Inexpensive, Ugly, Rugged and Somewhat Useful
SCORE GUIDE:
Appearance: 2
Wear: 3
Features: 3
Price: (as listed) 5
Average: 3.25, or 3 for our purposes
When my 3rd Timex Expedition broke (a nice, robust black plastic model with a plastic band and a compass...sigh), I needed to fill the "work watch" void with a new model. Sadly, realizing that my plastic Expeditions were all waiting to break, and noting that my two "non-work watches" possessed traits I really enjoyed (analog face and durable all-metal construction), I concluded my new every-day work watch would be like the other two, though less costly.
I shopped around ye olde Amazon for an all-metal watch with an analog face - for cheap. But not too cheap, right? I eventually found this Casio, and after reading the specs and distancing my perception that all Casios were cheap digital models often with numeric keypads for their built-in calculator, I pulled the trigger.
Three months later, here are my impressions, to help you make an informed decision:
APPEARANCE: I rate this a two (out of five) for the quality and appearance of the metal. Note that 90% of the watch is metal (housing, band, back) but four "rivets", part of the housing, the circle around the face, and the four buttons are an ugly matte dark gray that doesn't really show up in the Amazon picture. Not a big deal, but it looks cheap juxtaposed with metal. Next, the stainless steel is not particularly shiny, and the machining around the edges is rough - this is the first metal watch I've owned where the term "jagged" could almost be used. It isn't jagged, but it's not smooth, either. Finally, the black face has classy silver detailing with some white, red and yellow (as well as the requsitite "glow-in-the-dark" for the hands and top half of the hours). In total, a pleasing, easy-to-read face somewhat marred by the quartz-gray digital semi-circle inhabiting the bottom.
WEAR: I'd estimate my wrist where the watch sits is nine inches around, and it fits loosely but doesn't dangle. A nice, comfortable fit, though if you have smaller wrists, this could be a problem. I don't know the logistics of re-sizing watches, but there don't seem to be any screws or access points. That being said, I'm sure it could be resized by a trained watch-resizing professional.
FEATURES: Besides my "analog face" and "metal" requirements, what intrigued me about this watch were the digital components, and these net the Casio a 3 out of 5. As I mentioned before, there is a small semi-circle quartz viewport on the lower half of the face. This smallish window holds the digital time (which must be set independently of the analog time - confusing to say the least), the day and date, a number of presets for global city times (for the globe-trotter that wears Casio?), a timer, a chronograph (for the long-distance runner who wears metal watches?), a programmable alarm (with snooze!) and the most unwieldy, bizarre data-entry feature you might imagine, the "Telememo 30" which stores 30 independent strings of characters (words, phone numbers, the alphabet). Excepting the insanely useless Telememo, all the other digital features function reasonably well, but none excel and a few are insidiously confusing. For those that live or work in darkness, Casio's "Illuminator" watch-face lighting technology is a poor man's Indiglo. Spelunkers note: do not plan on using this watch in total darkness.
PRICE: I scored this watch for $23, about the price one would expect to pay for digital/plastic watch with roughly the same features (unless you're talking a bare-bones analog face). The watch itself proclaims its "10 year battery!" - we'll see about that - but it might as well say, "Inexpensive, Ugly, Rugged and Somewhat Useful!". For a handy, metally, cheap-but-not-shoddy everyday work watch, this buster does the job.
Needless to say, I recommend spending a few extra bucks and getting a better watch.
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