The (Notorious?) Casio F-91W

Watch and photo by my friend Bryan.

  Ah yes the (Notorious?) Casio F-91W digital watch. The case of the F-91W measures 37.5mm by 33.5mm by 8.5mm and weighs 21 grams. A small and light watch even by small and light watch standards, the venerable Casio F-91W is one of the most accurate time keeping watches in the world. It sports a stopwatch function, date and day calendar, and an alarm. With the CR2016 battery it would last at least 10 years before needing a battery change.

  The watch gain notoriety in early 2000s for having been linked to Al Qaeda members to be used as bomb detonators, and are one of the profiles to watch for in a potential terrorist. A Casio watch had been used in the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434. And Osama Bin Laden himself wears this watch.So unfortunately for a lot of people, having this watch on their wrist automatically ticks off the suspected terrorist check box.

  But for us watch fanatics, this is a piece of history. It's the bad side of history, it's still history - a reminder of how the world was and also testament to Casio's watch making abilities.

  Fear not, for while the terrorists liked Casios on their wrists, so did the counter-terrorists. That story would be for a later post.

Get your Casio F-91W here.

An Elegant Smart Band for Ladies

The Mrs. bought this for her friend's birthday:

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It's actually not a bad 'fitness smart band' wrist watch, plus it actually looks elegant for women.  I didn't try all the functions and all, but there seems to be a "Cycling Mode", "Table Tennis Mode" and a "Badminton Mode" in addition to the usual heart rate monitors. Even has a weather forecast thing. Not sure how that works.

Get yours here

or

My Son's First "Real" Watch

 One day walking about with my 7 year old son in town, we stopped by a watch shop as we usually do just to browse.

 My son surprised me: he went ahead and spoke with the boss, "I'd like to see these watches please."

 Not that he's shy (he isn't) but usually with talking with adults and transactions such as this he usually lets me do the talking. This time, he took charge of the situation, and totally caught me off guard.

After trying on several, he chose one that he liked, a yellow/white "Xinjie" digital watch with "30m" water resistance, a chronograph function, alarm, and day/date. I had no intention of buying it in the beginning, but the fact that he spoke up and talked in such a mature manner I just had to agree to his purchase.

And he paid for it. I bought it with cash, but he paid for the watch. Upon reaching home he took out the amount (MYR18) from his pocket money and gave it to me.

And so now he has his own watch, totally bought for himself, initiated the transaction himself, with his own allowance money, one that he wears proudly every day since, which has the added value of fully being his, the first whichout Dad's intervention (aside from being a temporary lender).

 He had several watches before, from the MYR1 vending machine cheapie that I got for him (he seldom wears it) and to him wearing my watch and smartwatch on some occasions, but this is the first watch that he can proudly say that is fully his own watch, from the get go.
 

Get Smart

So I got my first 'Smart watch'. This is the VeryFit Heart Rate. The 'watch', or rather, fitness band, has several functions in it, mainly, steps tracking, heart rate tracking and sleep pattern tracking.

Firstly, it's not really accurate, it's so-so. For the price (cheep) I am fine with that.. at the very least I can track how many steps I've taken per day, and how my sleeping is, in a very general.

Does it replace my watches? Heck no... I wear the VeryFit on my right hand (my wristwatches go on my left). 😂

Casio WS200H Tough Solar Digital

Casio WS200H Tough Solar Digital , 100m water resistance. Inexpensive but extremely tough and

 resilient tough practical watch like all Casios.

RM1 WristWatch (USD 0.30)!

So I was walking back to my car from work one day, and saw one of these vendor-type machines that dispense "eggs", plastic egg-shaped containing toys for RM1 or RM0.50 and what caught my attention was this:
 

Digital wristwatches!

 So I need to give it a try. I put two 50-cent coins in the machine, turned the knob, and -

Tada! A "Time Clue" wrist device. Niiiice.

I got the yellow one. Woo!

Named "Time Clue" (well it's not wrong is it?), this is a digital LCD watch clone of a G-Shock made of very soft transparent plastic. The plastic quality is poor as you would expect, but it holds up well to normal use (for now).

The caseback is made of a black plastic that came off the in the first moments I was handling it. Pressing it back on, it has held on since. I could set the time and date, and it's actually very functional. Time is accurate as well, as can be expected from a digital watch.

Great for young children. I gave it to my 4 year old son. He likes it and can tell the time from it, but does not like wearing it (yet).

Not bad for RM1.. (USD 0.30)

Watches for My Wife's Nephew & Niece

Two digital watches for children, ages 6 & 8. The brand is "LSH" we got from our local clock & watch store - very cheap, and with backlighting, alarm and chronograph functions, and will entertain the kids for a while... hopefully this will kickstart their interest in watches... oh yeah.