Casio just put out the PRJ-01, and it's the most stripped-down Pro Trek the line has ever seen. No compass. No altimeter. No thermometer. No Triple Sensor at all. Just a three-hand analog dial running on Tough Solar, and a price tag most of the lineup can't touch.
What actually changed
The Pro Trek name has always meant one thing: a digital instrument for your wrist. The PRJ-B001 in 2024 started walking that back with an analog-leaning display. The PRJ-01 finishes the job. It's Casio's first fully analog Pro Trek, full stop.
Size dropped hard too. The PRJ-B001 sat at 46mm, which is a lot of watch for most wrists. The PRJ-01 comes in at 39.1mm. That's not a small revision, that's a different watch category. If the size of past Pro Treks kept you away, this is the one built to fix that.
What you keep, what you lose
You still get Tough Solar charging, rated for up to five months on a full charge with no light. You still get 100m water resistance and a date window at 4:30. Casio also coated the whole dial in Neobrite lume, hands included, so it holds up in the dark.
Here's the trade-off nobody should skip past: there's no backlight button. Past Pro Treks let you hit a button and light the dial on demand. The PRJ-01 doesn't have that. At night, you're relying entirely on how well the lume charged during the day. For a hiking watch, that's worth knowing before you buy, not after.
The case shape, and the carabiner
Casio also played with the bezel shape here, giving the PRJ-01 a diamond-style case that can be worn straight or rotated to shield the crown. It's a small design flex on an otherwise no-frills watch. The PRJ-01AE versions add a carabiner attachment, so the watch can clip to a bag or belt loop instead of sitting on your wrist, which is a real feature for anyone who actually hikes rather than just wearing a hiking watch around town.
Price and availability
Right now the PRJ-01 is only listed on Casio's Japanese site: 25,300 yen for the base PRJ-01-1, roughly Dhs 600, and 31,350 yen for the PRJ-01AE models with the carabiner strap option, roughly Dhs 750. No confirmed pricing yet for the Gulf or North America, and Casio hasn't given a firm release window beyond later this year.
If you want something in this vein that's already on shelves, the Casio Pro Trek PRJ-B001B-2DR is the closest thing we carry right now: same simplified direction, Bluetooth connectivity, and the outdoor build the Pro Trek name is built on.
We'll update this post once regional pricing lands.
