Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer Digital Watch is an attractive digital watch with a mission. This watch can tell you the phase of the moon, when the sun rises and sets, when to go hunting, and much more. It has an attractive camouflaged cloth and velcro band, a stainless steel back, and a green and metallic plastic case. The digital LCD display is ringed by a metal bezel which protects the watch face well. The Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer watch is well proportioned and not too clunky. The case measures about 45 millimeters across and about 13 millimeters thick. The leather-trimmed, camouflaged, wristband is about 20mm wide and easily fit my 8 1/2-inch wrists. I found this watch to be roughly the size of my Armitron All-Sport Digital Watch.

The best thing about the Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer is that it looks like an adventure on your wrist. Astronomers and werewolves will like being able to see the moon phase on the watch face. With a push of a button, the watch will tell you the age of moon (day in its cycle). The worst thing about the Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer is that you really don't want to lose the manual. I'm a basic analog watch guy and I find the Casio Pathfinder watch a little complicated. In fact, I postponed writing this review for months because I couldn't find my manual. Fortunately, I was able to find a manual on the web and download it. The manual is vital because you need to enter your longitude and latitude and the appropriate offset from Greenwich Meantime (GMT). The Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer is definitely not a simple analog watch like my Timex Expedition Metal Tech. However, the Casio Pathfinder watch is very cool once it is set up properly.

The core function of the Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer watch is its ability to identify the best times for hunting and fishing in accordance with Solunar Theory. According to Solunar Theory, there are two major times of day and two minor times of day when hunting and fishing is best due to the tidal influence of the moon. While explaining Solunar theory is beyond the scope of this wristwatch review, the Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer watch keeps track of these peak hunting and fishing times. Peak hunting and fishing times are displayed as black LCD dashes around the hashes on the bezel. The major periods are displayed as 4 dashes and the minor periods are two dashes. Each dash represents 15 minutes.

But wait, that's not all! When the wearer pushes the mode button on the Casio Pathfinder Hunting Time, the next display shows the moon phase, age of the moon, and the peak times cycle on the display. Another push of the button reveals the moon phase, age of the moon, time of sunset, and time of sunrise. If you want to test out Solunar theory, the watch has a data bank that allows it to remember times when the wearer pushes a button. Conceivably you could enter the exact time that you catch each fish on your next outing and check to see how the times fit the theory. The watch also offers stop watch functionality in case you need to time yourself in wind sprints against a bear.

Overall, at a retail price of $30 to $50, the Casio Pathfinder Hunting Timer watch is a howling good value and will delight any sportsman or werewolf on your gift list.

Sources:
Deer (Animal) Activity from Solunar Moon Sun, Kings Outdoor World website
http://www.kingsoutdoorworld.com/hunting-guide/deer_activity.htm