Big Time

Loren Mooney

June 29, 1998

Forget the days of relying on hands for the time, on mercury for the temperature and on needles for the direction in which you're headed. Forget, for that matter, the need for separate gadgets. The Casio Pathfinder PAT-40 is all-digital and all-encompassing. This watch, which retails for $250, is equipped with a compass, an altimeter, a stopwatch and five alarms, to help ensure that you're never late and always know how to get where you're going. It also has a thermometer and a barometer to help you decide how to dress for the occasion. Whether you're scaling new heights in the mountains or looking for the way out of the urban jungle, this clunky wrist robot does all the work for you—except wade through the 62-page instruction book to figure out how it works.