Watches A to Z: Casio

Casio was founded in 1946 by Kashio Seisakujo in Mitaka, Tokyo. It's first product was a finger ring (called the Yubiwa pipe) for holding a cigarette while a smoker's hands were busy.  Profits from that ring (which seemed to be a viral product), helped the company get into electronics and they released their first calculator, the Casio 14-A, in 1954. 

Casio 14-A Calculator - Photo by Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1974, they released the CASIOTRON, their first digital LCD watch.  The case shape looked much like this modern watch on Amazon called the Casio Model Vintage Watch A171WE-1AEF.

Over the years, Casio has evolved into one of the best sources for reliable, practical, and reasonably priced watches.  While they got their start with calculators and digital watches, they offer plenty of good analog watch choices.   The company even makes diver-style watches now.  The Casio MDV-106 series (more popularly called Casio Marlin) provides a uni-directional bezel and a respectable 200 meters of water resistance. It's available here on Amazon. It's one of the best values in diver-style watches around.

Casio MDV-106 Marlin

As a watch collector, my personal journey with Casio started with the Casio Forester.  It's a great beater watch that stands up well to rough conditions and is light weight and comfortable in hot summer conditions.

Casio Forester

I've since branched out to own Casio Tough Solar models like the one shown below.  Even tougher that these outdoorsy watches of mine are the well-regarded, but slightly more expensive Casio G-Shock series of watches (available at the link on Amazon).

A Casio Tough Solar Watch

No matter whether you are collecting watches as a hobby or wearing watches to tell the time, Casio watches offer an outstanding value for the money.

The $100 Watch Collection: 5 Watches for a Total of $100

Watch collecting doesn't have to be cost prohibitive.  You can easily build a starter watch collection of several watches for less than $100.  With a little smart shopping online, you can easily find great watches for under $25 apiece.  For this post, I put together a five watch collection for $100 on Amazon.  It includes a dive watch, a minimalist business casual watch, an outdoorsman's watch, a tanker-style dress watch, and a traditional dress watch.

The great thing about this collection is that I actually own all of these watches and I can attest to them all actually being pretty decent watches.  While prices do fluctuate, you should be able to build this collection for approximately $100 total as of June 2024.

1. Casio Black Resin Dive Watch (MRW-200H-1BV) - At approximately $22 on Amazon or at your local Walmart, Casio MRW-200H offers a uni-directional rotating bezel, 100-meters of water resistance, and classic dive watch markings.  It's a legible, readable, watch that makes a great daily wear beater.  You can find a variety of number and bezel marking colors on these watches. 

Casio Black Resin Dive Watch

2. Brigada Men's Watches Cool Black Blue Business Casual (Brigada Minimalist) - For about $17, Brigada brings a great minimalist watch to the market place. It looks great on the wrist and feels very comfortable.  The company offers several varieties that give you some options about whether you want numerals or just markers for the hours.

Brigada Minimalist Watch

3. Casio Forester (FT-500WC-5BVCF) - This is a small watch that's built for the hiker.  For about $22, the Forester gives you a tough lightweight watch with a cloth strap that's perfect for hot summer days.  It's another beater watch that can take abuse. I love the sense of adventure that comes with the Forester name and it brings back many memories of late night dog walking in Florida and all the nocturnal creatures I used to encounter with one of the best dogs we ever had.  I think this one is the ultimate beater watch.

Casio Forester

4. Armitron Men's Genuine Crystal Accented Leather Strap Watch (Armitron Tank) - The rectangular shape of a tanker-style dress watch is an unusual sight these days.  I found one on special for only $20 on Amazon.

Armitron Tank Watch

5. MASTOP Men's Analog Quartz Roman Numeral Watch (SKMEI Dress) - Finally, this classic dress watch has the SKMEI label on the dial.  For only $17, this watch looks great and is a comfortable dress watch for daily wear.  I've had a similar dress watch from SKMEI and have reviewed it here.  You can find different dial colors.  But, the watch is attractive and functional.  Here is my review of a review of a similar SKMEI watch.

SKMEI Dress Watch

This small investment in five wristwatches is just a starting point.  They also serve as a baseline for watch purchases in your future.  These low cost watches are a challenge to the more prestigious brands to bring something demonstrably better to the market.

Watch Wearing Wednesday: The Casio Men's Analog Outdoor Watch (MRW-210HB-5BVCF)

 It's Wednesday, which watch are you wearing?  This is a watch I recently wore for a casual night out to a sports bar.  It's the Casio Men's Outdoor Watch with Velcro Band (Model MRW-210HB-5BVCF).  

Casio MRW-210HB

 I like this watch for its lightweight, comfort, and general wear everywhere bang-about-ability.  (That's not even a word.)  It's pretty much the kind of watch you can wear anywhere and everywhere.  It looks rugged and it's an easy to read watch.  There's really not much to dislike about it.  If you don't need the complexity of subdials, it might be a great alternative to the Casio Men's Heavy Duty Chronograph Quartz Watch (MCW-100H).

It would have been nice if Casio would have given this watch an adventurous name.  Adventurer, Explorer, Climber, Hiker, or Summit would have sufficed. But, I'm not a marketing professional. I guess nothing really says "Adventure" more than Casio MRW-210HB. 

If you'd like to find this watch on simple, but great, sports watch on Amazon, you can simply bang it here.  I also have other variants of this watch.  Back in 2017, I reviewed a Casio MCW-210H with a white face.  You can read that review here.

Watch Review: Casio Men's Heavy Duty Chronograph Quartz Watch (MCW-100H)

 If you are looking for an inexpensive, bang-around, watch for casual adventures and daily wear, you might consider the Casio Men's 'Heavy Duty' quartz chronograph watch.  This one is Model MCW-100H and generally retails for less than $50.  I like the large readable hands (including a white-tipped bright orange second hand), large hour indices, and practical analog features.

Watch Features

This Casio is an analog watch with sub-dials offering 24-hour time, a chronograph with seconds, and a chronograph dial with up to 30 minutes.  The watch has a readable date window canted at an angle between the 4 and 5 o'clock positions.

The Casio Men's Heavy Duty Chronograph features a Japanese quartz movement.  However, the watch itself is assembled in China with a Chinese case and band.

Watch Style

I find the style of the Casio Men's Heavy Duty Chronograph to be a real strong point. This watch offers much of the style of the popular Casio G-Shock series at a lower price point.  If you don't need the extra ruggedness of a G-Shock or the digital features of a G-Shock, this watch might be a nice alternative. It offers a utilitarian, adventurous, style that is appealing to most men.

I do like that the subdials are still just readable to me on this watch despite my aging eyes.  The watch hands are bright, large, and well marked.  The buttons and crown are protected from inadvertent activation by molded resin bump-outs.

The bright orange band also makes this watch very easy to find on a cluttered vanity top. It's always easy to grab for quick adventures around town.

While this watch is attractive, it's also obviously not an expensive watch.  There's no fear that it will be mugger bait.

Watch Construction

Despite the rugged looks of this watch, it is largely constructed from various plastics.  While the caseback is stainless steel, the watch band and case are made from resin.

If you are an actual adventurer, this watch is water-resistant to 100 meters so it should be fine for swimming or snorkeling, but not scuba diving.

At least one reviewer on Amazon have commented that the resin band on this watch feels more like plastic than silicone or rubber.  I'd have to agree, but I do find this band very comfortable and perhaps not as sweaty as some rubber watch straps can make the wearer feel.

Watch Dimensions

The Casio Men's Heavy Duty Chronograph is a little chunky, but not crazily so.  The case diameter for this watch is 49.3 millimeters and the thickness is 13 millimeters. The strap is 25 millimeters at the case.  It is generous in length and fits my wrist with room to spare.

It's definitely not a think watch, but it fits the wrist well and, thanks to the resin construction, it is lightweight.

For an adventure watch, I think the dimensions of the Casio MCW-100H are just right.

Overall Impression

As I read this review, I'm struck by the number of little compromises that were made in the design and construction of this watch.  Yes, the materials are cheap.  Yes, it is a little chunky.  Yes, it's not a G-Shock.  But, it is a cool watch. It looks good. It is practical and very readable and it is ready for all the adventures that I will dish out.  It is actually one of the best watches around for under $50.  This watch is available here on Amazon.

Wristwatch Review: Casio Telememo 30 World Time Ana-Digital Watch

A Futuristic Retro Watch?

How can a watch be futuristic and retro at the same time?  It sounds like a riddle,  but the Casio Telememo 30 World Time Ana-Digital watch provides an easy and inexpensive answer.

(This watch review is republished from my reviews originally published on Yahoo Contributors Network.)

How can a watch be futuristic and retro at the same time? It sounds like a riddle, but the Casio Telememo 30 World Time Ana-Digital watch provides an easy and inexpensive answer. This Casio has the square shape and stainless look of a classic watch from the 1960s or 1970s, but an aperture from 4 to 8 o'clock contains a fully functional digital watch.

This Casio's face is reminiscent of something you'd see on a classic car dashboard instrument or hi-fi dial. The analog watch hands have luminous insets as do the hash marks from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock. The slightly retro feel is enhanced by a cross hairs centered on the face of the watch. When you light up the watch at night, the watch is illuminated rather dramatically via a circle of lights that rings the dial. It may not be the most effective watch lighting ever, but the style of this watch is certainly a winner.

The face of the watch measures 1 and 1/2 inches across and the case is a 1/2-inch thick. The stainless steel band was a little disappointing. It was a tad snug on my 8 1/2-inch wrists and had to be worn on my wrist joint itself. Every once in awhile, I inadvertently activate a button or two on watch when I bend my wrist back while doing routine activities. I even accidentally set an alarm and had to consult the manual in order to shut it off rather than just snooze it. Fortunately, the manual is fairly understandable and I was able to shut off the alarm. After losing a little weight, the watch also fit perfectly.

While the watch has a retro look, it does have some very futuristic features. For example, the Casio Telememo 30 World Time watch has no crown! You set the analog hands by using buttons! It's amazing and fun to watch! Of course, it is another reason not to lose your watch manual. The Casio's Telememo features also allow the watch to remember 30 names and phone numbers. But, wait that's not all, this watch can also keep track of time in multiple time zones.

Using the instruction manual, I found it very easy to enter a name and phone number into the databank. While most people probably keep their numbers in a cell phone address book, this watch can be a useful backup. The time zone functionality was also easy to use. Codes correspond to major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow. If you simply pick the major city in your time zone, indicate whether daylight savings time is in effect, and set the time, all the other time zones will adjust automatically. The timezone and Telememo features are very useful in a watch at this price point.

It's nice to have a nice name-brand watch with an understandable manual. With low price watches like my Advance Watch Company Ana-Digital, it can sometimes be difficult or impossible to stop hourly beeping. I've been pleased with watches like my Casio Pathfinder. Overall, the Casio Telememo 30 World Time Ana-digital watch is a good value and, at a low price of about $25, it is an excellent deal for a watch with great styling and some interesting features.

Casio Forester - Time for a New Battery

My Casio Forester finally gave up the ghost.  It needs a new battery.  That could be a problem because I found the battery on my last one difficult to change.  You can read about that in my Casio Forester review:

Wristwatch Review:  Casio Forester Men's Analog Watch

Casio Forester (Model FT500WV-1BV)

Fortunately, the Casio Forester watch is quite inexpensive and after two and half years I can probably just get a new one.  Plus, the crystal on mine has a minor scuff.

Casio Forester (Back Plate)

This watch has been a good one for all sorts of little adventures from the swamps of Florida to walking our dog along a wooded path. I highly recommend it. I just wish I could change the battery smoothly.

Casio MRW200H Diver-style Watches - Adventure on the Cheap!

There are some watches that I see every time I go to the store.  They catch my eye, hold my attention, and then I put them back.  These watches intrigue me, but are just too similar to some of the watches that I already have in my collection.  For example, these Casio MRW200H Dive Watches are attractive and affordable.  You can always find them at Walmart, Target, or Kmart. Amazon has them even cheaper!

These utilitarian dive watches have rotating bezels and are waterproof to 100 meters.  They also have readable dials with large numbers, day/date windows, and a mineral crystal.  It should be noted that the bezel is not unidirectional and doesn't give you a click with each turn.  But, at less than $25, they are the kind of watch that you won't be afraid to abuse.  They look good and they offer adventure on the cheap!

I think I would buy one of these watches in a flash.  But, my trusty Timex is still taking a licking and it still keeps on ticking.  One day, I'll surely succumb to the lure of an inexpensive bang around Casio watch that has adventure written all over it!

By David Haberthür (image description page) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

[After I wrote this post, I did get a Casio MRW200H.  You can read my complete review of it here on this blog.]

Casio Analog Watch with 10 Year Battery

Fortunately for those of us who are battery-change challenged, Casio has a lot of watches with ten year batteries!  That's awesome!  Ten years is a long time to go without the hassle of changing a battery.  One of my first 10-year battery watches is just this basic analog wristwatch.  

Casio Men's Analog Watch with 10 year battery

If you are interested in this watch, it is available in 2024 on Amazon as the Casio MTP-3050D-2AV Classic Men's Stainless Steel Dress watch with 10-year battery.  A decade without changing a battery has a style of its own.