Adult Thoughts on the Casio F-91W

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I was born in the 80s and as I grew up so did the computer industry, the digital industry and more. As watches came out with new features I would desire the latest watch with the latest features, and when a newer watch would come out I would desire the newer, innovative watch. Eventually I lost interest in watches for a decade or two. I only recovered my interest in watches when I started scuba diving. That's when diving watches became of interest.

As a child I owned simple Casio watches, at least one or two casio Databank watches, watches that had TV remotes that I used to prank teachers with and more. I also had watches with barometric pressure, weather, temperature and more. Usually I had to lose a watch before it was justified to get a new one so my list of owned watches was not short, but the list of actual watches was short.

The Suunto Vector re-awakened my desire for watches. This was a watch that I could use when climbing Via Ferrata. I then moved onto the Suunto D9 Diving watch before getting a Mares Icon HD. To be clear, the Mares icon HD is a dive computer that you wear for diving, not ordinary life. It's huge. I also owned a Suunto Ambit 2, and then an Ambit 3, A Suunto Spartan Wrist HR Baro, and then an Apple Watch series 3, which broke when indoor climbing, an Apple Watch Series 4 that eventually became useless due to the battery being so old. That watch lasted for five years on my wrist before I swapped it for an Apple Watch SE 2.

If you're wandering why the SE 2 rather than the more expensive watches the answer is simple. I don't like Apple watches. I think they're designed to get you addicted to the competitions and streaks, rather than to actual fitness training.

I also have a Garmin Instinc Solar which I think is a good watch, although because of various issues I was tempted to look elsewhere. The issue is that either the app or the watch would crash. More than once I lost workouts with this watch so I looked elsewhere but only because I began running. That's where the 45s comes in. It's the cheapest watch I could find for running. The GPS is mediocre on this watch and I think it's sub-optimal.

Recently my interest in Casio watches was revived so I bought more than one. They're cheap so you can afford to be curious, and at least one or two children have received watches that I chose not to keep. Even a step brother bought a Casio from me, so I replaced that one with the one I actually wanted to get when I saw that the price had gone down.

I really like the concept of Casio Watches. I like the idea that some have a battery life from 5-10 years, and that they can count steps, and use the phone to track walking routes and more. I also like that they send the data to Japan rather than the US for a change. Too many products are US based so it's good to find European or Japanese brands.

That's where the Casio F-91W watch comes in. At the time of writing this blog post it costs 19 CHF on Galaxus. In the age where digital watches all do the same thing, and feed the same apps, and expect us to get addicted to the quantified self the F-91w is refreshing. It gives you the time of day, an alarm clock, hourly signal, and the ability to change the time, date, month and that's about it. It's an absurdely simple digital watch but it does have one feature that really stands out. The display that gives you the time of day is really clear. Within milliseconds you know the date, day of the week and time.

## And Finally

If you spend 20 CHF on a watch and it lasts on your writst for 7 years then the investment was a logical one. An Apple watch lasts 16hrs before needing a charge. At a time when innovation on watches is slowing down we can afford to change course, and return to simpler times.