Thanks for the info gism - I'm looking more the pro trek line opposed to the shocks - like you mentioned they can get a bit bulky.
Here are a couple that are in consideration -
shorturl.at/doJQY
shorturl.at/buNST
Maybe you can help me with this question -
In regards to the dial material - the green version says mineral while the black model says glass - is glass just glass or is it another way to describe mineral or a sapphire(if that makes sense)?
Thanks
your short urls didn't seem to work for me. Again though, I'm not a digital watch specialist, I much prefer automatic watches in almost all situations. My g-shock is basically my gym watch and my measure-the-accuracy-of-my-mechanical-watches watch. Although I did take it on an o/s business trip once and the multiple timezone function was very useful.
As for the glass, it sounds like the sites listing them don't have a clue! if it's the same model but they are listing the materials differently, I'd double check/ cross reference the specs if in doubt.
Watch crystals are basically made using 3 different types of materials; sapphire, mineral or acrylic
Sapphire is the toughest/ most scratch resistant, but it can very glary depending on the light and/ or whether or not it has AR (anti-reflective coating). If you do get a scratch, you know you were playing very hard. Probs can't buff it out either! expensive to replace but crystal clear to look at.
Mineral is kind of a grey area and some companies like Seiko make their own idividual compounds (i.e. hardlex). Scratches easier than sapphire but I guess the benefit is that it's harder (?) and pretty cheap to replace?
Acrylic is an acquired taste because it tends to scratch fairly easily. The benefits are that you can polish/ buff it back to life quite easily, it's not glary like sapphire and it gives the dial some more "warmth" if that makes sense? It's also fairly shock/ crack resistant hence why it was used on a lot of old vintage divers and the original omega speedmatser that went to the moon. Doubt you'd see it on a digital watch, usually reserved for vintage pieces. Also easier to manipulate than sapphire hence why you see lots of funky domed acrylic dials whereas domed sapphire is only really a recent phenomenon.