It all started with a Breitling Emergency watch, which turned into a Bremont Chronograph for a while, and now seems to be a favored Casio Dynamic Wave Ceptor. Bear Grylls flirts with a lot of timepieces. With the absence of new episodes (or any more ever) of Survivorman, I have been forced to turn to the less real reality based wilderness survival show, Man vs. Wild. Survivorman's Les Stroud presented a more real show given that he was the star and cameraman. After a few short seasons Survivorman is no longer, but apparent promises from Les point to a survival related new venture.
The competitor of Survivorman, also on the Discovery channel is Man vs. Wild, a show that many of you are familiar with. Bear Grylls, the star of the show is an ex British Special Forces veteran who apparently knows the tricks to survival all over the world. Man vs. Wild. I am sure he is well briefed before entering new areas. Now a few seasons matured, Man vs. Wild has started to develop its character. While Survivorman was a real reality show Man vs. Wild is more entertainment with a reality veneer. With a camera crew following Bear, he is never in such real danger, but it provides for a more visceral show as he can take more chances. During his wild pursuits, Bear has provided an interesting array of wrist watch choices. The newest one is certainly much less expensive than the previous models. With the Breitling and Bremont costing over $3,000 a piece, the Casio watch he has been wearing during the newest season is under $300. Certainly something you can see on TV taking abuse, and get yourself... to subject it to your own type of watch abuse.
[ad#text-image-banner]
The Casio Dynamic Wave Ceptor watch is model number WVQ-620DBE-1AVER, with a few other similar models in the line. The large steel 45mm watch houses an solar powered quartz movement that is also atomic clock radio controlled (not applicable in all the place Bear travels, as this model only accepts signals from the UK and Germany). The dial itself shows the time, 24 hour hand, and included in the watch is a full perpetual calendar, chronograph, dual time zones, a daily alarm, hourly chimes (which I am sure you can turn off to prevent annoying people). In addition to these features, there are a number of utility features on the watch such as a bright lume, backlight, auto daylight savings time, and 100 meters of water resistance. Again, at under $300, this isn't going to be the rugged watch to end all rugged watches. It has a mineral crystal (not sapphire), and the ion plated (IP) black coating on the bezel will come off with enough wear.
It took me forever to figure out what the watch was. I was sitting there at my TV pausing the DVR, and replaying it slowly to figure out what the watch was. I finally narrowed it down to being a less expensive Japanese watch, as opposed to something fancy and mechanical. I looked a lot like Seiko watches, but not quite. It was eventually through the help of a discussion thread on WatchUSeek.com that I figured out which Casio model it was, as I don't think this model Dynamic Wave Ceptor is available in the US. Thanks to them for helping to end the mystery. I think it would be cool to wear one of these technical looking Wave Ceptor watches, especially because Bear does in Man vs. Wild. Another story are his pants with reinforced tough black cloth throughout them. Those might look weird walking around the street in.
See Casio Wave Ceptor watches on eBay here.
See Casio Wave Ceptor watches on Amazon here.
 CASIO WAVECEPTOR MENS ATOMIC SOLAR STAINLESS STEEL WATCH WVA470DJ 1A  US $113.50 |
 casio wave ceptor US $15.00 |
 Casio Waveceptor Mens Atomic Solar Powered World Time Steel Band Watch WVA430DJ US $50.00 |
 Casio Waveceptor Self Adjusting Atomic 200M Watch US $48.00 |
 Casio Wave Ceptor Mens Watch WVQ550A 1A1V Atomic Chronograph US $30.00 |
 casio wave ceptor atomic timekeeping radio controlled for acurate 50m water US $48.00 |
[...] we don’t know, thanks to the investigative work of Ariel Adams author of aBlogtoRead.com, we figured out exactly what was on Bear’s wrist because it was hard to zoom in on his luxury [...]