Casio decides it's about time the simple digital watch got a little smarter

Casio has added Bluetooth and step tracking to a £55 digital watch without turning it into a smartwatch or sacrificing replaceable-battery convenience. The snappily named F-B100W pairs with Casio's smartphone app to record activity, adjust settings, and keep its clock accurate. Despite the additional electronics, Casio claims …

[Androgynous Cupboard]

My interest in purchasing gradually rose throughout the article and peaked immediately before the sentence "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format", at which point it collapsed.

[Rahbut]

I was thinking the same - but looking at the screenshot on the Casio website it looks like it's missing the year - which makes the MM-dd less offensive, and more like the ISO/Japanese yyyy-MM-dd format...

<eddie-murphy-tapping-forehead.gif>

[Jason Bloomberg]

Looking at the actual cheapo-Casio on my wrist it is indeed MM-DD, but that's fine because, as others have noted, that's the far right of YYYY-MM-DD with the year not shown.

I'm a stickler for demanding and using ISO-8601 date formats and I have had no problem with that in the 20-plus years I have owned it. It's had a fair few strap replacements but it's only on its second battery.

I could probably live with this new, same as I'm wearing, retro-style F-B100W-3A, but I don't like the date display which appears to be "ddd 'DD- MM-DD" - what kind of madness is that - and an 80% reduction in battery life for nothing I really want doesn't attract me. I also prefer black anodised side buttons rather than chrome. Finicky, I know, but it's kept me happy for years.

Step counts are bollocks anyway and it's about time those were treated as the nonsense they are. Fine if they encourage a healthy life-style or you are moving a lot during the day but I don't have enough spare time to clock-up 10,000 steps every day. I do cardio and laid off the carbs which works for me.

[Piro]

Exactly, iso-8601 is the only way. If month-day offends, just pretend the year is in front.

[Dan 55]

It's ddd 'YY-MM-DD which was correct for the year 2000 release of ISO-8601 (it's the last version which allowed YY) which seems fitting for this watch.

Step counts are fine if you treat them as not accurate, relative values between each day, and an incentive to find time to move around more because you've got a sedentary job.

[Jason Bloomberg]

It's ddd 'YY-MM-DD

Thanks, it seems you are right.

In all the official promo stuff it shows "SUN '30- 6-30", which is why I thought it was repeating the day. Why choose 2030? And why no leading zero for month, "SUN '30-06-30", might have made it more obvious it is a year? And no leading zero for day: An owner's post shows "FRI '26- 8- 7" - Eugh.

I am a bit surprised the auto-calendar is only good until 2099. Sure that's in 73 years but I'd have expected better, not for it to come with a free Y2K1 bug :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Could 30-6-30 be a deliberate ploy so those wanting dd-mm-yy do not immediately realise it is an unchangeable yy-mm-dd?

[Jellied Eel]

Step counts are bollocks anyway and it's about time those were treated as the nonsense they are. Fine if they encourage a healthy life-style or you are moving a lot during the day but I don't have enough spare time to clock-up 10,000 steps every day.

Just get a winding box to keep your watches in. Wonder if I should make one that includes induction charging so it'd also work for 'smart' phones?

[Evil Auditor]

Step counts are for wankers. Literally. But why does it bother you? Getting wind up by an imaginary target of number of wanks a day but suggesting a winding box for a quartz watch?

[Jellied Eel]

...but suggesting a winding box for a quartz watch?

I'm surprised an auditor can't work this one out. 10,000 steps became the measure for an active lifestyle. It isn't the watch that's the problem, but who's watching the watch?. So imagine a scenario where your 'smart' watch sells your data to say, an insurance company, who puts your premium up when you fail to complete your 10K? Or perhaps you don't want the watchmen to know you're only ever really walking 39?

[JT_3K]

Reminder that 10,000 steps is an arbitrary figure plucked out of thin air by the Japanese to promote the Olympics in '64 with an aim to get the populous more active. It has absolutely zero real-world basis being a target or measure of anything. "Yes", someone walking that much in a day will probably be healthier than someone who doesn't by the same metric that someone who uses the gym every day (and/or bothers to consider the metric) will likely be healthier than someone who doesn't.

[Geoff Campbell]

Gotta love metrics

I have a deep and abiding love for 10,000 steps, five portions of fruit & veg, and BMI, and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten in the moment. Because you can absolutely guarantee that any mention of them will force the "Werl, actually, I *think* you'll find..." brigade in any group to decloak, and once they have self-identified you can ignore them for the rest of the day.

All such simple, absolute rules are there for the guidance of people who don't want to think too hard about a subject. Does it matter that BMI breaks down in extreme athletes, or that daily gym visits are healthier than 10,000 steps, or that five portions is not really enough anyway? It does not, in the slightest. For the largely unthinking general population, it will give an overall average improvement in behaviours and thus some health benefits.

GJC

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Gotta love metrics

I have a deep and abiding love for 10,000 steps, five portions of fruit & veg, and BMI, and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten in the moment. Because you can absolutely guarantee that any mention of them will force the "Werl, actually, I *think* you'll find..." brigade in any group to decloak, and once they have self-identified you can ignore them for the rest of the day.

Well, actually most of it is based on growing the multi-trillion dollar industry that is health and wellness. I like the 5-a-day thing. Fruit pastilles contain real fruit, therefore they're healthy! Or a 2kg bag of frozen peas will last months and let you comply with the government approved messaging.. Which still recommends waaay more carbs than are good for most people, but then the 'Eat Well' plates were sponsored by agribusiness.

Technofetishism just allows for more exciting revenue streams. 10K steps a day for perfect health? Well, you'll need a way to count them. Then monitor your progress via an app and a monthly subscription. And calling stuff a 'fitness tracker' makes people feel good about wearing something that's basically just a tracker. Pair it with another tracker, like a phone, so AlphaGoo can boost the value of their 'health' business. Get people wearing a bluetooth beacon with a UID registered to a person and retailers can then be sold digital greeters to personalise your shopping experience! Assuming people actually get their steps in and walk to the shops instead of driving, or ordering online.

But your tracker is now so 'smart' that it's battery will last maybe 24hrs instead of months or years. It'll still tell you the time, but it'll also tell you that you're not dead. Yes, your heart is still beating. Or it'll measure 'sleep quality', which most people should know when they wake up. All this and more for only $19,99 a month! And why not subscribe to our 'macro' tracking service? Scam.. I mean scan all your food and our 'AI' will read the ingredients for you! And yes, that ice cream you bought with added protein & fibre is healthy! Ish.

Modern society has gotten very strange.

Does it matter that BMI breaks down in extreme athletes, or that daily gym visits are healthier than 10,000 steps.

Also depends, eg-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3KvedBz8pk

Where a Canadian orthopaedic surgeon goes over some of the gym advice & gym related injuries he's seen. Gyms can be bad for your health, and then made worse if you go to a chiropractor instead of a physio. But then chiropractice was a practice taught to it's evangelist by a ghost, and then like a lot of snake oil or health peddlers, used to part fools from their money.

[Geoff Campbell]

Re: Gotta love metrics

Goodness, I wasn't expecting quite such a comprehensive demonstration of my point. Many thanks for stepping up to the plate!

GJC

[Liam Proven]

> someone walking that much in a day will probably be healthier

You defeat your own argument.

I am a fat lazy old git with a lifelong hatred of sport. I set 5K as my target as it gets me off my ever-larger arse. That is reason enough.

[S4qFBxkFFg]

You're meant to put it on the other wrist.

[Elongated Muskrat]

Then it feel like someone else is doing the 10,000 steps for you?

[Aladdin Sane]

Damnit

[Richard Pennington 1]

Step count.

A step count is the number of times I can tread on it before the case breaks.

[tiggity]

@Jason Bloomberg

There is huge potential for extremely incorrect (over) recording of step count if it is based on something worn on the wrist of many males.

[MachDiamond]

AT MOST, I might be uncertain of the day. If I need the month and year, the doctor has overprescribed something.

[Geoff Campbell]

Day vs Date

I've always thought that since we stopped routinely writing cheques to pay for things, a reminder of which day of the week it is would be far more useful than a reminder of which day of the month it is. And, as you say, needing a reminder of which month it is might perhaps be an indication that you should seek a medical consultation sooner rather than later.

GJC

[just4this]

Re: Day vs Date

Many moons ago I done a summer season in Spain.

It was usual for most of the seasonal (bar related) workers to work seven days a week.

Why would you want a day off when you’re getting paid to have fun drinking and encouraging others to do the same?

Point is, I didn’t need to know what day it was, it didn’t matter so long as I knew the time and turned up to work.

Six months and I only got drunk once. It was for six months, but that’s still only once!

[MachDiamond]

Re: Day vs Date

" a reminder of which day of the week it is would be far more useful"

For me, yes. I'm self-employed and my hours can be quite erratic so is it Monday or Wednesday? I remember one time wondering why the shops were closed........ oh yeah, it's Easter.

[Bebu sa Ware]

"low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

If you ever have the misfortune to own a G-Shock you will have the "joy" of having to set it up — a PhD in quantum mechanics might be useful. The bloody things keep time in UTC so you need to set the timezone which is conceivably useful if you frequently travel between time zones except it takes more than five minutes to change zone … something to do on the plane, I suppose.

During COVID her indoors was working in a retailer that sold watches and the customers expected the sales assistants to set up the time and date on their purchases but the Casios particularly the G-Shocks (which were popular then) defeated her.

I suggested she buy a cheap G-Shock - ~AUD100 (with staff discount) - to practise on. Normally I can set up a Lorus, Pulsar or Citizen by common sense and muscle memory but her Casio required downloading the manual. I never worked out whether the thing could do daylight saving time (or how it could.) The other staff eventually took pity and let her not sell watches.

I still had a Soviet Sekonda wind-up which I was using at the time because my quartz watch had died - the vast gulf of simplicity and utility between the two was a stark contrast.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

I've no idea what the model number of my cheapo Casio is but only a fraction of that. It's still a nightmare to negotiate the menu to change twice a year. Consumer equipment with menus always seem to have a UI built on the principle of "Design an easy to use UI using as few buttons as possible. Now reduce the button count by one and redesign the UI to suit."

[Richard Pennington 1]

Summer time, and the buttons ain't easy ...

They want you to buy a winter watch and a summer watch.

[PB90210]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

I used to buy the Casios with analogue face and metal strap. The first was around £20. A decade or so later, its replacement was still around £20... as was the 3rd...

(still in the Argos catalogue!... £29/£36)

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

Ronnie Barker's adverts for Sekonda...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sekonda+ronnie+barker

[Liam Proven]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

> Ronnie Barker's adverts for Sekonda...

Crass, sexist, deeply objectifying and reductive of women.

I loved them. Thanks for the link!

[AndrueC]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

If you ever have the misfortune to own a G-Shock you will have the "joy" of having to set it up — a PhD in quantum mechanics might be useful.

Eh? I have three G-Shocks and all I've ever had to do is select the time zone. The watch does the rest and I never have to adjust the time ever again.

I thought all G-Shocks were radio controlled.

[BartyFartsLast]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

Radio controlled?

Nope, far from it. None of mine are

[Persona]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

Mine is a Casio Wave Ceptor and is radio controlled. I've had it for years and still on its first birthday. A few months back it oddly reset itself to Jan 1st 2000 and stopped listening to the radio signal. After fumbling with the impenetrable menu for 20 mins I gave up and asked Claude which fortunately responded with the cryptic button presses required to turn it back on.

[Liam Proven]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

> you will have the "joy" of having to set it up — a PhD in quantum mechanics might be useful.

Tell me, Bebu, in the olden times, did your oven and video recorder always flash 00:00:00 ?

[Persona]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

I earned myself considerable favor with girlfriends parents by setting the clock on their video recorders to the right time. Sadly this made me more popular with the parents than the girls.

[Geoff Campbell]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

I had a girlfriend many years ago whose father was something technical in audio for one of the independent broadcasters. Lovely guy, but there was a certain friction between the pair of them, as tends to happen between fathers and young adult daughters (a now father of two daughters writes...)

Anyway, one day he bought a BBC Model B, because they were all the rage back then, and after a couple of weeks admitted sheepishly to me that he'd not managed to get it to do anything useful. I sat cross-legged on the floor in front of it (all '80s home computers lived on the floor, I think there were by-laws requiring this) and knocked out a quick Moire interference pattern, in the manner of a concert pianist running off a few scales to loosen up.

My girlfriend was thrilled, but not because I had demonstrated my obvious brilliance and the stunning usefulness of modern technology. No, she was thrilled because I had shown her father up as a useless old duffer.

I learned a lot that evening.

GJC

[Dave559]

Re: "low-end Casios can only display dates in US MM/DD format"

I have a cheapo not-really-sporty watch from Decathlon (it's got a stopwatch and this model comes in a variety of pretty colours; that's about it, which is good enough for me). Fortunately it does show the date in dd-mm format (or weird implied-middle-endian format, if you insist on setting such), but it doesn't show the year (although oddly it does ask for it, when setting the time!), and, even worse, despite knowing the year, it doesn't seem to be aware of leap years at all, which is rather silly.

(I can understand plain old digital watches not being able to cope with summer-time, as the dates of change, and adherence (or not) to it vary quite considerably across the planet (and then, just when we think we all understand it, some country somewhere will randomly decide to change its summer-time rules (or its timezone). On the other hand, how much (how little) would it cost to add Rugby [1], etc, time signal receivers to a watch these days? When you're selling watches by the million, surely economies of scale would add mere buttons to the price?

[1] Yes, I know it's not Rugby any more.)

[brainwrong]

Just the day and date here.

My low end Casio watch doesn't display the year or month. It's not necessary, because it's quite difficult to lose track of those.

I have never woken up in the morning and suddenly thought to myself "Oh fuck! What month is it, I've got an appointment in March", and rushed to look at my watch.

[Like a badger]

Re: Just the day and date here.

You've not visited my brain. I find recalling what day of the month it is quite challenging, and having it on my wrist can be quite helpful

[matjaggard]

Re: Just the day and date here.

He did say he does have the day of the month, just not which month.

I on the other hand *do* forget the month, and even the year from time to time but I accept I'm exceptional in the worst possible way.

[Like a badger]

Re: Just the day and date here.

If we were shackled together we'd always know the day AND the month! No need for a pesky date watch for us.

[Retron2]

The watch clearly has a year-month-day display - it says Sun '30-6-30, and yes, the 30th June 2030 is a Sunday.

The apostrophe is the giveaway, it's a 2-digit year display!

[Anonymous Coward]

2-year battery pah!

My Casio proudly says "10 year battery" on it, and it means it! But it looks like it's no longer made. :(

[Tron]

Re: 2-year battery pah!

I bought my current Casio F-108WH in 2013 for £15. It still works after accompanying me for more than 72,000 miles on my wrist, I have not yet had to change the battery. I don't need Bluetooth and I know how far I walk because I'm there. You can still buy it, but it now costs more due to the evil that is inflation.

[Bebu sa Ware]

astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

To be fair when Douglas Adams wrote that, you had to push a small button on the watch to activate the red leds. I imagine five years old kids today might be fascinated by the that… for five minutes ("what games does it have?")

I recall my father got one through his business. I never bothered with a watch in my teens because spending a fair amount of time outside I could tell the time by the Sun to about 10-15 minutes. I lost that when I was spending most of the day in lectures and labs.

When I got a watch in the mid 1980s it was an quartz analogue with lcd calendar/alarm basically because it had hands and was very cheap.

The Citizen Eco-Drive and Seiko Solar have been the best thing since, as not having a replaceable battery, they are a sealed unit and that seems to extend the watch's life by many years or decades. I suspect previously the replaceable batteries were being exchanged in a sand blasting shop - definitely not a clean room environment.

_{Didn't Clive Sinclair flog a red led digital watch that you put together about the time of the THHGTTG broadcasts?}

[steelpillow]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

The Sinclair Black Watch - in trademark black placcie case. Had a red LED numeric display from a cheap calculator, strangely purple transparent cover, one big chip on a board very little bigger, I think the odd resistor or two, couple of hearing-aid batteries and some small bits of wire and bent metal. Came as a kit and I actually got mine to work - as long as I didn't snap the case shut. And the placcy strap was too short for a hairy great oarsman. Typical Sinclair! Kept all the packaging etc and sold for some nice beer money a few years back.

[Antony Shepherd]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

There is a line where Arthur Dent says "My left arm's come off too. How am I going to operate my digital watch now?"

I did have a Sinclair Black Watch. Actually, I had several, as every so often I'd press the front of the watch to show the time and it'd say it was something like 34:89, as the insides were very prone to static. Send it back to Sinclair, and they'd send a new one. Eventually I bought a cheap Casio which lasted for decades!

[just4this]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

"My left arm's come off too. How am I going to operate my digital watch now?

Get a Bionic arm.

They already do the watches for them.

I know, I had one.

For clarity, I had The Bionic Man watch.

[Liam Proven]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

> Get a Bionic arm.

They are overrated, I can tell you.

I've had to change arms I wear my watch on now. Firstly because the straps press on my right wrist's metal plates, right under the skin, and it's very uncomfortable, and secondly, because I needed to flip my wrist to get the Bip 5's screen to wake up, and now, to get the Neo's backlight to come on -- and I can't do that with my right arm any more, as it no longer rotates more than a fraction.

[Cubbie Roo]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

IMHO the Seiko 5 (with the 7009 movement) is still the GOAT. I've had more exotic watched since, but got bored with batteries & capacitors giving up the ghost, and now returned to the Seiko 5 I bought in 1986.

[Liam Proven]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

> IMHO the Seiko 5 (with the 7009 movement) is still the GOAT. I've had more exotic watched since, but got bored with batteries & capacitors giving up the ghost, and now returned to the Seiko 5 I bought in 1986.

I have one of those too. I inherited it from my father, and rediscovered it when packing up to emigrate in 2014 -- and to my amazement, it still ran perfectly.

But, though it irks me to say it, I find a step count and notifications extremely useful.

[Like a badger]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

As you say, the Citizen eco-drive seems ideal and should never need opening, but on the two that I've encountered the tiny bezel around the date window has detatched, and drifts around loose across the watch face. That puts me off buying one, and I'll stick with my Seiko 5, and a backup Casio radio controlled digital.

[hh121]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

The Citizen Eco drive on my left arm, which is still attached to what is left of my body, has been there for well over a decade and shown no signs of breaking up. Famous last words.

In the early teens I thought it was hilarious that anyone would accept the need to charge a smart watch every couple of days. Still do.

Says the doofus with a samsung s25 that barely gets through a day

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

I had one of these … well up until the point I got a mobile phone and realised it told the time, told the date and did snake and realised I DID’T NEED TO WEAR A FUCKING WATCH AGAIN.

Do poseur’s with their goods from Watchfinder wear the posh watch on 1 arm and an Apple Watch on the other, or both on the same wrist ..: side-by-side ???

[Liam Proven]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

> I DID’T NEED TO WEAR A FUCKING WATCH AGAIN.

I don't need to.

But I don't _need_ to wear clothes, either. They are handy. They keep the sun off, keep me warm on a windswept little island in the Irish Sea, and provide me with pockets.

And wearing a watch means I don't need to keep taking my phone out of my pocket.

I spent late July and early August in Spain and Czechia, where it was nearly 40º all the damned time, and I wore a great deal less there. The heat reduced my appetite, and me wandering around topless probably reduced the appetite of many holidaymakers. A win all round, really.

[Elongated Muskrat]

Re: astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

I can still remember seeing my dad's electronic calculator that would have dated from the early '70s, where not only did you have to press a button to light up the display, but you had to do it while looking at it from a very specific angle to see the tiny 7-segment LED displays through the lenses.

[blu3b3rry]

I like the idea

I don't wear a watch any more (I find I ended up catching it on too much stuff when doing factory work). The step counter sounds like a pretty nice idea, just a shame you can't change the date format to something sensible.

The only thing I don't like about the F-91W I have is how flimsy the strap was on the one I bought about 7 years ago..

When it tore and broke I just ended up using a sticky patch to attach it to my monitor mount, where it has remained on my workbench for a good few years now.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: I like the idea

The only thing I don't like about the F-91W I have is how flimsy the strap was on the one I bought about 7 years ago..

Sounds about right from my experience. But the beauty of the trusty F-91W is that also usually means the battery lasts longer than the strap, which 'smart' watches can't beat. Plus it doesn't scream 'mug me!' like most luxury watches.

When it tore and broke I just ended up using a sticky patch to attach it to my monitor mount, where it has remained on my workbench for a good few years now.

Yep, I have a few scattered around. I also made a gold & platinum pocket watch case for one as an anachro-watch. Was a bit of a challenge extending the buttons, but ended up selling it to a friend who really liked the idea. Might make another one and see if I can use a larger piezo-beeper so the alarm is louder. But I like the way the F-91W has a cult status amongst watch collectors and the way it democratised time keeping.

[Maurice Mynah]

Re: don't wear a watch

Same here - but I find the F-91W buttons stop working when kept in the dusty trouser pocket. Cue the semi-annual fight to reset it for summer/winter time.

Plan B is to get two and use them in 6-month rotation...

[Aladdin Sane]

Re: I like the idea

Just put it on a cheap NATO strap.

[Steve Graham]

I think mine was the A163WA. It lasted over 20 years, but was dead one day, possibly from corrosion on the circuit board. I replaced it with a Chinese knock-off: we'll see how long that lasts.

[steelpillow]

My fave was a Casio with LCD pseudo-analogue display. Kind of concentric sunburst, with segments going dark in sequence to mimic hands going round. Didn't stay on the market long and mine eventually died. >Sob!<

[Anonymous Coward]

Pseudo- analogue LCD watches?

I remember those. I'm sure my parents had a pair of no-name cheap ones they got via mail order which they never used and fell apart, and I didn't think were a big deal at the time.

Oddly, in hindsight, those pseudo-analogues seemed to disappear from the market and when I suddenly decided I wanted one a few years back, I realised they're almost impossible to get hold of new.

I think Casio did a one-off limited edition collectable revival a few years ago (and even that had other fluff alongside the analogue face) and I saw one from a semi-onscure Chinese manufacturer.

Strange that something so obvious got almost completely forgotten when even calculator watches have been revived for nostalgia.

Maybe they were too "analogue" for those if us who were digital kids at the time and took "digital" for analogue types like my Mum?

[Chris Gray 1]

Re: Pseudo- analogue LCD watches?

Just go on Amazon and spend as little as $15 for a "fitness watch" and pick an analog watch face. You'll likely find a variety of free ones in the watch face store in the needed app. Oh, you don't want an app? These things have only one button - kinda hard to set the time - not impossible, but painful, although there might be one that uses its touchscreen...

[steelpillow]

Re: Pseudo- analogue LCD watches?

Fitness watches? Wrong kind of fluff, mate. I buy ease of use, not faff.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pseudo- analogue LCD watches?

Thanks, but while those may be "LCD" watches, I was talking about old-school grey-and-silver LCDs, and the type of watches that used fixed predefined segments to simulate the hands of an analogue display.

Just something I felt like buying for no especially rational reason...!

[phuzz]

When I was younger I had several watches with an analogue face, with a small digital display inset into it. None of them have survived, so I have no idea of the make/model..

I liked that by glancing at the hands I'd have a 'good-enough' idea of the time, but had a display for exact seconds etc.

[that one in the corner]

supposed "sign of al-Qaida"

I joked in 2017 that the reason I got called back to the desk in the airport gate lounge* twice for bag searches whilst waiting for a flight to the USA was because they couldn't believe I didn't have any fancy phone or expensive smartwatch; turns out that could well have been the reason!**

* yes, the gate lounge, in a UK airport, after we'd passed normal security, had our bags searched again before the airline could check our boarding cards, and were literally sitting by the door to the jetway, the US had set up yet *another* desk for searches.

** or they were just bored and needed to be seen to be Doing Something For Freedom. The only other time, so far, I'd been pulled over in the lounge for yet another check turned into a cheerful short chat (well, except neither of us spoke the other's language well, or at all in my case) about the use of a pocket folding tripod with a compact camera, as he'd been curious.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: supposed "sign of al-Qaida"

If they're using digital watches for bomb timers these days it's a step up in tech. It used to be clockwork parking timers.

[Boris the Cockroach]

Re: supposed "sign of al-Qaida"

Well they're pretty simple to convert into bomb timers with the right kit, some wires, an extra power source, a detonator , some explosive.

What you do is simple you have to **** *** **** ** *** *****, ****** * **** ** *** ******* ** *** ** *****, **** ******* ******** **** ** *** ******* , **** *** ******** ***** ******* ******, ***** ***** ** **** **** ***** *****, and **** **** ****** ****** ******* ***** ******** ******* ****** ******** ******* it goes bang.

If you really want to know the details, please join His Majesty’s armed forces and ask to go on a demolition course. or join Al-Queda (Phone [phone] and ask to join)

[trevorde]

And now for something completely different ...

https://tokyoflash.com/

[Chris Gray 1]

Re: And now for something completely different ...

Good lord! No thanks to those - the point of a watch is to let you *easily* tell the time!

I had a wonderful (but expensive) Samsung Gear to go with my Galaxy S4 - really liked the pair - worked well, straightforward user interfaces. But, then I got told that the S4 would stop working as locals dropped 3G (which included LTS). Liars! Sigh. Now I have a Pixel 8 which is difficult and frustrating to use. I've gone through 3 different cheap "fitness watches" from Amazon. All still work, but with varying capabilities, and prices starting at $15. I've gone back to the one which does forwarded phone ability, and provides a keypad which lets me unlock the front door of the building. Its worst attribute is not the watch, but the horrid app for it on the phone ("VeryFit"), which really, really wants me to log all my activity with their server, and for a while (gone now!!) was serving full-screen phishing ads.

Hint: when the techs for an MRI machine tell you to take off all metal, *remember your watch*. The watch will likely still work after entering the magnetic zone, but the magnetic attachments for the power cable will likely now have the same polarity. You *can* rip out one of the magnets in the connector and glue it back in the other way round, but it is a painful process. :/)

[Gene Cash]

Re: And now for something completely different ...

> Good lord! No thanks to those - the point of a watch is to let you *easily* tell the time!

The Rotar Revolving Watch caught my fancy, so I watched the video, and they basically showed the digits spinning randomly, when they showed the watch face at all.

Great way to make me lose interest, guys. Nice anti-marketing.

[Liam Proven]

Re: And now for something completely different ...

> The Rotar Revolving Watch caught my fancy, so I watched the video, and they basically showed the digits spinning randomly,

Thanks for that.

There is a good reason the original _mechanical_ digital watches are known in the trade as "jump hour" watches. You want the digit to jump, not move smoothly. It's much harder to read when half way between digits.

This is not one.

(I still fancy a jump-hour watch, I mustard mitt. I do not fancy the used prices, though.)

[Dan 55]

Re: And now for something completely different ...

Those watches look like a bunch of Pebble watchfaces that you'd try once before moving onto the next one.

As Casio are late to the party, I ended up with a Pebble for steps and sleep tracker and avoiding picking up the phone when I wanted to know the time and I downloaded a Casio-style watchface. Also, no account required for the app which is better than Casio's app.

[hh121]

Re: And now for something completely different ...

Try sticking this on your wrist

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QSt3Nyxm1IQ

[Neil Barnes]

To be honest, I've never seen the need for sleep tracking or step counting... just a watch that tells me what time it is. So it's a Tissot automatic, some years old - I should probably get it serviced one of these days - and a citizen solar powered eco bought on a whim one holiday.

My late godfather, a watch and instrument maker, found the movement for a Breguet watch one day in Wakefield market, and restored it to working order. Two years later he found the matching case on the same stall, added part A to part B, and sold the result for around ten grand. I lust (gently, not enough to blow my savings on one) for a Breguet. But since everything is owned by Swatch these days, I suspect I'll never bother.

[Cruachan]

Even though I do have a fitness tracker watch (Garmin Vivoactive 5), I turned that stuff off as soon as I got it. I only want it tracking activities when I tell it to, and the ability to play music so I don't also have to carry my phone when at the gym, running etc

Step guidance keeps changing, so I'm not stressing about how many I do.

[Neil Barnes]

Step guidance... can I carry 17kG of paraglider on my back a couple of miles to the takeoff, fly around for an hour or two, and walk back if I land out? Yes? Then I'm not worried about how many steps it takes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple Watch

Mine's a simple, red-LED watch which tells me the time, and optionally, the date, when I touch the face (via capacitance switch). €15.00.

I don't need or want more in a watch.

[Liam Proven]

Re: Simple Watch

> simple, red-LED watch [...] €15.00.

Whence? Inquiring minds want ~~one~~ to know.

[AndrueC]

Replacing a watch battery - what is that all about? I have three G-Shock Solars and the oldest - a GW-500E-1VER - was purchased in October 2011 and is still on its original battery. It doesn't get used as much these days as the other two are more fancy but I give it an airing every now and again to show there's no hard feelings :)

[David 132]

Tempting.

Can I just say that looking at the photo of the watch messes with my head? Its styling, credit to Casio, is pure 1980s and reminds me of watches I had as a kid... but then the word "Bluetooth" on it. It's like seeing a BBC B or Commodore 64 with an "en-/disable Wifi" hotkey on the keyboard :)

[Dan 55]

Re: Tempting.

That's because Casio's style hasn't changed at all since the early 80s. Perhaps they just have one salaryman who's responsible for all their watch designs who joined 43 years ago and is just about to retire.

[Spazturtle]

Re: Tempting.

They are actual going backwards in time design wise. They recently added a lacquerware calculator to their lineup: https://www.casio.com/jp/basic-calculators/premium/en-s100x-jc1-u/

[PRR]

> We admit it: this ape-descended life form is so astoundingly primitive that he still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea. ... Douglas Adams first mocked humans' fondness for digital watches ...... in 1978 ...The Casio...

SciFi author A. Bertram Chandler made a Japanese robot named "Seiko" AKA "Clockwork Kitty" the star of his last novel "The Wild Ones" in 1984. She sings to dolphins and saves a planet. You can read some of it on Baen's site. While he no longer has the book rights, dusty paperbacks are cheap at the usual bookmongers.

https://www.baen.com/Chapters/0886770319/0886770319.htm

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0886770319

[Primus Secundus Tertius]

Lat long

What I would like is a digital watch that tells me my latitude and longitude.

[that one in the corner]

Re: Lat long

IIRC there is a watchface for the original Pebble, and definitely a similar one I used quite a few times on the the old Palm III, that managed to accurately provide a response to answer the question "Where am I?", even though neither of those gadgets had the power budget to run a full GPS; yet they were amazingly accurate. When you pressed the button you'd get the answer "You are here:" and then a big X to mark the spot.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Lat long

What I would like is a digital watch that tells me my latitude and longitude.

Garmin watches can do this, and a mode that'll also show map co-ordinates-

https://support.garmin.com/lv-LV/?faq=FpKUqh7txY80FDmEJLHkPA

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Lat long

@Jellied Eel:

Garmin watches can do this, and a mode that'll also show map co-ordinates-

https://support.garmin.com/lv-LV/?faq=FpKUqh7txY80FDmEJLHkPA

Ah, a Russian resident of Latvia. Now it all makes sense.

[Camilla Smythe]

Nice Old Skool Stuff

How many thousand lumens is the searchlight?

[has been]

Good old workhorses

I've had watches with the Casio 593 module on and off for decades. I've currently got two, because I lost the one off my wrist three years ago. A couple of months ago I dug it out of the garden compost heap. It was a few minutes out, but fine other than that.

The earlier ones had a very good electroluminescent light. It was orders of magnitude better than the current dim LED in that it lit up the entire display.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pah these are useless for anyone over 45. The digits are way too small to read. Same for G-Shocks, massive plasic cases and tiny displays.

I have a 15year old Solar Casio ProTrek PRG-110 thats still going strong. Slightly bigger display. That was before Casio lost the plot on the ProTrek range.

Casio are pretty much stuck with 80s tech. I had hoped they would get into eInk or MIP screens, but they seem stuck on tiny ancient LCD screens.

I mostly have a smart watch for the customisable screens. Most let you design your own.

I currently have an Amazfit T-Rex 3. A lot of watch for rhe money. And most importantly a large readable customisable display.

[Chris Gray 1]

Nonsense!

I am waaaay over 45 and have no trouble with digital watches. Just pick a watchface that has big digits. I can even read the step counter, and use the calculator on mine (fat fingers is a bigger issue).

[AndrueC]

I'm nearly 60 and the only one of my three G-Shocks that I struggle with is the one with the red case. That's nothing to do with the size of the digits (it's analogue with digits for the day/date) and all to do with the stupid design decision to invert the LCD. White on black is only visible in the right kind of light.

[Sam Laur]

Get your eyes checked

I'm 51, even had cataract surgery last year, but still I don't have any problems with the display on an ABL-100, the "metallized plastic" earlier version of this watch.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Get your eyes checked

I have had my eyes checked and I have presbyopia. I thought this was fairly common with advancing age, but a quick El Reg Comentard poll seems its not common at all.

Yes I can read these Casio watches that have 0.5cm high digits with my reading glasses on, but not so keen on wearing my reading glasses when walking or running.

I tried varifocals but did not get on with them.

You can all keep your Casios with tiny digits and US dates! I'll keep my Amazfit T-Rex 3 with a 38mm display and I can pick the font (RobotoBold) and size of digits. (Amazfit Bip 6 is also very good, and cheaper than quite a few Casios).

[AndrueC]

Re: Get your eyes checked

Ah, that explains it. At least as far as I'm concerned. I wear varifocals so that's why I have no problems. Have you tried bi/tri focals? Some people who can't get on with varifocals are fine with those.

In any case it seems a bit harsh to criticise Casio just because they are mostly producing watches to be read by people with good or corrected eyesight. I'd suggest that at least 90% of watches fall into that category. It's pretty inevitable really give how small watches have to be.

And Casio have - maybe - produced some with larger displays. That 15 year old watch of mine is fully digital and readable without my glasses - the time easily, the date is a little blurry but still legible even under indoor light.

[phuzz]

I've got an Amazfit Bip, and while the main watchface is perfectly legible, the standard text size for menus, notifications etc. is now too small for me to read without glasses, and worst of all there's no option to change the text size!

Not that I usually read notifications on my watch, I mostly just want to feel the vibration to tell me that there is a message, so that I can read it at my leisure on my phone..

[Liam Proven]

> worst of all there's no option to change the text size!

Odd.

I mean, it's true, but when I had one, I wanted to _reduce_ the text size, and was irked I couldn't.

You people must be so hawk-eyed you can wander around without glasses at all. I live in varifocals now, and with no specs I can't tell my watch apart from my phone on the nightstand until I pick one of them up. They're both black blobs longer than they're wide and that's all I can see.

[NXM]

displays

"The digits are way too small to read."

If you have trouble with normal sized watches, don't buy one of these.

https://www.casio.com/uk/watches/types/ring-watches/

[Liam Proven]

> Pah these are useless for anyone over 45.

Speak for yourself. I am 58 and my Neo is perfectly legible if I hold my wrist up even slightly.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm impressed none of you lot in your 50s and 60s need reading glasses and can still read the small text on these watches.

Without reading glasses I struggle with my phone as well :-(

Must have been a lack of vitamins in my youth.

[AndrueC]

Ah now, phones are another matter. Mine's okay with appropriate zoom settings but that can lead to rendering compromises that are annoying. It's why I only very occasionally use it to access the web. I have the same problem though not as bad with computers. I have to set browsers to 125% zoom. Mostly that's fine but sometimes you encounter a website designed by some likely young designer who presumably assumes that everyone has access to a 15,000x12,000 display and eyes like a hawk.

That results in websites that either lack scrollbars completely or have a mess of scrollbars because everything is having to be clipped to fit.

It's why I dislike sites that have lots of white space. They might be great for fat fingers using tablets but they are a horrible waste of precious screen 'real-estate' for oldies like me.

Edit: And this is an area where varifocals struggle unless you pay for very expensive ones or screen specific. In most VF lenses you have close-up at the bottom and long-distance at the top. The middle is for middle-distance but unfortunately the viewing area is compromised by physics. Depending on the lens the viewing area might only be half the glasses width which can make reading a screen difficult. My current gasses have expensive 'digital' lenses and they are fine for laptop use (at least for an hour or so at a time) but I barely tolerate more than fifteen minutes with a monitor. I have a pair of 1.5x glasses just for monitor use.

[Blackjack]

Hopefully Bluetooth is off by default as that's a security sinkhole.

[Liam Proven]

> Hopefully Bluetooth is off by default as that's a security sinkhole.

It's a WATCH. What are the imaginary baddies going to exfiltrate? The time?

[Blackjack]

People hack alarm clocks and toasters, why wouldn't they hack a watch?

[PB90210]

His wa*king count?

[ICL1900-G3]

Pah!

Very happy with the Omega Seamaster my ma bought me for passing my O levels almost exactly 60 years ago.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pah!

What about new battries and servicing? I was shocked when my watch service cost more than my car service!

[ComicalEngineer]

Original Casio

Not sure which model I had other than it looked similar to the one in the article, I remember that it boasted a very long battery life. From memory it lasted over 10 years and was only disposed of when I caught it when climbing onto the footplate of a steam locomotive and it snapped the strap fixing on one corner. I currently have a Garmin Forerunner 65 which lasts 2 weeks on a battery charge and has nice big numbers visible in daylight. I also have a nice Casio Ecodrive watch for "dress" occasions.

I must admit that I have a soft spot for the old Casios as they were cheap, reliable and robust.

[Winkypop]

Still daily my 1982 Seiko Sports 100 digital

It’s so old the buttons barely work. Dried up gaskets and no spares. Adjusting the time is near impossible.

Luckily, my watch guy can replace the battery so fast it does not interrupt the display.

Still very close to the correct time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Still daily my 1982 Seiko Sports 100 digital

You can easily find gaskets. What are you on about?

You don't need to use one specifically made for a Casio to seal the watch. If you have a 3D printer or know someone with one, you could print a mould and make one yourself out of silicon...or these days you can by "liquid" gasket stuff to make your own custom gaskets, it's like £2 on Amazon.

[Arthur Daily]

Non Japanese Quality

Casio watches are no longer WR200 and are made or assembled in many countries.

Also, my 10 year battery still works 17 year on (real made in Japan).

Shameful they cant afford one cent O rings or as said date formats of the country. I wont buy any knock-offs till they fix the problem.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Non Japanese Quality

Casio makes literally hundreds of different models that are WR200. Also, the ratings are conservative.

Here's the unrated $12 F-91W withstanding a 60m water resistance test, for example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sep5Tw-55yw

As the host says, plenty of people who dive regularly use these bargain basement watches. Also, they've not been made in Japan for a very long time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice...however...

MicroSD and 2.4ghz wifi and we could have a portable Casio NAS.

[Anonymous Coward]

I won't be happy...

...until I have this...

https://ibb.co/QvHhgFVt

[ITMA]

A digital watch?

Since nobody else has flagged it, I shall....

"A digital watch? What on earth is a digital watch?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VgwxKW0J6I

;)

[schofiel]

Ollee watch

I'm surprised there is no mention here of the Ollee watch, which does all of this and a heck of a lot more. CASIO is a long way behind the curve on this one.

It's a kit based on the 91 - you replace the guts (not difficult) of the original, and then Bluetooth is just the beginning, including stuff as far advanced as NFC, multi-coloured illumination, _all sorts of stuff_ too numerous to mention here. And of course, an app.

I've had one for a year now, and it's getting to the point where it's about to displace my daily driver (a CASIO G-Shock), which, given my loyalty to CASIO, is A Pretty Big Thing.

Have a look for yourself at https://www.olleewatch.com/

[Liam Proven]

Re: Ollee watch

> I'm surprised there is no mention here of the Ollee watch

A fair point.

Personally, I have looked at them and thought, roughly...

1. My word that's a terrible display to try to use.

2. Oh dear, that looks awfully fiddly to try to build.

3. $100 for something so limited by the case and the display?

What appealed to me about the Casio and indeed my Neo is that they're as cheap or cheaper than the Ollee kit, twice the battery life, but all sealed and ready.

Life is too short for more elaborate DIY things. I am growing increasingly fond of dead simple sealed boxes that just do the job and keep doing it for years and decades on end.

But you're right -- I ought to have at least mentioned it.

[The other JJ]

But can it run Doom?

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a nice upgrade to the venerable F-91W

I could make use of the countdown timer which the F-91W lacks and a step counter is nice to have. The one gripe I have with the F-91W is the lifetime of the strap which often gives up the ghost years before the battery. Official replacements are not much less than the cost of the watch itself and third parties just don't feel as good. That combined with the F-91W's diminutive dimensions make it so comfortable that you forget you're even wearing it. It looks like the strap on the F-B100W is made of a similar material.

[excelis]

Casio A164W still telling the time

Still wearing my Casio A164W from the late 1980's.

It is on its 2nd battery though

[Jellybaby]

Ollee Watch

Already available via a 3rd party,

[andy gibson]

"keep its clock accurate"

Oh Casio, what happened to you?

My ancient G SHOCK kept perfect time for several years - on the same battery too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally, I tend to believe that watches reached their perfect form in the 1980s with affordable prices, durable construction, accurate quartz crystals, years and years of endurance between battery swaps, and readable, intuitive analog and/or digital ways to instantly tell the time as well as optionally time things with sufficient accuracy - in one of just a few practical and suitably sized watch face layouts.

The watch industry has attempted to devolve this perfect form ever since and make it more and more expensive and less and less functional, whether with a return to "luxury" mechanical Rube Goldberg machines, dive watches that never even see salt water, or so called smart watches for neurotics (and everyone is pushed towards neuroses these days)

[tiggity]

I had an old Casio that lasted me decades (it survived scuba diving too) - can't recall the code, it had analogue for time & small LCD segment for date, batteries always lasted many years,. Eventually became non waterproof (my watches got a lot of hassle when I was younger & did lots of activities & it finally got a deep scratch all the way through the "glass"). Instead of repairs, partner got me a "new" Casio replacement - wave ceptor, same main analogies face with LCD for time but advantage of radio signal so no need to adjust (unless you go abroad on holiday), also advantage of solar powered so no battery change, but pricier than my original cheapo.

Analogue face makes it easy to read .. I can relate to some struggle to read watch comments. Always been very short sighted, seeing watch was easy (distant stuff ... not so much!) recently had cataract op & single focus corrective lens* (set to long distance) so now suddenly "long sighted" - until eye settles & can get new prescriptions am currently sitting as far away from laptop as possible whilst still being able to type so I can read the text! .. But looking foward to be able to drive again soon (myopia being so severe I was below driving standard).

* You can get multi focus cataract lenses now, but more risk of something going wrong & as my vison was so totally *******, they would not risk it for me as far larger chance of problems for an extremely myopic eye person (plus other eye is essentially "blind" sight level & has been for years due to physical damage which was a factor in their decision).