Review on Waterproof Solar Digital Sports Watch For Men - Casual Army Watch With Luminous Display, Stopwatch, And Alarm by Ryan Springer

My son needed a watch with a digital display that he could read easily, and this CKE seemed to fit the bill. I've been checking out the functions-- the time display is very clear and reads like a 24 point bolded font. A push on the upper right button and you get the date, which is equally easy to read. I strongly suggest going through the sheet of directions as some of the function buttons are a bit counterintuitive. For instance, you need to press the upper and lower right buttons to turn the hourly chime on and off. The standout feature of this watch is the LED backlight. By depressing the upper left button, the dial numbers illuminate with the hour and minute shown in a bright icy blue color and the seconds in green. The watch also has other features such as a stopwatch mode and an alarm mode.So why only 3 stars? I was also hoping that this watch would be completely solar powered and would not need any battery replacement. I do see what appears to be a small semi-circular solar panel at the top of the dial. But printed on the watch’s caseback is the following "BATTERY CODE CR2025,” which I understand is just a standard 3V cell battery used by non-solar watches. Some solar watches may use the rechargeable 2025 size batteries, but this would be printed as such. This was a bit confusing, and definitely disappointing that the watch was not completely solar powered as stated. Moreover, I tried covering the watch dial and solar panel portion for a day, and then checked the watch later in low light conditions. The display was functioning normally, had the same amount of power, and didn’t have to come back on at all. My kids already each have Casio Tough Solar watches, and the screens blank when they are in the dark for a while, but come back on after they are exposed to light again.Finally, my husband said we should just look at the battery and see if it’s a rechargeable lithium or a standard CR2025. So he unscrewed the watch caseback and the single screw battery latch to find -- just a regular Maxell CR2025 battery. While it’s still possible that some portion of the watch relies on solar power, at this price point, it seems doubtful that this watch uses a digital module that relies on 2 separate power sources.It’s still a decent digital watch for the price, but be aware of this issue.