42 OCTOBER2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE392
NEARLY40YEARSsincethe first G-Shock
watch, Casio is stepping up into serious sports
tracking territory.The G-Shock GBD-H1000is
awatch that combinesG-Shock’s renowned
toughness with all the featuresyou’d expect
of afull-fat sports-tracking wearable.
It’s waterprooftoadepthof200 metres,
so youcould theoretically wear it on ascuba
dive as well as aswim at your local pool. Its
rugged,shock-resistantcasingisdesigned to
protect the glassscreen andthe electronics
inside from most kinds of hard impacts.
As aresult,however,it’sapretty hefty
thing. It stands20mm proud of yourwrist, and
it’s heavy, too, at 101g. Nonetheless, it’smore
comfortable than it looks, andits big,
easy-to-press buttons make up forthe fact
that the displayisn’t atouchscreen.
FRIENDLY FACE
In fact, the displayisone of theGBD-H1000’s
best qualities. It’saclear,crisp white-on-black
memory-in-pixel(MIP) display–the sametype
Garmin uses on its high-end Fenix range –and
althoughit’s monochrome,it’s as easytoread
in brightsunlight as it is indoors.The built-in
side light makes it usable in the dark,too.
As farassensors are concerned, the watch
comes with everything amodernfitnesswatch
needs.There’s GPS, GLONASS and QZSS
compatibility forlocation trackingawayfrom
your phone, an optical heart-ratesensor,
accelerometers, abarometricaltimeter and a
digital compass.Startingaworkoutissimple:
all youdoispress the big Run buttononthe
leftside of thecase,waitfor the watch to get
aGPS lock, andpressitagain to starttracking.
There arenosport modes to speakof,
whichisasurprise in awatch with sports-
tracking pretensions. However, it is
possible to altervarioussettings
manuallytosuitthe activity
you happen to be doing.
Youcan turn off theGPS
forindoor training
sessions, forinstance,
or adjustthe
frequencywith
which theGPS radio
checks your
position; this can
save battery life on
hikes or longer runs.
It’s also possible to
customise what’s shown on
the watch face whileyou
exercise.Uptothree custom
CASIO G-ShockGBD-H1000
★★★★★
£379•From g-shock.co.uk
VERDICT
Acomfywatchwithstellarbatterylife,butheart-
rateandpositionaltrackingaccuracyholditback
FITNESSTRACKER
screens with three fields on
each are available, and you can
cycle between these screens
while you exercisebypressing
the up/down buttons on the left
edge. Youcan customise the screens
either on the watch itself or,more easily,
via theG-Shock Move app.
TheGBD-H1000’s training facilities are,
unfortunately,moreofamixed bag. While
the app lets youcreateatraining plan (based
on improving youroverall fitnessorbuilding
to aspecificdistance or race), theonly part
of theworkouts that are sent to thewatch
itself arethe targetheart ratefor each
session; you have to memorise any intervals,
target distances or times. It’s also currently
impossible to sync anydatawith third-party
servicessuchasStrava.
LOSTTRACK
While that’sannoying and, frankly,abitweird,
there are some unequivocally good things
about the GBD-H1000’s fitness-tracking
abilities. The main one is that the watch can
use advanced metrics to track your
improvement,estimating your VO2max, the
aerobic and anaerobic training effect of each
workout, and your training load over time so
you don’t overdo it and risk injury.
It’s ashame,then, that thisattentionto
detaildoesn’textend to
tracking accuracy,which we
found worryinglypatchy.
We’ve seen our recorded
heart ratejump to
extraordinarilyhigh
levels during low-
intensity exercise, and
notonlydoes GPS take
agestolockon, it
consistently gets
distances wrong
unless you’reona
fast runorbike ride.
Of course,very
fewsports watches
feature absolutely
pinpoint-accurate GPS
tracking, but it’s stillnot
ideal. Thelack of heart-rateaccuracyisalso a
particular bother,asitonly takesone dodgy
session to skew your overallVO2 max and
training load numbers.
Fortunately,battery life is much more
impressive.With continuous heart-rate
tracking enabled forabout half an hour of
GPS usage each day, we gotasolid week
out of asingle charge, andthis will more
than double if yougowithout GPSentirely.
Thislongevity is partlythanks to the
GBD-H1000’s solar-chargingpanel, whichis
built intothe display; it’s not enough to
keep thewatch going indefinitely, butitcan
keep it tickingalong forlonger.
OUT OF STEP
Despitethe presence of some advanced
metrics, however, this is not awatch for
fitness fans interested in delvingintotheir
running form and stats.The heart-ratemonitor
is farfrom consistent and theGPS, although
better,still doesn’tinspire confidence.
If that’swhat you’re mainly interestedin,
youshouldbuy aGarmin Forerunner, aGarmin
Fenix or possiblyone of Polar’sorSuunto’s
high-end fitness watches instead.
JonathanBray
PEDOMETERYes•HEART-RATEMONITORYes•DISPLAY
SIZE1in•RESOLUTIONNotstated•OS SUPPORTAndroid,
iOS•BATTERYLIFESevendays•WARRANTYThree years
RTB•DETAILSg-shock.co.uk•PART CODEGBD-H1000-1ER
SPECIFICATIONS
This is not awatch forfitness fans interested in delving
into their running form and stats
