So I'm a big Gshock fan.  My Tough Solar Gshock still works well, but my kids like to steal it and wear it.  So I got myself a Casio Protrek Triple Sensor.

While I love the watch otherwise, I find myself really disliking the negative display.  In lower light, it is unclear and you have to take time to figure out what time it is, instead of a quick glance like my other watch.

For example - this is not my picture, but the exact same watch, and it looks the same.



I have seen guys online that take the watch apart and change the polarization film, to a positive display, like this... Looks much better.  

Why did Casio do this?  It is like this on many of their watch models.  Does it look more "tactical" or something?  Is there a reason?  Does it reflect less?  The face of the watch still reflects light, so I don't think that is the answer.  

I may attempt to take the watch apart and do the conversion, but hate to pull a brand new watch apart - the sensor cable is easy to tear.

Dark band, dark bezel, some people prefer a dark screen.
I even picked a dark negative face for my Huawei.

Ambient (always on):


Active:

My Suunto Core has a negative display... and it sucks.

Yea, I noticed that the negative displays show up really well in full light, when outdoors... but otherwise, hard to read.

I just got a RMA to return the watch to Amazon, and ordered the exact model except with a positive display.  Hopefully it will be much easier to read.

Negative has it's faults. Up until the Suunto Core became popular few digitals were negative and most didn't care. But - tacticool - and the idea spread that it was "military" or covert or something. Frankly the large empty black dial seen from across a room is anything but tactical or even covert - it's more "look at me I'm different!"

So far I've avoided them - and getting older the eyes aren't going to tolerate them more in the future. But - on the other hand - I do see negative displays used on G Shocks and other watches. The one thing they help with is to reduce the clutter on ana-digital dials so you can see the hands and markers more clearly. A good comparison would be the GAX-100B-1A vs GA-100L. While the fields are different the point Casio was making is the GAX has Diver style clarity (but lacking lume) while the GA can be had in versions that create a lot of difficulty seeing the time. G Shocks using their wacko hands and minimal marks are bad enough, add multicolor dials and then large positive digital displays with contrasting color backgrounds and they get downright silly.

Note the Aviators keep it to a minimum on a lot of those watches - for $$$ more the customer wants to read the time not look at a slowly changing Mario landscape. A negative display clears up the background.

Now, can you see it in low light? Lot's of G Shocks lack back lighting, unlike Timex which seems to celebrate it on almost every model. On the other hand not many Timex watches have solar, atomic, tide, moon phase, 100 cities, 48 time zones, can be dropped from 30 feet, handle 200WR and do it repeatedly, etc etc. You get what you pay for so EL or backlighting on a G Shock is one of the compromises. EL is also one of those features which does deteriorate over time.

"BUT I CAN'T READ THE DIGITAL IN THE DARK!" Ok. So? A lot of watches, you can't even see the hands in the dark, much less mess around with time zones, record lap times, or view when the next high tide is in. You are in the dark - movie theatre, walking the beach, driving home from dinner. It seems some make a lot out of it, but when you are in the dark, you can either curse it or do something about it. Me, I get a Nitecore Tube out of the pocket and turn it on. Oh look - light. Now I can see.

Why is that so hard to do? Because it's easier to complain, I guess. First world problem. There are some who think a watch should have so much illumination they can use it as a wrist flashlight and observe any function of the watch at any time. Well, we can do that with a smart watch if we are willing to have no power reserve measuring more than a few minutes in a 24 hour period of use. Otherwise, the G Shock will go years - Casio claims 2 or 3 for a non solar - which is about half what is actually experienced.

You want to light up your sidewalk with a watch face full of illumination it's going to cost you something. For the most part the public understands that, it's the watch fans who live on the edge of rationality who complain. You can't have a high lume emitter and lengthy power reserve - not affordably or small enough to wear on your wrist. Even at 1 lumen rating the Nightcore will only go 40 hours. We are far from being able to have glowtorch backlighting - unless you give up battery life to the point it's obnoxious.

Having lived with that fact for a long long time it's obvious to me but it would seem that others lack a grasp of the technical reality. That means if you accept a negative display you either compensate for it with a portable source of illumination or choose otherwise.  What is amazing are the number of posts I've read on it which haven't yet realized the elements of the problem and why it's not yet possible to solve it.

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I didn't like the negative display I had.

The bigger question is why buy an ABC watch when the Garmin/Suunto ABC and GPS watches do not cost much more. You can also set the displays to positive, negative, or picture (in the case of the garmin) depending on how you feel.

For me it comes down to battery life.
When I actually use the ABC and a GPS it's when I'm deep in the backcountry, often for two weeks or more.
My Tissot ABC watch is solar powered and my Garmin GPS has more features than any ABC/GPS watch and the AA'a will last for the entire two weeks easily.

I would not suggest a GPS watch as your only navigation. It's about like using a Foretrex 401. However, you gain a ton of capability, backup or otherwise, in a small package that is more durable than a primary GPS and they are great cardio training tools if you are in to that.

I used Vectors/Cores for a long time and can't see any point going back to them.

Battery life tends to be about 20-200 hours with GPS on, depending on sample rate setting, and 30-50 days without GPS, bluetooth, smartwatch functions, etc.

Battery life on an ABC watch can be 2-5 years depending.

The issue isn't that - it's the negative display.

Negative displays have a place, it's that some folks have opted for them where they aren't really needed.

How many use them for "tactical" purposes? Very few. If you are doing so then you have to be more aware of light/noise discipline, using a lumen emitter means throwing a poncho over you to control the light when viewing it. Same when using a light to view a map for navigation. Since you will be controlling that, clarity of information is important.

Negative displays which dominate a watch face for civilian use are a STYLE choice, make a good one.

Casio has a new display out that's much brighter and sharper than their old negatives. They call it their STN Super Twisted Nematic display.  This is the PRW-3100 made for the Japanese market, but Jomashop has them now.

I like the size. The one thing I've always disliked about my Suuntos is that they are unwieldy for daily wear.

This PRW3100 is Casio's best ABC watch yet. I've worn a PAW2000 Pathfinder every day since ~2010. It has taken a beating and still works fine, it's just starting to look pretty ratty. The 3100 is the slimmest one out currently as well.

https://www.jomashop.com/casio-watch-prw-3100y-1bcr.html

I use the PRG-130Y and have no problems reading its display.  If very dark I just use the blue backlight, but it would be dark to read any display anyway.

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Got it several years ago (at least four) and it still works fine and the fact I do not have to worry about batteries anymore is a big one for me.   I originally got it just for doing outdoors stuff but it became my daily use watch once the others' batteries started dying.  

And the dark display makes it a lot more discreet to use in the office.