CES 2017: This Casio Android Wear-powered watch wants to keep you from getting lost

In the short time I was able to visit the Las Vegas Convention Center outside of covering Lenovo’s events, I stumbled upon Casio’s latest attempt at entering the smartwatch market. And for adventure junkies, it’s worth paying attention to.

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Called the WSD-F20, this watch now falls under Casio’s Pro Trek Smart Series. And it brings with it a much-needed feature: built-in GPS. What this introduces is compatibility with GLONASS and Michibiki satellite systems to improve tracking further. It also comes with coloured maps that you can download offline so you won’t get lost when data connection fails.

Aside from that, the watch gets a new Location Memory feature. What this does is it reads your location and lets you lay down markers by hitting one of the physical buttons. You can even leave voice notes for spots you want to revisit.

This rugged Android Wear smartwatch is built to military standards and is still water resistant up to 50 meters. To see what’s going on, the WSD-F20 has 1.32-inch dual layer LCD touchscreen (320 x 330 resolution). The watch also gets better activity tracking, especially for snow sports where it delivers additional data such as maximum speed for each run.

The WSD-F20 is set to get Android Wear 2.0 in the spring. But tiding you over before that is Casio’s own applications as well as those from third-party developers. The WSD-F20 has apps that include the likes of Moment Setter, an app to remind you of the best fishing times; Tool, an app that shows real-time information on changes in the natural environment; and Casio Moment Link, an Android-only app that makes use of GPS to show your location to a group of friends and letting you chat with them via text messages.

It promises a battery life of up to a day if you have everything running and a month if you use it in normal watch mode. When you’re low on battery, it’ll go into monochrome mode.

The WSD-F20 is compatible with both Android smartphones and iPhones. It’s set to debut in the US on April 21 with a US$500 retail price (approx. P24,700).