I'm normally primarily interested in mechanicals, but got bitten by some kind of quartz bug recently, which has escalated into buying a couple of G-Shocks and now a couple of 80s-style Casio cheapies, like the B640W or A168W.
What bugs me about these though is that they all have plastic cases even though they are supposed to look like steel and they come on a steel bracelet. I honestly cannot remember if the old Casios were plastic or metal, so not sure if tracking down vintage models in hopefully good condition would be worthwhile. In any case, what I do remember about those old digital watches is that the LCDs weren't very good and the lights were even worse. Some of the modern ones are actually quite good, apart from the general build quality. The bracelets are obviously rubbish, but for 20-ish quid it doesn't matter a lot, and what sets these apart from "good" watches is that they are so light that after a while, you're hardly aware you're wearing one.
Does anyone other than Casio make similarly retro-styled, small, slim, lightweight digital watches - but to a higher standard? Or has Casio put out an equivalent of the all-metal G-Shock, only for these even more iconic cheapies? My ideal would be something like the B640W but made of polished titanium with a sapphire crystal, but what are the chances of such a crazy thing existing?
Some of the old Casios were steel such as the H101 Marlin, though a lot of them were base metal with chrome plating.
They switched to resin with chrome plating which did away with the pitting issues that the base metal watches developed. But they lacked a certain character.
Now things have turned full circle and Casio have again started selling stainless steel digitals. It started with the G-Shocks, but now with the A1000D-7EF they have a normal digital with a stainless steel case for £90.
I think that might be what I remember, they perhaps had a thin coating of actual chrome over resin. Whereas the current ones are just silver-coloured resin.Originally Posted by Caruso
That would be perfect if not for that mother-of-pearl display surround :(
Hopefully more variants of that are coming later. In the meantime I might need to see if I can find a Marlin in good condition.
The Gerlach Kosmonauta could be yours for £250ish: http://gerlach.org.pl/kosmonauta.html
Never seen a Kosmonauta myself but the last Gerlach I handled seemed like a pretty decent quality watch.
Either a Marlin or an old Seiko such as the A158 or any of the Silver Wave range which were stainless and waterproof.
Hopefully Casio will bring out more Stainless variants. The A1000D-7EF is the only positive display one with a non-mesh bracelet at the moment.
I think the Casio i-Range watches from the early 2000'a would fit the bill.
The negative display one is all SS and weighs in at 98g, the positive display is SS with a titanium bracelet and is 72g. The ana/digi is titanium with a solid link titanium bracelet and is feather light at just 64g and has an AR coated sapphire crystal.
The i-Range watches were produced for a short period in the 2000's and seemed to be an attempt by Casio to see if there was a market for a smaller more dressy watch than their usual offerings at that time.
They were never issued in the West and seem to be Japan only. I don’t think they took off as you see very few of then about and there is little information about them online.
I like them though, they are small and very thin given that they pack a lot of technology in them being solar and atomic for starters. They are all metal watches with no resin anywhere
Casio seemed to switch their efforts into the Oceanus line, for the all metal, more dressy type of watch. The Oceanus line are all much bigger than these i-Range models though as Casio followed the trend for larger watches.
Mitch
I like the look of that. I've always wanted a 70s style LED digital watch like the Pulsar P2 or similar, although they could be more hassle than they're worth. Especially in the event of getting caught in an infinite improbability field.
What I would really, really like is something with that sort of styling, but with modern low-power OLED or similar, so it can be always-on. It doesn't say so in the description but it looks like this one uses traditional LEDs that only come on when you press the button. I find the Apple Watch annoying enough whenever it fails to wake up automatically, so I'm sure that would drive me mad pretty quickly.
Retro 80’s metal LCD even PacMan if you want !
Regular bracelet or expansion - gold , silver or black !
I like the steel one, and it has a countdown timer too according to the Timex website.
Retro 80’s metal LCD even PacMan if you want !
Regular bracelet or expansion - gold , silver or black !
Last edited by Caruso; 4th November 2019 at 14:26.
I checked the specs on the site and apparently it's another resin case :(
Looks like you're right and the 'expansion band' is the stainless part!!
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
How about a Bulova Computron- definitely has a metal case but you do have to press a button to see the time - not over burdened with additional functions.
Yep. The current "stainless steel" Casios (apart from the few exceptions noted) are the same. The way they are described is pretty misleading.
Its a shame about the blue LEDs in the steel version. Blue LEDs weren't even invented until the 90s. They should only be red! Plus, blue LEDs have been totally overdone since the price came down in the early 2000s. Now they're everywhere, usually far too bright and they don't look cool and futuristic anymore, like they did when they first came out and were really expensive. I think red is a much nicer colour that doesn't mess with night vision. It isn't seen much in modern LED devices, perhaps because of its ubiquity from the 70s until the mid 90s, it's seen as retro or outright old-fashioned. But really it just looks better.
The Art Deco thing isn't really my kind of style either unfortunately; pushes it towards the retrofuturistim look, I would say. The 1976 design is quite different and looks a lot better, I think.
That said, if the black/red ones go on sale for about £80 or so I could see myself picking one up for the nerd factor. I'd be very tempted to open it up and see if there's a way to hack it so the LEDs stay on permanently at the expense of battery life. The case looks big enough to house a pretty large battery, so maybe it would be feasible.
Nixon do a couple of models, I have no experience of them.
Regulus £190
https://www.nixon.com/uk/en/regulus-...or=000#start=1
Unit £170
https://www.nixon.com/uk/en/unit-ss/...360_color=1263
Comrade, why not just go Soviet and pick up an old Elektronika on eBay for peanuts? I've owned one for a good few years and somehow it hasn't broken yet. It might take a bit of searching to get one in decent condition, but hell, just look at all that crappy early 80s funkiness!
I really do like the look of that, I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have opened this thread.The Gerlach Kosmonauta could be yours for £250ish: http://gerlach.org.pl/kosmonauta.html
Never seen a Kosmonauta myself but the last Gerlach I handled seemed like a pretty decent quality watch.
I you like a red LED there is the Corum Bubble ...
Have to press the button to turn on , it’s 47mm and only tells time and date .
RRP of $3000 but can be found 80% off in grey market .
I've actually got one! Needs a new battery and I'm not sure if it works, but I dug it out last night. I'll need to see if I have a suitable battery for it.
I do like some of these a lot, although the one I ended up with isn't my absolute favourite design. I also have a ladies one somewhere that I seem to have misplaced, which has probably the best design I've found. It's a shame there isn't (afaik) a larger version of that. I bought that one by mistake not realising how small it was! I quite like that first one you posted, the ladies one is similar but with less clutter on the dial.
I might have to get one of these. Not quite the 70s to early 80s styling I'm mostly looking for, but it reminds me a bit of the Casio databank I had for most of the 90s. Actually I got through 3 of them, 2 of which had DTMF telephone auto-dialling, which at the time was basically the coolest thing ever. It's a shame the current model doesn't have that feature or I'd have bought one instantly, despite having zero use for it nowadays.
Speaking of Elektronikas...
Good choice here-
https://www.watchshop.com/digital-wa...ml?gender=mens
This Casio caught my eye, quite tempted at the price.
Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk
Ah the good old Casio DBA-800 phone dialler - here's my one.
Awesome, thanks. I'll be off scouring eBay for one of those next! I thought I was going to have to do a lot of googling to find the correct model number, so you've saved me quite a bit of time there.
That one is 100% definitely plastic. I know because I have one here that I bought on Amazon a few days ago. The case is very obviously plastic when you see it up close, being a sort of dull grey compared to the steel, with a very noticeable seam around the sides. From a distance you can't tell though.
PSA: Amazon have a lot of these (and G-Shocks) at sensible prices, free delivery with Prime and free returns. These resin cases do look much better in photos than in reality, but you can't really lose with free returns: don't like it? send it back. No quibbles. I've bought that one and a B640W that I'll most likely keep anyway, seeing as they are genuine Casio: the Rolex of digital cheapies!
I had these, stupidly sold the Junghans!
This is what you need Casio Marlin, screw back, and a filament bulb light
Here is the very first all metal G Shock from 1996. This is the square model the MRG-110T. Being an MRG it is of good quality and it is all titanium. This and the slightly later MRG-200 are the only MRG squares ever made.
Here is something more unusual, a limited edition LED Snoopy watch. You can find the watch in a non-limited edition as well.
Mitch
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