Casio’s first Android Wear smartwatch is geared for outdoor activities

Casio is widely known for making more traditional digital watches, but they’ve in fact been a long time exhibitor at CES. Last year, they announced a GPS connected watch. This year they are showing off an Android Wear smartwatch geared for outdoor usage.

The intended audience for the Smart Outdoor Watch WSD-F10 is people hiking, cycling, and fishing who want to check their smartphone but do not want to risk damaging it. As such, this thick and bulky device has military grade water resistance and several hardware sensors not found on regular Wear devices.

The data from the built-in pressure sensor, compass, and accelerometer can be accessed from one of the many shortcut buttons found on the watch’s sides. The buttons are intended for operating the device when wearing gloves. Casio includes several watchfaces that look like their current watches. In addition to Casio’s software customizations, several fitness apps have been preloaded on the watch. But beyond that, Android Wear still works the same.

The Smart Outdoor Watch’s 1.32-inch screen has a monochrome time-only mode that can extend battery life up to a month. Its 320 x 300 resolution has a ‘flat tire’ like the Moto 360 and battery life with the regular display is rated at over a day.

This smartwatch is likely too bulky for normal everyday usage and its looks are more inline with a G-Shock than with any other current slim smartwatch that tries to say out of sight. The watch will come in four colors and will be available in April for $500.